The poor scholars, boys selected on merit from local song schools, were to receive a daily meal during term times.

The hospital was modelled upon the Augustinian rule under which excessive liturgical ritual was discouraged to permit more time for charitable works.

However, it was not only the hospital's rising population that generated the need for new buildings; newcomers had higher expectations of levels of comfort, privacy, and space.

Prior Court consists of eighteen single and six double flats which are designed to accommodate people who need regular support.

These plans include six additional flats to be added to Prior Court, the redesign of the main carpark and a new workshop to be built on the site of the current garages.

The new two-storey block of 18 flats now called Holme Terrace is almost fully occupied and the refurbished Prior Court should start taking in residents within the next few weeks.[when?]

Substantial changes that modernised the Great Hospital and ensured that it was a model community for the elderly going into the twenty-first century were initiated by Jack Davies Shaw, Master from 1965 until 1980.