Of the chapel itself all that remains to-day is the arch facing the road shown in the sketch above which must have formed the west door of entrance, and the arch indirectly above it must have been that of a window.
There is no definite evidence as to the original size of the chapel, unless we assume that it covered the same ground as the existing block of almshouses, to which the arch forms the west face. This block is about 45ft. long from east to west and about 24ft. across. It occupies only a small part of the whole premises. But there is evidence that it was once structurally connected with other buildings both to the east and to the south, whether continuations of the chapel itself or other parts of the Hospital cannot now be determined.
The architectural character of the two arches, though not sufficiently pronounced to give a definite date, is however helpful. They are both blunt pointed arches, and the upper or window one is almost, though not quite, semi-circular, suggesting a Transitional or very Early English period. Only one of the our orders of the main arch is ornamented. This is of an unusual type consisting of a series of hexagonal lozenges containing quadrilateral lozenges each of which contains a small cross. This is more like a Norman or Transitional decoration than an Early English one. The upper part of the arch can be traced on the inside wall of the upper storey of the almshouse, the lower part being covered by a fireplace. It shows an ornamented moulding similar to that on the outside but of smaller pattern.
So that on the whole one is led to date the arch from the end of the 12th century or the beginning of the 13th. A sound architectural opinion, that of Dr. A. R. Green, F.S.A., has suggested 1185 as about the date. The chapel would therefore have been built probably not more than 50 years after the building of the present Abbey Church.
We have no other historical reference to the Hospital unless a statement in the "Eulogy of Histories" by the unknown Malmesbury monk has some connection with it. He says:
"It is believed that nuns dwelt where is now the Leper Hospital next the bridge". From its situation near the bridge this Leper Hospital of which we have no other record, if not directly part of St. John's Hospital, must have been indirectly associated with it. We know that there were sisters as well as brothers in the Hospital.
As to the actual date of the disestablishment itself we have no record-our Hospital and its history are not mentioned in Kemble's "Knights Hospitallers in England-but it must have taken place at the time of the confiscation of the property of the Knights Hospitallers by King Henry VIII in or soon after 1530, as in the case of similar St. John's Hospitals. It seems probable, as happened elsewhere, that some of the revenue was devoted to the foundation of a school and an almshouse on the site of the old Hospital, making use of some of its buildings for the purpose.
Leland, who visited Malmesbury in 1542, only three years after the Abbey disestablishment, says in his "Itinerary" after leaving the town by the Chippenham road: -
"and I have rede that there was another Nunnery where is now a poore Hospital about the South Bridge without the towne in the way to Chippenham".
From this it would appear that the St. John's community had by then disappeared and been replaced by the Almshouse.
All that we know historically is that the property of the Hospital and other property which had belonged to it came eventually into the possession, partly by purchase from John Herbert and Andrew Palmer, citizens of London, of John Stumpe.
John Stumpe was the second son of the famous clothier, William Stumpe, who had purchased the Abbey Church at the disestablishment and given it to the town as a parish church.
His second son John had succeeded to his father's looms and business as clothier. He is known to have lived in the Abbey House within the old precincts and represented the Borough of Malmesbury in the parliament of 1584.
In 1580 he generously conveyed the Hospital and the whole of its property in the town to the Burgesses for the sum of £26 13s. 4d. with the liability on them for the maintenance of School and Almshouse at £20 a year.
From the first Minute Book of the Old Corporation which begins in 1600 we learn that in 1616 for the first time the Court of the Burgesses was held at St. John's, and so it remained continuously thereafter.
In 1623 the Minute Book gives a copy of a written order in which the Alderman and Burgesses decide that
"they shall hence
forth hold and enjoy the School House, Kitchen, Orchard, Chapell. Garden and Almshouse as they now doe, to themselves and their successors for ever; in consideration whereof the sd Alderman and Burgesses are to repair, maintain and keep the said house in sufficient repair at their own proper cost and charge".
By a memorandum dated June 22, 1629, an allotment was made by all the Burgesses, only four of whom signed their names to the memorandum, the rest making various marks,
"to pay £20 for the maintenance of a schoollmaster and five poor pepell, to be maintained at St. John's" according to the decree made that is as hereunder written:-
"Item, The seven parts which are called Cooke's heath 35/- a year a piece; the 3 parts called New Leaze and the part called Port Mead Downes are to pay 30/- a year and the part called Clyatts 20/- a year and the part called Foxleaze 20/- a year; all make just twentie pounds on the yeare and five shillings over, which five shillings is to be paid unto the Alderman for the
time being".
The property of the old Hospital, given them by John Stumpe, has remained in the hands of the Old Corporation ever since. The school continued to be held in the Court Room down to well on in the 19th century, and six old ladies instead of the original five "poor pepell" resided in the almshouse until a few years ago. At the time of the Local Government Corporation Act of 1882, when Malmesbury obtained a new Mayor and Corporation, retention of its old property for all time was granted to the Old Corporation, who were allowed to remain a corporate body for the management of their property.
