Charity begins at home

Built for the clergy, the military, retired estate workers and, most commonly, for the poor, almshouses are as important today as they ever were, finds Clive Aslet

- Clive Aslet

ONLY half an hour’s walk from Winchester, the Hospital of St Cross, founded in 1132, could be an Oxford or Cambridge college. It stands serene in its semi-rural Hampshire setting as part of the triumvirate of great medieval foundations in Winchester, together with the cathedral and Winchester College. The purpose that it fulfills, however, is probably rather less well understood than that of the church or the public school. For the hospital, despite its name, is an almshouse, serving a more or less identical role to the one for which it was established eight centuries ago. It is one of about 2,000 across the country, all venerable, if rarely as old as St Cross. We might, however, wonder how they are faring in this age of social change.

They come in many forms, often having been founded to serve specific groups—the clergy, the military, the poor from particular places, and the not so poor, who pay (as some people have always done) for the privilege of joining. All provide a place to which their residents may retire from the wider world, but still feel part of a community, perhaps formed by people who share a common background from their working lives. This is not the case, however, at St Cross, the master of which, the Revd Terry Hemming, is proud of the social diversity over which he presides. The brothers, as residents are called, include a former bulldozer driver, as well as a retired professor of botany. One brother is about to be 100, but recruiting newcomers has been difficult during the pandemic. With a capacity of 23, numbers are down to 18.