Despite the name ‘St John’s Hospital’, we are not a hospital in the modern sense of the word and do not have any medical facilities or medical staff. We are called ‘Hospital’ purely because that was a generic word to describe almshouses several centuries ago when the site we now use was founded.

We are an almshouse charity, registered with the Almshouse Association. We exist to relieve financial hardship by providing affordable housing and associated services (in particular the services of a resident warden) to ‘qualified beneficiaries’.

In our case, qualified beneficiaries must be ‘poor people of good character who … are resident in the District of Salisbury at the time of appointment’. In common with all almshouses, we grant our beneficiaries a licence to occupy our accommodation, rather than a tenancy.

The charity is directed by a seven-person board of trustees, and day-to-day administration is carried out by a Clerk to the Trustees and a resident Warden, both of whom work part-time. The charity is funded by a mixture of invested endowment funds and modest ‘maintenance contributions’—similar to, but legally distinct from, ‘rent’ payments—from beneficiaries.

On our site, off Wilton’s St John’s Square, beside the A30 Shaftesbury Road, we have a Grade II* listed 12^th Century Priory Chapel (dedicated to St John the Baptist), which is used both for weekly services as well as regular community events. Nearby are four Grade II listed cottages, one of which provides accommodation for the resident Warden as well as a small, additional, residents’ meeting room.

There are two modern accommodation blocks set well back from the main road: 1-10 St John’s Priory (built in 1985), and 11-28 St Johns Priory (built in 1997). 1-16 St John’s Priory consist of a mixture of one and two-bedroomed flats, occupied by St John’s Hospital residents; the flats in 17-28 St John’s Priory are occupied and maintained by our fellow, but separate, almshouse charity, the College of Matrons, whose principal accommodation is located in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close. All the residents at St John’s Priory share equally the services of the resident Warden as well as the communal facilities, which include the Priory Chapel, the meeting room, a communal allotment (known as the ‘Secret Garden’) and on-site parking facilities.

Admission as a beneficiary of St John’s Hospital is entirely at the discretion of the Trustees. Except in the most exceptional circumstances, beneficiaries must be resident in the District of Salisbury, and priority is given to those in the greatest need. Both single persons or couples may apply, but every applicant must qualify as a beneficiary of the charity and, should a couple be appointed, each party would be named on the Letter of Appointment.

St John’s Hospital provides a telecare alarm system in each of its cottages or flats in case of emergency. However, it is stressed that residents must be able to cook, cater and care for themselves—that is, ‘live independently’—albeit, perhaps, with some daytime care. When independent living is no longer possible, it may be necessary to ‘set aside’ (that is, terminate) the appointment of the beneficiary concerned.