16/09/2026
The Trust's contribution to this year's Heritage Open Days was a walk, led by Andrew Scott, entitled 'A walk from St Faith's Road to St Cross Hospital'.
In spite of dark skies and, later, some light rain, plus traffic problems, nineteen walkers turned up to take a very informative and enjoyable stroll through the East side of the St Cross area.
Andrew took us from Priors Barton - which was, in Saxon times, probably a farm, which then became part of the 'barton' or demesne of a feudal lord and then the home farm of the Priory of St Swithun - along Clausentum Road - a meadow until it was developed in 1900-1910 - into the handsome new development at Lockburn Place, down pretty Cripstead Lane and along picturesque Back Street, ending up in front of the eternally beautiful Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty.
Andrew had a wealth of interesting facts to relate about the history of the area. Here are one or two:
apparently, there was an anchoress in the medieval church of St Faith in 1259: while hermits could wander, an anchoress had to take a vow of stability in place and remain enclosed in a small cell;
'Mithril', a house by the traffic lights on St Cross Road, is probably on the site of a toll house;
'The Old Farmhouse', on the corner of Cripstead Lane and Back Street, was used as a barracks associated with the militia camps of 1759 and 1760 as, during the Seven Years War, Wi******er became a major hub for the newly reorganised British militia to repel a possible French invasion;
when putting the drains into two of the cottages in Cripstead Lane, the remains of a Saxon weaver's cottage were found: the cottage had burned down and some loom weights were found in a row just as they had fallen to the ground at the time of the fire!
And, unexpectedly and wonderfully, a resident popped out to give us an impromptu short history of her beautiful house at the end of Back Street and tell us the history of the nearby Dipping Gate (see photo), which will be the subject of another post in the near future.
******ertrust ******er
