About a quarter of a mile to the north-west of Wimborne stands the chapel of St Margaret's Hospital. The date of the foundation of this hospital is uncertain; tradition has it that it was founded by John of Gaunt, son of Edward III., but this is without doubt wrong, as documents—the character of which seem to indicate an early thirteenth-century date—have been found, from which it appears that this hospital existed at that time, and was set apart for the relief and support of poor persons afflicted with leprosy. This disease was at one time so common in England that a great number of lazar-houses were erected in the country, and many were well endowed; but when, after a time, the disease became less violent, many abuses crept in, persons not really suffering from the disease pretended to be lepers in order to get pecuniary benefits, and hence in many cases the leper hospitals were suppressed, or converted to other purposes. At the present day we find in many places, as here at Wimborne, that they are used as almshouses.
This hospital, however, was not one of the well-endowed. It appears from a deed, dated in the sixteenth year of Henry VIII., that the hospital was chiefly maintained, not by endowments, but by the gifts of the charitable who were willing to contribute to its support; and to encourage the benevolent to give, the deed recites that "Pope Innocent IV, in the year 1245, by an indulgans or bulle did assoyl them of all syns forgotten, and offences done against fader and moder, and all swerynges neglygently made. This indulgans, grantyd of Petyr and Powle, and of the said pope, was to hold good for 51 yeres and 260 days, provided they repeated a certain specified number of Paternosters and Ave Marias daily." The date of this indulgence proves the antiquity of the hospital, as it shows that it was in existence before the middle of the thirteenth century. A chantry was also founded in the chapel here by John Redcoddes of one priest to say masses for his soul. To this chantry, according to a deed dated in the sixteenth year of Henry VI., many tenements in Wimborne belonged. In later times the Rev. William Stone, who has been mentioned before as the founder of the Minster Library, by his will left his lands and tenements in the parish of Wimborne Minster to be applied to the benefit of almsmen only who should live in St Margaret's Hospital.
There is a further endowment, but how it came to this hospital has not been discovered. The advowson and tithes of the Rectory of Poole were, in the reign of James I., granted to the Mayor and Corporation of Poole for forty years, on the corporation undertaking to find a curate to discharge the duties lately discharged by the vicar, and to pay a rent to the crown of £12, 16s. per annum. In the reign of Charles I., the advowson and tithes were granted to two men, Thomas Ashton and Henry Harryman, and their heirs for ever, on the same conditions; but they are now again held by the Corporation, who pay out of the revenues—to St Margaret's hospital £9, 16s.; to the churchwardens of Wimborne Minster, for the maintenance of the Etricke tomb, £1; and to the fellows of Queen's College, Oxford, to be spent in wine and tobacco on November 5th, yearly £2.
The Redcotte chantry possessed sundry vestments, the gift of Margaret Rempstone, in the thirty-fifth year of Henry VI., and plate, an inventory of which exists. This plate, on the dissolution of chantries, was given by the parishioners to the king, Edward VI. The hospital or almshouses stands on the high road from Wimborne to Blandford; the chapel joins one of the tenements occupied by the almsmen. These tenements are nine in number; three are inhabited by married couples, three by men, and three by women. Some of these cottages are of half timber, and thatched, others of modern brick. The chapel, at which there is now a service every Thursday afternoon, conducted by one of the minster clergy, is a plain building, which has been recently refitted, but remains, as far as windows and walls are concerned, in its original state. There are three doors in the north wall; the heads are pointed, and it is noteworthy that in the central door, that generally used for access to the chapel, the two sides of the arch are of different curvatures, so that the point of the arch is nearer to the right-hand side. The edge of the wall is chamfered round the doorways. The east window has a semicircular head, and plain wooden tracery dividing it into two lancet-headed lights with an opening above them. There is a window in both the south and north walls, near the east end, each of two lights; the south window is widely splayed inside; the head of each light has one cusp on each side. The head of each light of the north window has two cusps on each side. Farther to the west, on the south side, is a single narrow lancet, widely splayed, and still farther to the west is a semicircular opening with wooden tracery. The general character of the masonry would indicate that local workmen were employed in building this chapel, and that little was spent in ornamenting it at the time of the erection. There are, however, some traces of frescoes on the inside of the walls, both geometrical patterns and figures. The pointed doorways and the lancet window on the south side would indicate the thirteenth century as the date of the original building, and this agrees with the documentary evidence mentioned above for the foundation of the hospital. The roof is an open one of massive wooden rafters, with the beams running across at the level of the wall plates.
DIMENSIONS OF WIMBORNE MINSTER
| Extreme length, exterior, E. to W. | 198 | feet |
| Extreme width, exterior, N. to S. | 102 | " |
| Length of Nave, interior | 67 | " |
| Width of Nave, interior | 23 | " |
| Height of Walls | 40 | " |
| Length of Nave Aisles, interior | 70 | " |
| Width of Nave Aisles, interior | 13 | " |
| Length of North Transept, interior | 42 | " |
| Width of North Transept, interior | 18 | " |
| Height of Walls, interior | 30 | " |
| Length of South Transept, interior | 33 | " |
| Width of South Transept, interior | 18 | " |
| Height of Walls | 30 | " |
| Length of Choir, interior | 32 | " |
| Width of Choir, interior | 21 | " |
| Height of Choir Walls | 28 | " |
| Length of Presbytery | 30 | " |
| Width of Presbytery | 21 | " |
| Length of North Choir Aisle | 53 | " |
| Width of North Choir Aisle | 21 | " |
| Length of South Choir Aisle | 53 | " |
| Width of South Choir Aisle | 20 | " |
| Length of Side of Central Tower (square), interior | 31 | " |
| Height of Central Tower | 84 | " |
| Length of Side of Western Tower (square), exterior | 31 | " |
| Height of Western Tower | 95 | " |
| Length of North Porch, N. and S., interior | 15 | " |
| Width of North Porch, E. and W., interior | 14 | " |
| Length of South Porch, N. and E., interior | 6 | " |
| Width of South Porch, E. and W., interior | 7 | " |
| Length of Vestry, N. and S., interior | 15 | " |
| Width of Vestry, E. and W., interior | 14 | " |
| Length of Baptistery, E. to W., interior | 18 | " |
| Width of Baptistery, N. to S., interior | 19 | " |
| Area | 10,725 | sq. feet. |