A veteran member of a secular order of elderly men who carry out charitable work has been touring the UK coast only by public bus.

Brother John, 85, a resident of The Hospital of St Cross in Winchester, has just completed the South West leg of his eight-week mission to travel the entire UK coastline using only local buses — including stops in Launceston, Exeter, Tiverton, Taunton, Penzance and Truro, and many more, with Stagecoach South West support.

His journey is to raise awareness and funds for The Hospital of St Cross, the oldest continuously operating almshouse in the UK (founded in 1132), ahead of its 900th anniversary in 2032. Brother John and his fellow residents are not monks, although they have religious beliefs and their home was founded by a bishop.

Brother John said of his long trip: “The people were generous, the buses were reliable, and the scenery? Breathtaking.”

Brother John is known for his bookbinding skills, volunteer work and boundless energy, The King, as president of the Almshouse Association, the Bishop of Winchester and HM Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire have all offered their good wishes.

The Hospital of St Cross was founded between 1132 and 1136, England’s oldest charitable institution, to support thirteen poor men too frail to work, and to feed 100 hungry men at the gates each day. The thirteen men became the Brothers of St Cross. They are not monks and St Cross is not a monastery but a secular foundation. Medieval St Cross was endowed with land, mills and farms, providing food and drink for a large number of people.

In the fifteenth century, Cardinal Beaufort created the Order of Noble Poverty, adding the almshouse, where the brothers live, to the existing hospital buildings.

More details and a donation link here: https://hospitalofstcross.co.uk/brother-on-a-bus