Archbishop Thurstan is said to have founded the St Mary Magdalen Hospital, north east of Ripon Cathedral, sometime between 1115 and 1139.

[1] The chapel dates from around the same time and is noted as being the only intact part of any of the Medieval hospitals left in the city of Ripon.

[2][note 1][4] Whilst no documentary evidence exists to attest to date or origin of the chapel, inquisitions held in the early 14th century had witnesses who testified that their elders and forefathers had told them Thurstan had paid for the hospital and that it should be a Leprosarium, attending to all lepers who were born in the Liberty of Ripon (omnes leprosos in Ripschire procreatos et genitos).

[9] It is believed that almost 300 leper hospitals were built in the Middle Ages, with the chapel of St Mary Magdalen at Ripon being one of the few survivors, and so is important to archaeology.

[13][9] The chapel is some 0.75-mile (1.21 km) north east of the cathedral in Ripon,[14] close to the River Ure, and on the opposite side of the road to what was the hospital site.

[23] The tessellated floor underneath the altar is thought to have partially come from a Roman building, as excavations of Roman-period structures in the region have revealed similar designs.

[29] The religious authorities did not own any quarries in Ripon, but there are records of vast quantities of stone being bought from William de Kirkby in the late 14th/early 15th centuries.

Whilst most of this was undoubtedly intended for the rebuilding of the cathedral, it is believed that stone purchased from de Kirkby was also used in the building of the hospital and the chapel.

[38] It was also determined that none had showed signs of leprosy, but they were among 13th century pottery shards, so were of the era when the hospital was dealing with lepers.

[39] The investigations also revealed that the floor level was lower than the present day one and that many of the original boulders used in the chapel were replaced with magnesian limestone under a building programme conducted by Richard Hooke during the second half of the 17th century.

[42][43] In his book, Yorkshire Oddities, the author Sabine Baring-Gould relates a tale when the chapel was not used for worship, with the residents of the almshouses having to go to the cathedral for prayers.