A hospital for Lepers existed in the 14th Century close to Home Farm. This is believed also to be the site of an Earlier Cistercian Nunnery, Hoton Priory.
The location of the site may well have been disturbed by the construction of the railway spur to Codhill and Hutton Ironstone mines from the Middlesbrough & Guisborough Railway. An archaeological dig in the mid 1960s revealed a drain, wall and some pottery. But little has been reported on this.
Much of the history and use of the Hospital is available at BHO. It is interesting that in the Surtees Society, Guisborough. Chartul. that it mentions the existence of a church. It may be this was a church, abandoned by the Nuns of Hoton Priory, when they were admonished from the area. It may be, too, that the hospital ‘re-purposed’ the Nunnery buildings and associated church as the timelines between the Nuns leaving and the hospital arriving are relatively close.
It is, too, surprising that the hospital moved further into Lowcross and Pinchinthorpe to somewhere near Spite Hall and that the Hospital at Upsall had an influence, all within walking distance of each other.