The Hospital Of Great Newton In Glendale

There was also a small hospital or rather an almshouse for the support of the elderly at Kirknewton (NCH XI (1922), 151-2). It is first mentioned in the 1250s or 1260s, when the lord of the manor, Nicholas Corbet, confirmed a gift made by his father to Simon of Howtel and his wife ‘of the hospital in Neutona in Glendall, with a half carucate of land belonging to the said hospital, to be held to the said Simon and his wife as freely as Walter Corbet the giver of the alms first gave and granted it’ (Laing Charter no. 9; Macdonald 1950, no. 1; see Selected Sources and Surveys no 2).

It had evidently been established by Walter Corbet, grandfather of Nicholas, presumably therefore in the early 13th century. The County History concludes that this hospital represented parcels of land granted by the Corbets successively to different tenants ‘in fee simple’ (i.e. they were free of rent or service to the manorial lord), but the holdings were burdened with the obligation of keeping three old men who in turn were bound to work for the landholder to the best of their ability.