Plumptre Hospital

Plumptre Hospital was a charity in Nottingham providing almshouse accommodation for 599 years from 1392 to 1991.

Plumptre Hospital
Location	Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England
Coordinates	52°57′03″N 1°08′23″W
Built	1823
Architect	Edward Staveley
Listed Building – Grade II
Location of Plumptre Hospital in Nottingham

History

John de Plumptre, Mayor of Nottingham, founded Plumptre Hospital in 1392. It was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and supported two priests and "thirteen poor women broken down of age and depressed of poverty". It was endowed with 13 properties around the town.

In 1414 the number of widows was reduced to seven and he gave the hospital his house, on the site that later became the Flying Horse Inn.[1]

In 1650, Huntingdon Plumptre renovated it, raised the rents, and gave the widows a proper allowance: five shillings per month (equivalent to £34.72 in 2019),[2] with sixpence extra at New Year (equivalent to £3.472 in 2019).[2]

In the 1750s, another John Plumptre expanded the hospital so it could at last take the full 13 widows. They now received each year £13 10s (equivalent to £1,232 in 2019),[2] a gown and a tonne of coal, and in addition the New Year sixpence (equivalent to £2.28 in 2019).[2]

In the garden at the rear there is a plaque on the wall which reads 'Sufficit Meruisis' - 'it is enough to serve'.

Although the Plumptre family moved to Kent in 1756, they supported the charity by rebuilding the hospital again in 1823.[3] Additional almshouses were built in Canal Street in 1956. (These were demolished around 2000).

By 1991, the charity no longer had the resources to improve Plumptre Hospital and its residents moved to the other almshouses. The building of 1823 was taken over by the Royal National Institute for the Blind in 2001.[4]

Inscription

Inscription on the building reads[5]

PLUMPTRE HOSPITAL

Founded and endowed for the support of a Master, a priest, and thirteen poor Widows,
By John de Plumptre, A.D. 1392.
Repaired by Huntingdon Plumptre, Esq., 1650
By John Plumptre, Esq., A.D. 1751
By John Plumptre, his son, A.D. 1753.
First stone of the present Hospital was laid on the 1st of August, A.D. 1823,
By the Rev. Charles Thomas Plumptre, Rector of Claypole,
In Lincolnshire, on behalf of his father, John Plumptre, of Fredville,
In the county of Ken, Esq., the Master or Guardian of the said Hospital,

And a descendant of the Founder.

References

1. Links with Old Nottingham. J. Holland Walker. 1928
2. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
3. The Buildings of England. Nikolaus Pevsner. Nottinghamshire
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-09-23. Retrieved 2010-02-17.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. History and antiquities of Nottingham. James Orange. 1840