This is not a hospital. It is a retirement home for ex-servicemen.
There has been a building on this site since 1126. Robert Dudley in
1571 established it as a place for disabled and retired soldier and
their wives.
 |
| Lord Leycester Hospital looking towards the chapel |
This place is so old the floor has cracks where you can see the path
below. Nothing has been lined up with a spirit level. Yet it is still standing after hundreds of years.
Today it also houses the Regimental Museum of the Queens Own Hussars.
One of the soldiers there showed me a chart of the attack at El
Alamein and said how the New Zealanders were there with the 3rd
Hussars. He said since that time the British tanks all have a silver
fern on them.
These buildings are across the road from where the great fire of 1694
commenced. It was behind the houses opposite and the wind carried it
though the town. Most buildings then were half timber with thatched
roofs and very dry. It even damaged St Mary's church some distance
away. As it happened at 2pm no lives were lost.
The first two buildings escaped the fire. From then on up the High Street the buildings have been rebuilt in brick.
No comments:
Post a Comment