In view of the close relationship of the Hospital of St Cross with Winchester Cathedral, Bishop Fox, as Master of St Cross, visited northern France and his colleague Cardinal Georges d’Amboise and viewed the new renaissance style woodwork at Chateau Gaillon. He was so impressed that on his return new choir stalls were commissioned for the Hospital Chapel, probably by French joiners and carvers. By good fortune, they had survived with very little intervention throughout the centuries since their construction. However, age had taken its toll, and the stalls were generally conserved with minor repairs, but it had been found that the north and south rear stall had been switched in the 19th century, and these were reinstated in their original positions.
