Chapel Of The Hospital Of St Mary Magdalene

Archbishop Thurstan is said to have founded the St Mary Magdalen Hospital, north-east of Ripon Cathedral, sometime between 1115 and 1139. The chapel dates from around the same time and is noted as being the only intact part of any of the medieval hospitals left in the city of Ripon. Whilst no documentary evidence exists to attest to date or origin of the chapel, inquisitions held in the early 14th century had witnesses who testified that their elders and forefathers had told them Thurstan had paid for the hospital and that it should be a Leprosarium, attending to all lepers who were born in the Liberty of Ripon (omnes leprosos in Ripschire procreatos et genitos). Later, it tended to blind…

In his book, Yorkshire Oddities, the author Sabine Baring-Gould relates a tale when the chapel was not used for worship, with the residents of the almshouses having to go to the cathedral for prayers. The dean, who was fond of port, sold the bell as he was short of funds. The parishioners demanded he returned the bell, which with much anger, he did. It was later found to be a bell made of wood and painted with gun-metal; the original bell had gone to the foundry and the scrap sold to fund the drinking habits of the dean. The chapel still retains a wooden bell.