Along the Moors - Preston

Lady Catherine’s Legacy

Preston Hospital was founded at the bequest of Lady Catherine Herbert, daughter of the first Earl Bradford, who died in 1716. She left a legacy of £6000 to her brother Lord Torrington who was given responsibility, along with a number of other trustees, to build and endow almshouses for 12 poor women and 12 girls born in Shropshire. The reason behind Lady Catherine’s generous gift lay in her rescue while lost in the Alps where, according to legend, she was led by St. Bernard dogs to a monastery. When the monks refused payment for her salvation, she decided instead to build her own refuge for the less fortunate as thanksgiving.

Under the terms of Lady Herbert’s bequest, the 12 widows were to be selected by the trustees from women of ‘formerly good character but in reduced circumstances’, while the girls, all aged between 7 and 14, were to be instructed for domestic service and agricultural work. After his death in 1718, Lord Torrington’s estate was added to the legacy, together with his property at Preston, a saltworks at nearby Kinley and £1000 to build a hall in the centre of the almshouses, intended for use as a chapel and school-room for the girls. Building work appears to have been completed by 1726. The architect of the scheme is unknown, although evidence suggests it was probably Francis Smith of Warwick, who designed mansions at Kinlet and Buntingsdale (Market Drayton) in the same decade.