"Literary Links" is a series of posts celebrating
Britain's wonderful links with great authors, dramatists and poets.
Our visit today is the site of St Katherine’s
Hospital in Ledbury. A plan of how the hospital
complex would have looked is engraved in the pavement and shows an assortment of hospital and farm buildings including the
remaining Chapel, Hall, and almshouses.
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| St Katherine's Chapel & Hall, Ledbury The Master's House stands behind this building |
The hospital was named after Katherine Audley (1272-1322)
the cousin of King Edward II (1284-1327).
Her husband had died and local
legend claims she heard the bells of Ledbury ringing without any bell ringers
and took it as a sign that she and her attendant Mabel should settle here and
establish a hospital for the poor.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) captured her experience in his poem St.
Catherine of Ledbury (1835) ....
Ledbury bells Broke forth in
concert flung adown the dells,
And upward, high as Malvern’s cloudy crest;
Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest
To rapture! Mabel listened at the side
Of her loved mistress: soon the music died,
And Catherine said, “Here I set up my rest.”
Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought
A home that by such miracle of sound
Must be revealed: --she heard it now, or felt
The deep, deep joy of a confiding thought;
And there, a saintly Anchoress, she dwelt
Till she exchanged for heaven that happy ground.
And upward, high as Malvern’s cloudy crest;
Sweet tones, and caught by a noble Lady blest
To rapture! Mabel listened at the side
Of her loved mistress: soon the music died,
And Catherine said, “Here I set up my rest.”
Warned in a dream, the Wanderer long had sought
A home that by such miracle of sound
Must be revealed: --she heard it now, or felt
The deep, deep joy of a confiding thought;
And there, a saintly Anchoress, she dwelt
Till she exchanged for heaven that happy ground.
In fact the hospital was founded in 1232 - some 80 years
before Katherine's arrival - by Bishop Hugh Foliot (1155-1234), Bishop of
Hereford, but Katherine’s will of 1313 helped it to expand and, quite fittingly,
was named after her.
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| Master's House during renovation |
The Masters House is looking very fresh after its modern
refurbishment. The original timber
framed open hall house was erected around 1487 and had additions added in the
16th, 17th, 18th and 19th
centuries. In recent years (2011-2015) the
whole building was protected and hidden away under a huge umbrella of
scaffolding and tarpaulin. Underneath
this watertight cocoon the whole place was gutted – over 450 skips of waste
were removed! The roof was stripped of
its tiles and the long process of carefully restoring the ancient roof timbers
began. The stripping back to the bare medieval
structure revealed some great original features the best of which has to be the
fabulous roof which has to be seen from inside to be appreciated.
The building now houses Ledbury's public library so is open most days for you to enjoy these timber delights.
This
is an excerpt from the tour Ledbury which explores this delightful medieval market town.
The full tour is found on www.obelisktours.co.uk
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