BOROUGH OF NORTHAMPTON 



lying between Newland, Ladies' Lane, and the 

 Upper Mounts of to-day.** The foundations of the 

 church were uncovered in 1846, under the road now 

 known as Kerr Street'^ 



The house of 'THE JUSTIN FRIJRS^* was 

 founded by Sir John Longevile in 1322/* and was 

 situated on the west side of Bridge Street, opposite 

 St. John's hospital, on the site now occupied by 

 Augustine Street. No traces of it remain. 



THE HOSPITAL OF ST. 70//.V," founded by 

 Wilhara de St. Clare, Archdeacon of Northampton, 

 about 1 1 38, is the only one of the religious houses of 

 Northampton still standing." It is on the east 

 side of Bridge Street, within the line of the town 

 wall, near to the site of the south gate, and 



now covered with blue slates : the interior is in a bad 

 state of repair. The west end,'* with its gable to the 

 street, is apparently of early 14th century date, its 

 chief feature being a wide and lofty recessed pointed 

 arch of two moulded orders, the inner springing from 

 shafts with moulded capitals and bases, within which 

 is set the continuous moulded west doorway, and 

 over it the remains of a niche with bracket for a 

 statue. In the gable above the arch is a large circular 

 window of four pairs of trefoiled lights radiating 

 from a quatrefoil, the spaces between having sexfoil 

 cusping : the window is surrounded by a hood- 

 mould which dies into the ape.T of that of the great 

 arch. Probably no other part of the building is con- 

 temporary with the west front, but parts of the north 



KJ_5__o 



10 



20 



.^_ 



40 



Scale of Feet 



14BJ Century earlv 

 15- Century late 

 161!! Cent.late or 1711! earlv 

 C3 182! Century 

 Modern 



Plan of St. John's Hospital, North.\mpton 



consisted originally of an almshouse and chapel, 

 with a master's house about 60 yards to the north- 

 east. The site of 3I acres was bounded on the 

 north by St. John's Lane, on the south by the town 

 wall, and on the west by Bridge Street. The 

 master's house has been pulled down, but the chapel 

 and almshouse, or domicile, still stand. In 1871 the 

 property was sold to the Midland Railway Company, 

 and the master's house was demolished to make room 

 for the Midland Station. The infirmary and chapel 

 were resold to Mr. Mulliner, from whom they were 

 purchased in 1877 for a Roman Catholic community, in 

 whose possession they now are. The inmates of the 

 hospital were transferred to a new building at Weston 

 Fa veil, opened in 1879. 



The almshouse is a building of red sandstone standing 

 east and west, in plan a parallelogram, measuring 

 internally 62 ft. 6 in. by 22 ft., except that the west 

 wall is shghtly skewed in order to accommodate 

 itself to the direction of the street, and it is attached 

 by its north-east angle to the south-west angle of 

 the chapel. The building is of two stories, but has 

 been a good deal rebuilt and altered." The roof is 



wall and the middle part of the south wall, which 

 contain pointed windows, are apparently of late 

 15th century date, and the square-headed windows 

 on the north side are perhaps a century later. The 

 greater part of the south wall and the whole of the 

 east wall were rebuilt in the 1 8th century, when 

 wooden-framed windows were introduced on both 

 floors and alterations made in the interior arrange- 

 ments. A 4 ft. passage runs down the middle of the 

 building from the west to the east door, with staircase 

 and a series of bedrooms on the south, and four 

 larger rooms on the north side. There is reason to 

 believe that originally the building did not extend 

 so far to the east." the buttresses of the south-west 

 angle of the chapel having been cut away to allow 

 for the erection of the east end of the north wall of the 

 almshouse, which appears to be not earlier than the 

 end of the i6th century. The side walls are about 

 16 ft. to the eaves, and in the middle of the south side 

 is a window of three cinquefoiled lights with depressed 

 head and hollow chamfered jambs, lighting the stair- 

 case, its sill about 6 ft. above the ground. This window 

 contains the figure of a man and the name of ' Richard 



** The positions indicated by Dr. Cox 

 upon his map in Boro Rec. vol. ii, for 

 the White Friars' and the Grey Friars' 

 houses should he exchanged. 



'• G. N. Wetton, Guidebook u North- 

 ampt. p. 4S. 



'♦ F.C.H. Nortbanis. ii, 147 ; Serjeant- 

 ion, op. cit. 



" Inq. a.q.d. 16 Ed. ii, i6o-2. 



'• y. C. H. Nortbanti. ii, 156-9; Serj- 

 jeantson in Northants Nat. Hist. Soc. 

 vols, xvi and xvii. 



'" Bridges early in the iSth century 

 states that it had been ' altered in some 

 parts by modem reparations ' : op. cit. i, 

 457- 



59 



*^ The elevation towards the street it 

 29 ft. in length inclusive of a later but- 

 tress at the north-west angle. The 

 ground level has been raised outside. 



*• Assoc. Arch. Soc. Reps, xji, 233, in a 

 paper by Sir Henry Dryden, 1875, use of 

 which has been made in the present 

 description. 



