Ancient Thames site may be Britain's first hospital

A dig by archaeologists, on the banks of the River Thames, has revealed evidence of what could have been Britain's first hospital.

Until now, the idea of providing care outside the home for the sick and dying was thought to have arrived in Britain with the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.

But a team from the University of Reading has found evidence of a cemetery at Cookham, Berkshire, largely housing the bodies of those with terminal illnesses and serious injuries that dates to two centuries earlier.

Dr Sophia Mills, who specialises in researching burial sites said, if the team's hypothesis is correct, "this would make it one of the earliest hospital sites in the UK".

Bodies recovered from the site had shown evidence of diseases including tuberculosis and cancer, all of which would have almost certainly proved fatal for people in the early medieval period.

Professor Gabor Thomas, who has been leading digs at the site since 2021 said the excavation had he potential to change historians' understanding of when the Christian tradition of caring for the sick had begun in Britain.

The cemetery provided evidence that people had come to the monastery seeking care and healing, he added.

"The big question now is who were these people," he said.

"We are studying ancient DNA and the chemical traces preserved in the buried remains to learn more about the people buried at Cookham Abbey, where they came from and the illnesses they suffered with."

As well as providing a window on the past, the dig near Maidenhead in Berkshire is also serving as a training ground for the next generation of archaeologists.

Thomas, who said he caught the archaeology bug after taking part in his first dig, aged just 16, said the range of structures on the site as well as the cemetery, made it an ideal excavation for students to cut their teeth on.

Amarit Parmar, who is in her first year at Reading, had been helping remove backfill from previous digs when she uncovered red, orange staining of the soil in one of the trenches.

That could indicate the location of a hearth in one of the monastic buildings according to those supervising her work.

"It's really cool," she said, "really cool. It's a great experience. I'm quite glad it's our first day, I mean it's hard work but it is quite rewarding."

Thomas added: "Who knows, one of these students could be a future professor of archaeology."

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