Magdalen Hospital

Dating from 1161-1184, the Magdalen Hospital was opened to house lepers and protect the city population from the disease. Leprosy was probably brought back to England by pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, and the first recorded cases in the country, predates the Crusades. The hospital was situated in Bull Meadow, and consisted of a quadrangle with a chapel on one side and small buildings to house the inmates on the other three. Inmates were confined to the hospital and could be punished with a stint in the stocks if found wandering in the city.

Leprosy did not respect rank and Richard Orenge, Mayor of Exeter in 1454, contracted the disease and was confined in the hospital in 1458. Leprosy, as a tropical disease started to decline as fewer journeyed to the Holy Land but there is evidence to suggest that some cases of leprosy were still being admitted in 1530. The hospital gradually reverted to housing poor families and the destitute, and in 1835 the Municipal Corporations Act transferred the running of the hospital from the Corporation to the Exeter Municipal General Charities. By 1863 the buildings were derelict and were demolished.