St Leonard’s hospital

St Leonard’s was the largest medieval hospital in England and cared for the ill and infirm of York. Originally founded as St Peter’s hospital in 936, it once consisted of over 70 staff supporting 225 beds. The hospital also fed the poor and the condemned, providing meals for the prisoners in York Castle. Remains of the hospital’s undercroft can be explored today.

St Leonard’s hospital Folklore:

According to folklore, a monk at St Leonard’s was prone to revelry. Discovered drunk amongst the townsfolk, his punishment was decreed by the prior: to be walled up alive within the hospital’s cellars. Once imprisoned, the monk pushed his way through a rotten wall to the cellar of St Mary’s Abbey next door, where he passed himself off as a newly-arrived novice monk. After a year, he was made cellarer and put in charge of the abbey’s food and wine. Sure enough, he was caught drinking the abbey’s supplies and once again, as punishment, sealed up alive within the abbey’s cellar walls. The cellarer at St Leonard’s heard singing, unblocked the wall and found the monk still alive a year on. Thinking this a miracle, the monks rejoiced and made him prior of the hospital.