Melford Road 132-134

Residential

This pair of Victorian back to back cottages is replicated by Nos 128-130 on the opposite corner. They all stand on the site of the Hospital of St Leonard, founded by John Colney in the reign of Edward II as a leper hospital. He suffered from this terrible affliction himself and, retiring there, became its first governor. By the mid 19thC it was difficult to find patients with leprosy and in 1858 the old hospital was pulled down and the Municipal Charity Trustees built the four cottages with the rents helping to support the newly built St Leonards Cottage Hospital. Inevitably these cottages became known as 'Leprosy Cottages' and are named as such in the 1901 Census, occupied by various farm labourers and mat makers. They form an interesting link with Sudbury's distant past.

Back to the index of streets