St Giles Leper Colony

Today I was in Wickford, dropping off some materials for Norbert, a lovely man with a lovely family and quite possibly the vicar with the tidiest home I have ever visited. On the way back home I stopped off at St Giles Churchyard, where the picture is taken.

St Giles is the patron saint of cripples and the Hospital and Homes of St Giles was established in 1914 by a community of Church of England monks and nuns, the Society of the Divine Compassion and the Sisterhood of St Giles. The nuns and monks cared for British subjects resident in the British Isles who in almost all cases had caught leprosy in the Empire.

In 1914 there were two sisters from Guy’s hospital and two monks. By 1921 the hospital was established and there had been 15 patients, five of whom were married men living with their wives who were not affected. Some records show there had been a leprosy hospital on this site as early as the 12thC.

Once inside the cemetery there's an old chapel where funerals used to be held. The cemetery is divided into two parts; one part is for the 38 lepers who have died, and the other part is for the 31 nuns who looked after them. Right up until 1986 there were 9 leprosy patients in the hospital; the oldest patient was 89 and one person has been there for 30 years.

The hospital has been rebuilt and is now home for many through an assisted housing scheme.

Quite a place.