Lady Katherine Leveson died in 1674, when Charles II was the King of England and the Netherlands signed a peace treaty with England to end the Anglo-Dutch war.
Lady Katherine died childless but what she did leave was a legacy creating a community which still thrives today.
Katherine Leveson was the daughter of the explorer Sir Robert Dudley, the illegitimate son of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and favourite of Elizabeth I. She married Sir Richard Leveson in 1629.
Lady Katherine inherited the manor of Temple Balsall from her grandfather. The manor included the Old Hall occupied by the Knights Templar in the 13th century and the 14th century monastic chapel of the Knights Hospitaller, now the Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin.
In her will Lady Katherine entrusted trustees to establish two charitable foundations. Our current trustees, now known as Governors, ensure the Foundations’ charitable objects are still observed; two of their number are direct descendants of two of the first trustees some 350 years later.
Short biographies of the current Governors, our Patron, the Master of the Foundation and our Bailiff are attached here
The first charitable Foundation provided for the building of what was then known as’ The Hospital’ or ‘Almshouses’ for the housing of ‘poor widows or poor spinsters’ and the Master’s House. The first lady residents would walk along the pathway, today called the Breadwalk, to collect their daily bread. The buildings were further developed during the 18th century to become the handsome Court of Lady Katherine Leveson overlooking a lawned courtyard.
Today, men as well as women are welcomed as residents to what has become the Lady Katherine Housing & Care Home, with its residential ensuite rooms and independent retirement living flats, each with their own front door, all fully modernised to meet 21st century standards within the listed Court.
The second foundation endowed a free school for twenty ‘poor boys’ from Balsall established originally within the Old School room in the Master’s House at Temple Balsall and which is now the separate Lady Katherine Leveson Church of England Primary School teaching both girls and boys.