Workers make unexpected discovery during emergency sinkhole repairs

• Remnants of what is believed to be St Leonard’s Hospital, one of the largest medieval hospitals in the north of England, have been discovered in York.
• The archaeological find occurred during emergency repairs to a sinkhole outside York’s Theatre Royal on St Leonard’s Place.
• Dating from the 12th to 13th century, St Leonard’s Hospital replaced an earlier institution and stretched from York’s Museum Gardens to the Theatre Royal.
• The hospital provided care for the unwell, elderly, and condemned, and also fed the poor and prisoners in York Castle.
• St Leonard’s Hospital was largely destroyed during the Reformation, leaving York without a hospital until 1740.

IN FULL

Huge medieval discovery made by accident during sinkhole repairs