Imagine Family and Friends Dying Around You and Nobody Knows Why: The Black Death - Story of Shrewsbury Pt. 9.
In 1349, Shrewsbury suffered like all other towns in England, from the ravages of the Black Death, which carried off a third of the population.Watch our video below, to learn more about the Black Death in the town of Shrewsbury, Shropshire, UK:
Crosses were painted on the doors of those houses where the plague had struck; and at night carts drove through the streets to carry away the dead, and bury them in mass graves.
Halfway up Grope Lane, where the rubbish bin now stands, used to be St. Martins Chapel.
It is believed that under this chapel was one of the three Plague pits that we had in the town.
Around 2,000 of the 9,500 Shrewsbury folk who succumbed to the black death -
are thought to be buried in the pit, but sadly all traces of the chapel are long gone,
and others were buried in Kingsland, on the other side of the river.
It was most likely carried by rat fleas living on the rats of the time.
It has been calculated that one-fourth of the population of Europe died, or 25,000,000 persons.
Yes. 25 million people are thought to have died in Europe alone!
There was no descent into savagery of the sort depicted at times in popular TV series,
such as the "Walking Dead".
Far from falling into social chaos, the inhabitants of districts from which all authority figures had fled, and, to which farmers and merchants no longer brought food, continued to work, bury the dead, and, even take economic advantage of the plague
by taking over the supply and sale of food and other essentials.
Historic Text: The Story of Shrewsbury, Robert Graves, Hardwick House, Ellesmere 1993, and www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history.
Plus, Grope Lane info from our Town Crier Martin Wood.
Coming soon. Peace and prosperity in Shrewsbury!
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