25. THE HOSPITAL (later ALMSHOUSE) OF ST. GILES, LUDFORD
Scarcely anything is known of the leper hospital at
Ludford. (fn. 1) One brother Adam of St. Giles is
referred to in an early-13th-century grant to St.
John's Hospital, Ludlow, (fn. 2) in 1267 letters of protection were obtained by the master and brethren
of the hospital for lepers at Ludlow (fn. 3) (presumably
Ludford was intended), and the leprous brethren of
Ludford received a bequest from Henry of Burway
in 1330. (fn. 4) In 1547, when the institution is next
recorded, it had become an almshouse, known as 'St.
Giles House', (fn. 5) and belonged to St. John's Hospital. (fn. 6)
The latter had been lord of Ludford manor since the
earlier 14th century (fn. 7) and was presumably responsible
for this change. The almshouse apparently passed
into the hands of William Foxe and his son Edmund
in 1537, when they acquired St. John's Hospital. (fn. 8)
It is thought to have stood on the site of the older,
eastern, part of Ludford House, which was built by
William Foxe or his son shortly after this date (fn. 9)
and which was known as St. Giles House until the
17th century. (fn. 10)
The medieval almshouse having fallen into decay,
a new one was built before the death of William
Foxe in 1554. (fn. 11) This may have been completed
before 1547, when small payments to its inmates
were made by the Palmers' Guild. (fn. 12) Although the
rebuilding is attributed to William Foxe on his
memorial brass (fn. 13) it is possible that it was the work of
his wife Jane. She made provision for an annual
dole of 4d. to be paid to the six inmates of the almshouse in 1554, when she settled property in Corve
Street and Linney on the bailiffs of Ludlow as an
endowment for an obit in Ludlow church. (fn. 14) The
bailiffs paid 3s. 4d. to the almshouse annually (fn. 15)
until 1559, when Jane Foxe, who now claimed to
have founded the almshouse, made an addition to
her original endowment on condition that the
bailiffs paid 6s. a year to the churchwardens of Ludford. (fn. 16) Part of this sum was to be used to maintain
an obit there and for church repairs while the residue
was to be applied to the almshouse. In her will,
proved in 1567, Jane Foxe was careful to point out
that St. Giles was not part of the St. John's Hospital
estate and that the almshouse and its lands were
vested in the inmates. (fn. 17) Annual payments of 9s. 4d.
were made by Ludlow corporation until the mid
19th century and by the 17th century it seems to
have been normal for the whole sum to be paid to
the inmates of the almshouse. (fn. 18)
The almshouse was again rebuilt, c. 1672, by Sir
Job Charlton of Ludford (fn. 19) and has subsequently
been known as Sir Job Charlton's Hospital. By a
trust deed of 1672 (fn. 20) Charlton directed that only such
poor as had formerly laboured for their living should
be eligible for admission and that there should be
six inmates, both men and women, one of whom
was to be warden. The right to nominate the warden
was vested in Charlton and his descendants but the
inmates were constituted a corporation with a
common seal and with power to purchase lands. By
a second deed of the same year (fn. 21) Charlton conveyed to the inmates the almshouse and 12 acres of
land in Overton (in Richard's Castle), assigning
three-thirteenths of the revenues to the warden and
two-thirteenths to each other inmate. A house and
42 acres at Colebatch in Bishop's Castle were added
to the endowment in 1675. (fn. 22)
The inmates were said to be receiving £3 a year
apiece in 1767 (fn. 23) but by 1819 weekly payments of 3s.
were being made to each of them and about £6 was
spent annually on coal. (fn. 24) At the latter date the Colebatch property had been enlarged by exchange to 14
acres and an additional 43 acres had been allotted to
the almshouse at the inclosure of commons in Colebatch. The almshouse then had an annual income of
£63, part of which was derived from stocks bought
with the proceeds of a sale of timber at Overton in
1809. (fn. 25) By the mid 19th century, when the estate
was producing about £112 a year, the allowance to
inmates had risen to 5s. a week. (fn. 26)
The office of warden, and with it the incorporation and the use of a common seal, lapsed in the
course of the 18th century, the last instance of the
seal's use being in 1718. (fn. 27) The almshouse was thereafter administered by the Charlton family and their
descendants. Capt. R. J. B. Parkinson, the last representative of the Charlton family, sold the Ludford
estate to H. E. Whitaker probably about 1917 and,
following Parkinson's death in 1929, patronage of the
almshouse was transferred to Whitaker in 1930. (fn. 28)
Under a Scheme issued in the following year the
incumbents of Ludford and Ludlow, representatives
from Ludlow borough council and Ludford parish
council, and two coopted members were constituted
trustees, the right to nominate inmates being vested
in H. E. Whitaker for life. Inmates were to receive
weekly stipends of 6s. to 10s. at the discretion of the
trustees. The endowment then included £3,779
stock and some 20 acres at Overton, the Colebatch
estate having been sold in 1929.
The stipends appointed in 1931 proved too high.
By 1950, when nearly £100 was expended annually
on such stipends, expenditure on the almshouse
exceeded its income and in the following year the
trustees were empowered to reduce the stipends to
3s. a week, provided that the total weekly income of
each inmate was not less than 6s. Portions of the
Overton estate were sold in 1944 and 1962. By 1963
the almshouse endowment comprised 8 acres at
Overton, then let for £35 a year, and £4,760 stock.
No major alteration has been made to the almshouse since it was built c. 1672. It stands to the north
east of the churchyard, facing south, and is a symmetrically-planned rectangular building of 1½ story,
built of limestone rubble. Notable features on the
south front are three tall gabled dormers, an unmoulded continuous dripstone above the groundfloor doors and windows, and three wide casement
windows on the ground floor, each of which lights
two adjacent apartments. The ground floor windows
and the dormers above have moulded wooden frames.
Three projecting stone stacks on the north wall
have panelled brick chimneys. The latter had been
built by 1868 (fn. 29) but it is not known whether they
formed part of the original plan. Each of the six
apartments consists of a living room with corner
fireplace and an unheated chamber over. They are
divided by full timber-framed trusses and the ceiling
beams are elaborately stopped at all joints.
There is a late-19th-century drawing of a circular
seal, (fn. 30) presumably that used by the almshouse in the
later 17th century. The device is a simple cross and
the legend:
SIGILLUM HOSPITALIS DE LUDFORD