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Travelling across Europe like an invisible wall of death, the bubonic plague arrived in East Anglia in 1348. Within one year two thirds of the population were dead. Thriving, healthy communities were destroyed, leaving timber buildings to rot away, and disappear forever; victims of the silent killer. The plague was nicknamed The Black Death due to the blackening of the blood under the victims skin, and was often accompanied by inflammatory boils and weeping pustules. It was a vile disease, causing a very unpleasant death. Plague pits were dug outside towns, and villages, to dispose of thousands of rotting corpses. Many of these sites are currently hidden on modern maps, and could exist anywhere. Of further interest is the effect The Black Death had on the countries
clergy, and holy men. Monasteries were isolated and intimate spaces, which
were perfect for the disease to spread. Following the subsidence of the
plague it became obvious that new priests would have to be found, and
hastily employed. This meant badly qualified, under trained and unreasonable
men were allowed into positions to which they were not suited. Darkling Room 2007: http://www.darklingroom.co.uk |