[1] The hospital was run by a Master (normally a monk or other religious figure) and a small community of brothers and sisters (other members of the church) who cared for the people who came to them for help.

Three further beds at the hospital were also set aside for other poor or infirm people who were passing through on the road either to London or to Oxford.

The earliest known Master was Brother Gilbert who, in 1236, wrote to Pope Gregory IX in Rome asking for permission to establish a chapel dedicated to St John the Baptist at the hospital.

In 1245 a study found the brothers distributed bread to the poor annually on Lady Day (25th Martch).

[3] The hospital continued to run until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the mid 16th century when all property belonging to the Catholic church was seized by King Henry VIII.

Part of the original hospital building was pulled down in 1767 to make way for the widening of the main road so that it could be established as a turnpike.