THE Hospital of St Cross has been hailed as one of the top ten ‘homes and gardens’ in the country.

The almshouse has been chosen as part Historic England’s campaign to highlight the glories of England and best tell our national story.

TV presenter George Clarke judged the homes and gardens category from hundreds of public nominations in Historic England’s campaign A History of England in 100 Places.

The hospital, established in 1132, is the oldest almshouse still in existence and one of England’s oldest charitable institutions.

They have been described by the writer Simon Jenkins as “England’s most perfect almshouses”. After the dissolution of the monasteries only a few almshouses remained, making this survival even more important. The Hospital of St Cross still houses people today and almshouses across the UK provide accommodation for around 35,000 people, making this piece of history as relevant today as it was hundreds of years ago.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “The history of our homes and gardens is the story of how we and our ancestors lived and George Clarke has chosen 10 fascinating places in this category. From the earliest form of social housing, to the home of our monarch and even to Brutalist streets in the sky which took people away from the degradation of the slums, these 10 places play an important role in telling the social history of England.”

Mark Hews, group chief executive of Ecclesiastical Insurance, which has sponsored the initiative, said: “Places such as the Almshouses of St Cross, Winchester, are not necessarily places that come to mind when you think of England’s homes and gardens but they are an irreplaceable part of our modern heritage and it is right that they are represented in this list alongside Windsor Castle and Blenheim Palace.”

Country gardens and stately homes will always have a place in the hearts of the English but what is really interesting about this list is how many of these places represent really significant social change.

The other nine homes and gardens chosen by Mr Clarke were:

* Windsor Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in the world;

* Birkenhead Park, Merseyside: from 1847, the first publicly-funded park in the world;

* Park Hill Flats, Sheffield: Built in the late 1950, Park Hill’s “streets in the sky", a ground-breaking council estate;

* Post-war prefabricated bungalows, Moseley, Birmingham: Still lived in 70 years on, as a testament to and symbol of post-war recovery, innovation and optimism for a brighter future;

* Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire: Ancestral home of the Dukes of Marlborough;

* Port Sunlight, Wirral: Planned model village for factory workers;

* Great Somerford Free Gardens and Allotments, Wiltshire: the oldest continuously cultivated allotments in England;

* RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey;

* Osborne House, East Cowes, Isle of Wight.