St Johns Hospital

This west wing wall, is all that remains of St. John’s hospital, one of three, which were established in Winchelsea (circa 1225). These hospitals, subsidised by various religious authorities, were not for the sick but for the old and infirm.
As the Custumal of the town has it, if the Mayor shall find men or women “who have been in good love and fame all their time, and have neither chattels nor goods whereof to live, the said man or woman shall be sent into the said hospital, to take sustenance of the said brethren and sisters, without paying anything to the said hospital”.
The hospital was defunded and fell into disrepair during the reformation.