THE KNIGHTS OF LAZARUS
IN NORFOLK
The Knights of Saint Lazarus, a medieval military order dedicated to caring for lepers and supporting the Christian faith, did have a presence in Yorkshire. While not as extensive as the Knights Templar or Hospitallers, at least one preceptory (a monastery or house of the order) is known to have existed in the region.
CHOSELY / CHOSELEY - A Smaller Leper hospital tied to the order
Choseley, Norfolk was the site of a medieval leper hospital that was associated with the Order of Saint Lazarus. The hospital was founded sometime before 1291 and dissolved before 1428.
The site, likely located at or near the current Choseley Farm, included a medieval village and church, both of which have since disappeared. The current farmhouse, a large post-medieval mansion dating to the mid or late 16th century, contains much re-used limestone, probably from the original medieval hospital buildings
The Order of St Lazarus and the Hospital of Choseley, Norfolk
Choseley, a small settlement on the high ground between Titchwell, Thornham, Docking and Brancaster in north-west Norfolk, was once home to a medieval leper hospital belonging to the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem. This was not an ordinary local almshouse, but part of the wider English network of the Lazarite order, whose principal house in England was Burton Lazars in Leicestershire.
The hospital at Choseley was founded before 1291 and was one of only two known Norfolk houses of the Order of St Lazarus, the other being at Wymondham. Its foundation is associated with Walter Giffard, Earl of Buckingham, who appears to have granted land at Choseley to Burton Lazars. Later evidence suggests that a portion of Choseley known as Willy’s Manor, comprising about 600 acres, was the part not given to Burton Lazars, implying that the Order’s estate at Choseley was substantial.
The Lazarites therefore held more than a simple hospital building. Their property probably included agricultural land, pasture, meadow, rents, manorial rights and buildings needed to support a religious and charitable estate. The hospital itself is thought to have stood at or near Choseley Farm, where medieval pottery and human remains have been found. Later farm buildings may also contain reused medieval stone, though no standing remains of the hospital can now be identified with certainty.
Choseley appears to have had its own chapel, making it one of the more developed daughter houses of the Order of St Lazarus. The site was probably arranged much like a small manorial religious house, with a chapel, hall, service buildings, barns and accommodation. Such a house would have supported both the spiritual life of the order and the practical management of its estate.
The purpose of Choseley was twofold. As a leper hospital, it belonged to a tradition of religious care for those suffering from leprosy and other long-term sickness. As a Lazarite estate, it also generated income for the wider order through farming, rents and pasture. The Order of St Lazarus combined charitable care with estate management, and Choseley reflects that dual role: a place of prayer, care and administration, supported by landed wealth.
There are few surviving names of those who served at Choseley, but one important figure is known. In 1378, a man named Richard is recorded as preceptor of Choseley. This confirms that the house was not merely a distant possession of Burton Lazars, but had an officer of the order present to oversee its affairs. By 1428, a master of Choseley was still being mentioned, though this may represent the final trace of resident Lazarite administration there.
After the Black Death, Choseley seems to have declined as an active religious-hospitaller house. By the early sixteenth century, its lands were being treated increasingly as an agricultural estate. The meadows and pastures of Choseley were leased for sheep pasture to the family of Sir Thomas Lovell, at a rent of £2 10s per year, and the estate was administered alongside the Lazarite lordship of Wymondham.
Nothing visible now remains of the medieval hospital itself. The likely site survives only through documentary references, archaeological finds and the long continuity of occupation around Choseley Farm. Yet Choseley remains an important lost site in the history of the Order of St Lazarus in England: a small Norfolk hospital where land, prayer, charity and estate management came together in the service of one of the medieval world’s most distinctive religious orders.
Lazar Hill
The Order of St Lazarus at King’s Lynn
The medieval Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, often remembered as the “Leper Knights”, had a small but significant presence at King’s Lynn in Norfolk. Unlike Burton Lazars in Leicestershire, which became the Order’s principal English house, King’s Lynn was not a major Lazarite commandery. Instead, the evidence points to a local hospital or fraternity of St Lawrence, with property held under the wider authority of the Order of St Lazarus at Burton Lazars.
The clearest recorded link appears in the area known as the Newland, part of the medieval expansion of Lynn beyond the older town. Henry Hillen’s History of King’s Lynn describes a brotherhood of St Lawrence in the Newland, affiliated with the monastery of St Lazarus of Jerusalem at Burton Lazars. This house stood in Damgate, which corresponds broadly with part of modern Norfolk Street. It was said to be nearly opposite the chapel of the Hospital of St John the Baptist.
The Lazarite property was not limited to a single building. Hillen records that the brethren held a row of small tenements stretching from the Bishop’s Mill Fleet, identified with the area of Littleport Street, towards the drawbridge at the East or St Catherine’s Gate. This places the property belt around the eastern approach into medieval Lynn, near modern Norfolk Street, Littleport Street, the East Gate, Gaywood Road and Kettlewell Lane.
A further and important clue is the place-name “Lazar Hill”. The later Kettle Mills site, beside the Gaywood River, was formerly known by this name. A deed of 1271 records land called Lazar Hill being granted to Alan de Kele, a burgess of Lynn, with the consent of the brethren. The grantor was Sir Richard de Sulgrave, Master of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem at Burton Lazars. This strongly confirms that the Order held property in this part of Lynn by the later thirteenth century.
Who was present there is less clearly recorded. The sources speak of brethren connected with St Lawrence and the Order of St Lazarus, but do not preserve a full list of resident brothers, sisters, chaplains or inmates for this particular house. It was probably a small religious-charitable community, supporting the care of lepers or maintaining property whose income helped sustain Lazarite charitable work. As with other Lazarite houses, its identity combined religious observance, care of the sick, and property management.
The work carried out there was most likely connected with the Order’s traditional role: the care and support of those suffering from leprosy and other forms of sickness, combined with prayer, almsgiving and the administration of endowed property. The row of messuages in Damgate and the land at Lazar Hill would have provided income, shelter or both. King’s Lynn also had several other medieval leper hospitals and lazar houses, so the Lazarite property formed part of a wider landscape of charitable care around the town.
The most likely location of the Lazarite holding today is the eastern side of King’s Lynn, centred around the old Damgate route: Norfolk Street and Littleport Street, extending towards the East Gate, Gaywood
Road, Kettlewell Lane and the Gaywood River. The specific Lazar Hill/Kettle Mills site lay near Kettlewell Lane, close to the surviving line of the medieval town wall.
No medieval Lazarite hospital building is known to survive above ground. The area is now occupied by modern streets, later buildings and the redeveloped landscape around the former Kettle Mills/waterworks site. The strongest visible medieval survival nearby is the East Gate and parts of the old town defences, which help mark the approach through which the Lazarite properties once lay.
In summary, the Order of St Lazarus at King’s Lynn held a small but notable urban property group associated with St Lawrence in the Newland, including tenements in Damgate and land remembered as Lazar Hill. Its presence reflects the Order’s wider English network under Burton Lazars, and its role in combining religious life, charitable care and the management of property for the support of the sick and poor.
Westwade
The Order of St Lazarus at Westwade, Norfolk
Westwade, near Wymondham in Norfolk, was one of the smaller English sites associated with the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, the medieval military and hospitaller order closely connected with the care of lepers and the sick.
The site appears to have been established by the mid-twelfth century, probably as a small chapel, hermitage, and alms-gathering station, rather than as a large preceptory. It stood beside, or partly upon, a bridge over the River Tiffey, on the old road between Wymondham and Dereham. This was a deliberate and useful location: travellers crossing the river passed directly by the chapel, where prayers could be offered and alms collected for the support of the Order’s religious and charitable work.
Westwade’s chapel was unusual. An eighteenth-century drawing preserved in the Norfolk Record Office shows the ruined building standing over a stone bridge with pointed arches. The chapel itself appears to have been a substantial medieval structure, built with stone quoins and pointed windows, one with a hood moulding. A collapsed section of wall may mark the position of a former doorway.
Bridge-chapels carried strong spiritual meaning in the Middle Ages. They turned a river crossing into a sacred passage, where travellers might pray for protection, give alms, or seek spiritual benefit for the souls of the dead. For the Order of St Lazarus, Westwade provided both a visible religious presence and a practical means of support.
Nothing now survives above ground. During roadworks in 1986, stone and flint foundations were reportedly seen, suggesting that remains of the chapel or bridge structure may still survive below ground.
The modern location is understood to be near the River Tiffey crossing at Westwade, close to Wymondham, Norfolk, on the historic route towards Dereham. Today the site is best understood through the landscape, the river crossing, and the rare eighteenth-century drawing, which remains one of the only known visual records of a medieval building associated with the Order of St Lazarus in England.
Wymondham -
William de Albini, before 1146, gifted to the order at Burton Lazars, six score acres of land, upon which they built a cell, in which resided a master and two to three Brothers of the order.
The Order of St Lazarus at Wymondham, Norfolk
Wymondham was one of the earliest known English possessions of the Order of St Lazarus of Jerusalem, the medieval military and hospitaller order especially associated with the care of lepers and the sick.
The Order’s connection with Wymondham appears to date from the mid-twelfth century. Before 1146, William d’Albini, Earl of Arundel, granted land in Wymondham to the Order’s mother house at Burton Lazars in Leicestershire. Later accounts describe this gift as six-score acres — around 120 acres — upon which the brethren established a small cell or hospital.
This was not a large commandery, but a modest Lazarite holding. It likely supported a master or warden and a small number of brothers, perhaps two or three, who maintained the Order’s local religious and charitable presence. A surviving charter also records Robert son of Hugh, prior of the Hospital of St Lazarus, confirming land at Wymondham to Alice de Chare, wife of Ralph de Chare, for an annual rent of six pence payable at Easter. This shows that the Order held tenanted land in Wymondham and received rents and services from it.
The precise location of the Order’s Wymondham land is not certain. One important clue is the statement that the six-score acres lay “between the manor-house and the field.” This may refer to land near the d’Albini manorial centre, possibly associated with Moot Hill near Wymondham, a site traditionally linked with early lordship and manorial authority. If correct, the Lazarite grant may have lain close to the d’Albini manor rather than solely at Westwade.
The charter boundaries also place the Order’s land among other local holdings, near land associated with Bartholomew, George, Reginald de Ladale, Bobelo, and land once held by Hugh son of Robert the Templar. This last reference is especially interesting. It does not prove that the Knights Templar held a formal estate at Wymondham, but it suggests that a Templar-associated individual or family held land in the same local landscape as the Lazarites.
The Order’s most visible Wymondham site was at Westwade, where a chapel and hermitage stood by the River Tiffeycrossing on the old road towards Dereham. This bridge-chapel allowed the brethren to serve travellers, receive alms, and turn the river crossing into a place of prayer and charity. However, the wider Wymondham evidence suggests that the Order also held separate landed property, possibly closer to the d’Albini manorial focus near Moot Hill.
Today, no visible remains of the Order’s Wymondham lands survive above ground. The Westwade chapel has disappeared, though its ruined form is known from an eighteenth-century drawing. The exact position of the six-score acres remains uncertain, but the strongest possibilities are the Westwade / River Tiffey corridor and land near the possible d’Albini manor site at Moot Hill.
Wymondham was therefore a small but significant early Lazarite possession: a place of landholding, rent income, prayer, charity, and roadside ministry within the wider network of the Order of St Lazarus in medieval England.
BRISTON - All Saints Church
All Saints Church, Briston, and the Order of St Lazarus
All Saints Church at Briston, Norfolk, is a medieval parish church whose surviving fabric dates mainly from the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. The building is largely Decorated Gothic, with medieval features including the chancel, nave, piscina, sedilia, and traces of a former north aisle. It once had a round west tower, but this was demolished in 1785 after becoming unsafe.
Briston’s link with the Order of St Lazarus was not through ownership of the church or the presence of a Lazarite hospital. Instead, the connection was financial. In the 1291 Taxatio Ecclesiastica, the Order of St Lazarus is recorded as receiving a pension of £1 per year from the church of Briston.
This was part of the Order’s wider network of spiritual income, helping support its English mother house at Burton Lazars in Leicestershire and its religious and hospitaller work. There is no clear evidence that the Order held the advowson, appointed the rector, or had brethren living at Briston.
All Saints, Briston, was therefore not a Lazarite foundation, but it did contribute income to the medieval Order of St Lazarus. Its connection with the Order was real, but limited to an annual church pension recorded in the late thirteenth century.
KNIGHTS OF LAZARUS FIGURES IN NORFOLK
Norfolk & the Lepers: Learn Who Shared Their Chapter of History Here
CHOSELEY - NORFOLK
Richard (Preceptor) - 1378