A Homely Future for St Michael’s Place

The St Michael’s Place regeneration project which is being led and part funded by Warwick District Council in partnership with the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust will see the former house and chapel carefully and sympathetically converted for residential use.

Funding of up to £138,838 received from players of The National Lottery will support the development of detailed designs and a historic interpretation programme for the Grade II* listed Master’s House and St Michael’s Chapel in Saltisford with a further £40,000 contribution from Historic England earmarked to facilitate specialist archaeological investigations on the site.

St Michael’s Chapel

This potential project site contains two (15^th / 16^th century) grade II* listed buildings at risk on the site of a medieval leper hospital (scheduled ancient monument) and has featured on every edition of the Historic England Heritage at Risk Register.

The present focus of the hospital complex is formed by the upstanding chapel, a single cell stone building of 15th century date, and a late 15th or early 16th century timber-framed building, known as the Master’s House, situated to the north of the chapel. Although partially rebuilt, the buildings are contemporary with the later medieval development of the site. The standing buildings are considered to overlie the remains of earlier medieval hospital buildings which extend across the whole of the site.

The first actual reference to the leper hospital is in 1275, but by 1540 it was said to be `much in ruin’. By 1545 it was leased to a layman, Richard Fisher, who distributed alms to the poor and gave lodging to four poor men. The last priest recorded as warden took office in 1557. The Chapel and Master’s house were converted to cottages in the 17th-18th centuries and finally became uninhabitable by the mid-20^th century.

Project Development

A Viability Appraisal was commissioned by the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust in association with Warwick District Council, by a grant from the Architectural Heritage Fund, in 2018 to investigate the options to secure a future for the St Michael’s Chapel & Master’s House buildings.