St Giles Churchyard, a little way down the road from us and a spot to stop after meetings in Rayleigh. The description below is from from a book by Nicholas Best entitled “Caring for Hansen’s Disease – The Hospital & Homes of St. Giles 1914-2005”

“In medieval times, people with leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) were kept in leper hospitals.  By the 20th Century leprosy had long been eradicated in Britain and the few people who had caught it abroad found themselves with nowhere to go.  Successive Governments refused to help, hospital boards and local authorities likewise.  Patients were left to their own devices.

In 1914 a group of doctors, clergy and others decided to take matters into their own hands.  If Government wouldn’t help and hospitals refused to admit them, then a private charity would have to do it.  Money was raised and an old farmhouse bought near Chelmsford in Essex, with 27 acres, so a community could be established. Thus The Hospital & Homes of St Giles at East Hanningfield was for many years the only place in Britain designed specifically for care and treatment of leprosy.  Princess Christian, daughter of Queen Victoria, agreed to become the charity’s first President.

The villagers of Bicknacre (East Hanningfield is the postal address) protested strongly, but the first patients (officials from the British Empire) arrived after dark in blacked-out carriages and were cared for by two nurses from Guy’s Hospital.  Some local monks and The Sisters of St. Giles cleared out the stables and old farm buildings to make it more habitable.  Although the only grocer who would supply to the home was boycotted by the locals, slowly relations improved with the people of Bicknacre,   Despite their fears none of them caught the disease and The Great War which began immediately after the patients’ arrival gave them something more serious to worry about. In 1919 the home was given three cows and two years later when their pony died, it was quickly replaced with a new pony and trap for shopping in Chelmsford.  In 1923, Marconi gave them a radio and in 1925 electric light was installed.

Internal divisions in the Community of St. Giles were resolved when another religious order, The Community of the Sacred Passion (Anglican) assumed responsibility.  The Sisters needed a rest home in England to recuperate from working in the Tropics (now Tanzania).  Moor House was bombed in October 1940 but no-one was badly hurt. A nationwide appeal on BBC in 1948 netted £9,000, so improvements to the accommodation could be made.

Records show that in 1959, 3 patients came from India; 3 from West Indies and 1 each from Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Ceylon, Burma & British Guyana.  Some were women, also a few children.  Ten years later, any nationality was accepted not just British.

Princess Christian’s daughter, Princess Mary Louise succeeded her and became a frequent visitor.  Other visitors included The Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Mountbatten and in 1972 Princess Alexandra opened the new physio and occupational therapy unit.  In 1974 (St. Giles’ Diamond Jubilee Year) Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother attended a special service in Chelmsford Cathedral, had lunch with the Bishop and visited St. Giles in the afternoon.

In 1984 the Sisters left St. Giles, moving to Shoreham-by-Sea in Sussex. The Hospital & Homes were sold to a housing association called Springboard, for those with special housing needs, including an extended family from the East End of London under the care of a lady called Jeanette Roberts.  The existing patients could stay on with the new tenants.  By 2005,  Hospital was removed from the name; four patients remained and all had been there a long time. It is now a residential unit for adults with learning difficulties.”