Besides St John's and St Thomas's hospitals, Medieval Cirencester boasted a third foundation, St. Lawrence's founded in the mid 13th-century by Edith Bissett, Lady of the Manor of Wiggold.
The hospital, originally intended for lepers, stood on the site of St Lawrence's Church, on the corner of Barton Lane and Gloucester Street. By the beginning of the 14th century it had been appropriated by the Abbey and was converted by the Abbot William Hereward into an almshouse for poor widows. In 1722 it housed a master and two poor women.
The present almshouses were rebuilt in the early 20th century by Stanley J. Wearing. The Housing Trust is now administered by the Bathurst Estate.
British Listed Buildings - 2 Barton Lane
VCH Entry
Almshouses of Gloucestershire
Cirencester must be pretty unusual in having three medieval hospitals which are still exist today as Charitable Housing Trusts: St John's Hospital Trust and the St Lawrence Housing Trust both maintain over twenty dwellings in the local area.
See: "Almshouses in the Cotwolds.." Glos & Wilts Standard, 21.02.2014
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| St John's Trust houses in Barton Lane |
