Jesus College Alumin Department is pleased to invite you to their summer ‘Local Social’, for alumni local to Oxford and surrounding counties.

 

We will be visiting the Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty in Winchester on Thursday 6 June 2024. Described by Simon Jenkins as ‘England’s most perfect Almshouse’ and one of the oldest in the country.

 

The Hospital was founded to support thirteen poor men, so frail they were unable to work, and feed one hundred men at the gates every day. The thirteen became the Brothers of St Cross. Then, as now, they are not monks and St Cross is not a monastery but a secular foundation. In the fifteenth century, Cardinal Beaufort created the Order of Noble Poverty adding the Almshouse to the existing Hospital buildings and giving St Cross the look it has today.

 

We will be given a tour of this spectacular and historically fascinating site by Brother John, one of today’s Brothers who resides on site. Our thanks to alumna and Winchester resident, Sue Woodward (1976) for facilitating this trip.

  

Schedule for the day:

 

10.15am – meet for a tour of the Hospital and Almshouse leaving promptly at 10.30am.

 

11.45am – Tea and cakes in the Hundred Men’s Hall.

 

12.30pm – 1.15pm – Lunchtime concert at the Hospital of St Cross. Megan Humphries, Harpist. (optional and free to attend but donations welcome)

 

Afternoon – free time to enjoy exploring the gardens and water meadows.

 

2.30pm/3pm – walk to Winchester Cathedral (30mins via water meadows) optional, tickets purchased on arrival.

  

If you would like to attend the next ‘Local Social’ please email georgina.plunkett@jesus.ox.ac.uk before 27 May 2024. Please state the number of tickets you would like for St Cross. (£7.50 adults, £5 senior citizens & students, £4 under 13 yr olds).

 

 

Thank you to all those who made previous ‘Local Socials’ such a success. I hope you will be joining us again for our summer meet-up!