Discover the Medieval Chapel of St Mary Magdalen, known locally as the Leper Chapel

The Chapel was part of the Hospital of St Mary Magdalen established about 1132 on land given by Archbishop Thurstan of York. The Hospital still exists and provides 10 homes for local people.  Medieval hospitals were quite different from modern hospitals. They offered “hospitality” to the poor and needy, and to travellers, a combination of a Care Home and a Travelodge!

The display in the Chapel aims to provide an insight into the medieval hospitals in England, how they were established and managed.

It is thought there were about 1,000 hospitals in England, all different from one another. Many offered general care to the local poor and to wayfarers. Others specialised. St Mary Magdalen offered care to lepers, like a quarter of the hospitals did. Some offered care to unmarried mothers and, if they died in childbirth, to their children until they were 7. There were hospitals for blind priests, poor clergy, the insane.

In medieval times if you were penniless, if you were ill, it was the will of God. The solution was prayer. So the Chapel was central to the work of the hospital and all medieval hospitals had one. It was not by chance that the Chapel of the hospital of St Mary Magdalen was built of stone while all the many other buildings were wood and plaster. The Chapel was the important building and was built to last. St Mary Magdalen may well be unique in England in retaining a building from the foundation of the hospital, which is little changed and which is still being used for prayer while approaching its 900th birthday!