Workers make unexpected discovery during emergency sinkhole repairs
Emergency work to repair the road outside York’s Theatre Royal in central York ground to a halt, after remains of a 12th to13th century hospital were found beneath the surface (York City Council)
Remnants of what is believed to be St Leonard’s Hospital, one of the largest medieval hospitals in the north of England, have been discovered in York.
Dating from the 12th to 13th century, St Leonard’s Hospital replaced an earlier institution and stretched from York’s Museum Gardens to the Theatre Royal.
The hospital provided care for the unwell, elderly, and condemned, and also fed the poor and prisoners in York Castle.
St Leonard’s Hospital was largely destroyed during the Reformation, leaving York without a hospital until 1740.