122 



St. Nicholas' Hospital, Salisbury. 



850ft. long, to carry off the overflow of the water, enclosing what 

 is now known as St. John's Island. For this south side of the city 

 Bishop Bingham designed a threefold scheme. First, to build a 

 stone bridge in place of the foot-bridge ; secondly, to build a chapel 

 in connection with the bridge ; thirdly, to erect a larger hospital 

 instead of the already-existing hospital of St. Nicholas, and place 

 all three of his institutions under the charge of the same person, 

 who was to be called warden of St. Nicholas. 



The two first portions of this design are mentioned thus, in a MS . 

 now in my keeping, by Mr. Hickman, chaplain of the hospital, in 

 1713 : — "The good Bishop built a bridge over the greater channel, 

 and as soon as that was finished he enlarged it over the lesser channel 

 also, which was a work as full of honour and charity as of cost. 

 Then on the island on the east side of the said bridge (which island 

 was made by digging the new channel aforesaid) he built the afore- 

 said chapel in honour of St. John the Baptist. - " 1 



He had purchased the land for the erection of the chapel for four 

 marks of silver from Henry de Wande, probably a kinsman of the 

 late dean's. It is described in the deed as " half-an-acre in Ham- 

 ham, extending from the head of the bridge on the south part of 

 Sarum to the King's way towards the south." 2 The date of this 

 must be before 1244 : for on May 31st in that year the Bishop 

 made both bridge and chapel over to the dean and chapter, ap- 

 pointing the sub -dean, Nicholas Laking, first warden of the hospital, 

 and Walter de Wyley (afterwards Bishop) first warden of the bridge. 3 



It was probably the old hospital of which Nicholas Laking at 

 first assumed the wardenship : but a new one, a much larger pile 

 of building — that in fact of which there are relics to this day — must 

 have been in process of building. For on October 14th the next 

 year (1245) Bishop Bingham issued his " ordination w of his three- 

 fold design.* 



1 Hickman MS., p. 79. 

 2 Reg., p. 43. 



3 Quoted by Hatcher & Benson from Bishop's Records, p. 732. 

 4 Reg., p. 100, copied from the original by Mr. Bigge, in 1639. I do not give 

 this at length in the Appendix, as it is to be found in Hatcher & Benson, p. 732. 



