The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Museum, formerly hospital
Museum, formerly hospital
The Cromwell Museum is situated in the medieval centre of the town, immediately E of All Saints parish church. It was formerly the Grammar School attended by Oliver Cromwell and houses a display dedicated to him, but was built as the infirmary hall of the Hospital of St John the Baptist.
In its present state it is simply a rectangular box with a pitched roof and gabled ends at E and W, but it was originally longer and aisled. What remains are the two W bays without their aisles. The arcade piers and arches remain, but the bays have been blocked and triplet windows inserted in the arches. At the E end a plain gabled wall has been built to close off the structure, and a simple pointed doorway and a three-light window in a late-14thc style inserted. The doorway is a reused medieval piece, probably 13thc, but the window is entirely 19thc. The W facade is the glory of the building, with an elaborate off-centre 12thc doorway with rich chevron decoration, a chevron-decorated lower window, and at higher levels arcading that frames the two upper windows and a single oculus in the gable.
Much of what we see results from a restoration in 1878, when it was completely rebuilt, and the 19thc brickwork used to raise it by 3 feet is visible at ground level. Much of the original sculpture was reused, including most of the decorated W doorway and window, parts of the W facade arcading, and the bases and capitals of the arcades.
It is clear from the E pier of the S arcade that the building originally extended further E. Pevsner states that it was seven bays long, and that there was a courtyard to the N around which the Master’s lodging, the refectory and other buildings were arranged.