Brief History

During the middle ages, the poor were cared for by charities, both private and ecclesiastical, until legislation in 1559 and 1601 made relief of the poor one of the responsibilities of the parish authorities but church hospitals existed after this time. In Gateshead there were the hospitals of St Edmund, Bishop and Confessor; and St Edmund, King and Martyr. The dates of their foundation are unknown but they are known to have existed in 1247 and 1315 respectively. The history of St Edmund, Bishop and Confessor, is the more obscure of the two. It was connected with the convent of St Bartholomew of Newcastle and suffered badly during the campaigns of Henry.

In 1611, the foundation of St Edmund, King and Martyr was re-founded as King James’ Hospital as a result of a petition to the King himself. The successive Masters were the rectors of Gateshead who were allowed one third of the hospital’s income, which cannot have been high, as during the latter part the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century, the fortunes of the hospital were at a low ebb. The cottages of the bedesmen had been pulled down, and hens lived in the chapel. It was reformed at the beginning of the nineteenth century by Dr Richard Prosser, the rector, whose proposals included the re-erection of the cottages, the supply to each of the inmates of a suit of clothes each year and the provision of an adequate supply of coal in the winreforms and introduced another innovation,’younger brethren’, as well as the existing bedesmen. These ‘younger brethren’ had to be over 56 years of age, receiving less than £20 per annum and attending church regularly. Once accepted, they were given a pension, not exceeding £25 per annum.

From this time, the hospital prospered, and the chapel (St Edmund’s) was rebuilt in 1810.