The Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, Bawtry was a charity established in Bawtry in the thirteenth century.[1] The surviving chapel building is now a masonic lodge and Grade II listed.
It was probably in the episcopacy of Geoffrey Plantagenet or his immediate predecessor, that the foundation of St. Mary Magdalene was laid, and it has remained under patronage of the Archbishop of York up to the present time. (1891) ..... in the year 1289 the first recorded name if its incumbents occurs, The Rev.THomas langtoft.
The exact date of the foundation of the hospital is uncertain but it was in existence by the end of the thirteenth century. The patronage for the appointment of the Master was in the hands of the Archbishops of York. Archbishop William de Wickwane granted permission for Gilbert and his wife to live in the hospital in 1281.[2]
In 1390, Robert Morton extended the foundation by granting Nostell Priory a sum of money which was to be used to fund a chaplain to the Hospital. On his death in 1396 a sum of money was also left directly to the hospital.
The purpose of the hospital was as a place of residence for the poor.[3]
It survived the dissolution of the monasteries but through the lack of care of subsequent masters, by 1834 the chapel was derelict. It was restored in 1839 by Mr. Edward Harwood Greaves[4] of Hesley Hall.
The chapel fell into disuse again in the 1920s and was converted into a masonic lodge in 1930 when the almshouses were demolished.
↑A Topographical Dictionary of England. Samuel Lewis. 1831. p.333
↑Archaeological Excavations at Bawtry Masonic Hall. South Yorkshire. July L McIntyre and D.M. Hadley. Department of Archaeology. University of Sheffield
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