The Pilgrim Hospital of Saint Thomas the Martyr of Eastbridge was founded in the 12th century (possibly 1176) in order to provide overnight accommodation for poor pilgrims to the shrine of St Thomas a Becket. It is now one of the ten almshouses still providing accommodation for elderly citizens of Canterbury.
In the 14th century it was reformed by Archbishop John de Stratford who came up with ordinances, as well as a code of regulations to be acted on concerning pilgrims - every pilgrim in health could rest in the hospital for one night at the cost of four pence, that weak and infirm applicants were to be preferred to those with better health, and that women "upwards of forty" should attend to the bedding and administer medicines to the sick.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Hospital survived although Pilgrims no longer went to Becket's shrine so inn 1569 Archbishop Parker issued new ordinances governing the Hospital: twelve beds for the 'wayfaring poor' were to be kept and a school was established a school in the chapel for twenty boys which survived until 1879 with the chapel not used much until it was restored in 1927 with more restoration done in the 20th century.
In the 14th century it was reformed by Archbishop John de Stratford who came up with ordinances, as well as a code of regulations to be acted on concerning pilgrims - every pilgrim in health could rest in the hospital for one night at the cost of four pence, that weak and infirm applicants were to be preferred to those with better health, and that women "upwards of forty" should attend to the bedding and administer medicines to the sick.
During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the Hospital survived although Pilgrims no longer went to Becket's shrine so inn 1569 Archbishop Parker issued new ordinances governing the Hospital: twelve beds for the 'wayfaring poor' were to be kept and a school was established a school in the chapel for twenty boys which survived until 1879 with the chapel not used much until it was restored in 1927 with more restoration done in the 20th century.
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