Maison Dieu Ospringe
Apr. 14th, 2018 08:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzy_daveWell it seems that Spring has arrived at last. Ir has been a sunny day and warm.In fact it was T shirt day and it could have come any sooner.
I managed to listen to all the newly found CD’s this morning so that i could pop into the Maison Dieu (Hospital of St.Mary) now that is open for viewing at the weekends. Also It is just a five minute walk from where i live.
Not much is known about this medieval hospital but has been very important in our history,as many of the kings and queens stayed there with their retinues on their visits to Canterbury of the ports of Sandwich and Dover/. It was also the traditional stopping point for the third night of the four day pilgrimage from London, as we can see from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
It was already in existence in 1235 yet evidence may point to it being founded fifty years earlier.
In 1235 King Henry III claimed to be the founder of the hospital. Virtually all the kings of England between the time of King John (1199 -1216) and King Edward IV (1461 - 1483) visited Maison Dieu at some time and stayed there.
The foundation consisted of a master and three regular brethrenof the Order of the Holy Cross. There were also two secular clerks, who celebrated mass for the soul of the founder and the souls of his royal predecessors and successors. They were required to be hospitable, and to entertain the poor and needy passers-by and pilgrims (heading along Watling Street). There was a chamber in the building which the king used to rest when he passed this way; it was called Camera Regis, or the king's chamber. The history and records of the building also give insight into the way sick and disabled people fitted into society during the medieval period. For example, in 1235 the 'blind daughter of Andrew of Faversham' was admitted to Maison Dieu as a 'servant of God and sister of the hospital.
There is increasing evidence that suggests the involvement of the Knights Templar in the early days of the hospital.
It is now a museum and holds many Roman artefacts discovered locally around the site and in Faversham.My next visit will look at these artefacts more closely.
So here are the pics i took -
Maison Dieu from the outside.
Beam me up Scotty.
Thus an enjoyable look around this old building that is now run by the Faversham Society on behalf of English Heritage.
I managed to listen to all the newly found CD’s this morning so that i could pop into the Maison Dieu (Hospital of St.Mary) now that is open for viewing at the weekends. Also It is just a five minute walk from where i live.
Not much is known about this medieval hospital but has been very important in our history,as many of the kings and queens stayed there with their retinues on their visits to Canterbury of the ports of Sandwich and Dover/. It was also the traditional stopping point for the third night of the four day pilgrimage from London, as we can see from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.
It was already in existence in 1235 yet evidence may point to it being founded fifty years earlier.
In 1235 King Henry III claimed to be the founder of the hospital. Virtually all the kings of England between the time of King John (1199 -1216) and King Edward IV (1461 - 1483) visited Maison Dieu at some time and stayed there.
The foundation consisted of a master and three regular brethrenof the Order of the Holy Cross. There were also two secular clerks, who celebrated mass for the soul of the founder and the souls of his royal predecessors and successors. They were required to be hospitable, and to entertain the poor and needy passers-by and pilgrims (heading along Watling Street). There was a chamber in the building which the king used to rest when he passed this way; it was called Camera Regis, or the king's chamber. The history and records of the building also give insight into the way sick and disabled people fitted into society during the medieval period. For example, in 1235 the 'blind daughter of Andrew of Faversham' was admitted to Maison Dieu as a 'servant of God and sister of the hospital.
There is increasing evidence that suggests the involvement of the Knights Templar in the early days of the hospital.
It is now a museum and holds many Roman artefacts discovered locally around the site and in Faversham.My next visit will look at these artefacts more closely.
So here are the pics i took -
Maison Dieu from the outside.
Beam me up Scotty.
Thus an enjoyable look around this old building that is now run by the Faversham Society on behalf of English Heritage.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}