The Hospital of the Blessed Trinity…or Abbot’s Hospital as the locals know it.
Not your typical image of a hospital I’d say, but then this is no ordinary building, more a grand standing of craftsmanship to showcase the sponsor’s kindness to the poor.
The name we now use abundantly, born from the Latin hospes, meaning guest or host, and that’s just what the vulnerable traveller would have got, a place of shelter. Today this pile of autumnal red brick sees less comings and goings, with currently 28 live-in souls.
Standing tall, like many almshouses do, in the centre of town. No reason to build across a ditch or field, certainly not when those who dwelled needed access to the market and the onward road.
I like the reasoning behind why so many were built just a few years after the demolitions of the reformation. With Chantry chapels in ruins, how were the super rich of their day going to make it to heaven or even get to stay when they got there. With a simple endowment to the neigbourhood and an attached chapel, it was a easy step to get your name through the pearly gates and few extra songs sung in your name.
These places never try to hide away, their founders (this one’s sponsor, George Abbot - Archbishop of Canterbury) certainly didn’t wish for that, with names proudly stamped across bricks and archways.