Where the Hastings Road turns sharply and runs downhill to Pewes Marsh towards Icklesham the gable end of an old house is prominent at the corner. This is all that remains of St. John's, one of three hospitals, which were established in Winchelsea. These hospitals, in the charge of various religious authorities, were not for the sick but for the old and infirm.

As the Custumal of the town has it, if the Mayor shall find men or women "who have been in good love and fame all their time, and have neither chattels nor goods whereof to live, the said man or woman shall be sent into the said hospital, to take sustenance of the said brethren and sisters, without paying anything to the said hospital".