Time Team (1994)
S08E13 The Leper Hospital - Winchester, Hampshire
Episode Overview
Just outside Winchester's city limits, in what is now referred to as Hospital Field, lay the St Mary Magdalen Leper Hospital, likely established around 1140 by Henry of Blois. By the 17th century, engravings depicted its impressive chapel as a ruin. During World War I, much of the field served as an army camp. Excavations reveal a 180-meter well, along with trenches that uncover remnants of the chapel, the Master's residence, almshouses, and a cemetery where a skull showing leprosy is found. Inside the chapel, an unusual double burial is discovered, believed to belong to the hospital's former Master and his daughter, interred nearly 50 years apart. Victor creates a bust of a leper inspired by a skull found elsewhere, while Nicholas Orme sheds light on societal perceptions of lepers during the Middle Ages.
