Article 10

Sleaford' links with Leprosy

Contributed by Brian Kay

Whilst Leprosy still remains a potent and debilitating disease, we fortunately rarely encounter it now unless travelling abroad, it is not something we would expect to come across in Lincolnshire today. However, in medieval times, probably subsequent to The Crusades it was not uncommon in England. In these times it invoked a plethora of emotional responses from abject fear and loathing to great sympathy and compassion. The various churches reflected this by both often seeing it as a punishment from God, a sign of evil, but also as having a need for great compassion and mercy; together with a good source for accounts of miraculous acts and cures.

Our traditional myth of leprosy is of people in special distinctive garb with clappers and bells and shouts of "unclean". Whilst it is true that lepers were banned from entering London by Royal Edict of Edward III, Leper Colonies, "leprosaria" were established - later more properly regarded as Leper Hospitals. There was also an enlightened view of the sufferers of this disease. As early as 1084 Archbishop Lanfranc established a leprosaria in Harbledown near Canterbury. In 1175 the English Church Council ordered that lepers should not live among the healthy and in 1179 the Lateran Council at Rome decreed that Lepers should have their own priests, churches and cemeteries. Despite this lead from the churches there was probably no strict segregation of lepers in England. In Statutory Law the only direction towards lepers was the writ De Leprosy Amovendo but this really tended only to be applied to lepers that caused a nuisance who could then be ordered to "betake themselves to places in the country, solitary and notably distance from the city and suburbs".

In the rules decreed at St Mary Magdalene of Gloucester lepers were required to "observe the disciplines of obedience, patience and charity and hold all property in common" which was identical to the rules of monasticism. Therefore most of the probable 200 leper hospitals, colonies or leprosaria which grew across England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were run very much on monastic lines and were often attached as outhouses to monasteries and abbeys and were ministered to by the relevant nuns and monks. (An 'easy read' fictional novel is Ellis Peters' The Leper of St Giles. A Brother Cadfael story). With one exception that both male and females were housed in, most Leprosaria usually segregated in some way. So what is the relevance of this to Sleaford?

When we read of religion in Lincolnshire we tend to think primarily of the development of Methodism and the Wesleys at Epworth or the development of the magnificent Cathedral in Lincoln, one of England's finest structures. But we should always remember that Lincolnshire was the home base of the only English order of monks and nuns. Established by St Gilbert of Sempringham, (not at all far from Sleaford). Clattercote Priory (lying south of Claydon in Oxfordshire) was built in the middle of the twelfth century on land held by the Bishop of Lincoln since at least 1086.

Clattercote is believed to have been founded between 1150 and 1160 by the then Bishop of Lincoln, Robert de Chesney, as a hospital for sufferers of 'grave diseases' and in particular Leprosy. Although the original charter is lost, there does exist a notification by Bishop Richard of Gravesend that Chesney gave "three hides from his demesne in Clattercote with all appurtances, together with a further 60 acres in a cultura called Cositive with 10 acres in Pingworthe and common pasture for their animals, for the support of the infirmi of Clattercote and their brethren" and he also granted "a tithe of all his rents in Banbury, Cropredy and Farnborough, a tithe from the town and hundreds of Banbury and a tithe of his corrody whenever the bishop stayed on his manors of Banbury and Cropredy".

Custody of the hospital was later given to the Gilbertines and Chesney charged Gilbert that "if any of his communities were suffering from appalling sickness or shameful illness such as leprosy or the like they can be separated from the company of the healthy and can be shut up in the said place of Clattercote". Clattercote was dedicated by Bishop Chesney to St Leonard when it was founded and was generally known as St Leonards Leper Hospital. Although probably intended for leprous Gilbertine nuns, it catered not exclusively for Gilbertines but by the 1180s it appears to have been catering solely for Gilbertines and it survived as a hospital for several decades. In 1216 the possession of the "Domus leprosorum santi Leonardi" was confirmed to the possession of the proctors of the houses of the Order of Sempringham by Innocent III.

As the need for leprosaria faded away, Clattercote Priory developed and thrived as a monastery and although established for the benefit of nuns, eventually was only inhabited by canons. St Gilbert's rules were strict and architecture and furniture was required to be simple and humble but as the years progressed like other such establishments things became grander and more ostentatious. However, as across the rest of England, the 1534 Act of Supremacy of Henry VIII saw the monastery dissolved and it was surrendered to the King in 1538. Clattercote was actually surrendered to Dr William Petrie on 22 August 1538. Within a fortnight Dr Petrie had overseen the dissolution of all the Gilbertine establishments in Lincolnshire. Dr Petrie did however manage to secure for himself and his heirs the house and site of Clattercote Priory and the land and all its possessions in Cropredy!

For sources and further reference see "A History of Clattercote Priory: A Chronicle of Transition" by Don Siviter 2007. (available from the Author) and "Leprosy in Medieval England" by Carol Rawcliffe published by Boydell Press 2009. Both can be found via www.ask.com. This article contributed by Brian Kay