House for sale to save building sliding into river

Caretakers of an 800-year-old almshouse are selling an adjacent property to fund critical repair work.

Eastbridge Hospital - built on a bridge in Canterbury, Kent, in 1180 as accommodation for pilgrims - has been raising money for work to prevent the site from sliding into the water below.

The charity running the almshouse is listing neighbouring home The Master's Lodge - itself Grade II listed - for sale in the hopes of funding preservation work.

Eastbridge Hospital trustees said in December the undercroft, where pilgrims once slept, was "moving towards the river" and repair costs were "beyond the charity's means".

The Grade I listed property served various purposes over the centuries, reportedly including as a schoolroom where playwright Christopher Marlowe was taught.

It became an almshouse, offering housing for elderly people, about 100 years ago and rents some rooms as holiday lets.

Efforts to add Eastbridge Hospital to the Heritage at Risk Register were successful and the site will be formally added to the list in November.

The Master's Lodge on St Peter's Street was built in the 16th Century and has five bedrooms.

Selling agent Nicholas Rooke of Finn's said: "I think it fair to say that this is a once in a millennium opportunity to buy such an amazing home."

He said he believed the building had never been sold before.

The asking price is set to be £1.25m when the house hits the market in the coming days.

Rooke said it was "certainly a first for me, dealing with a house as special as this one".

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