GreenwichVisitor THE
April 2014 Page 16
1635: AND THE DREADED PLAGUE HITS GREENWICH AGAIN THE first recorded instance of the plague in Greenwich was in 1530 although it is highly likely that – in common with the rest of the country – there had been numerous earlier outbreaks. At that time the plague victims were simply evicted from the town to try to prevent the infection from spreading. Plague probably visited Greenwich again in 1563, 1593/94 and 1603 when there were outbreaks in neighbouring parishes.
Pest House
IT’S an urban myth that Blackheath got its name because victims of The Plague were buried under the Heath..but few people know that just a few hundred yards away a burial ground DID exist. Historian David Whittaker tells the story
In 1625/26, 154 people in Greenwich died of the epidemic, and in 1630 at least 75. By this time a more humane approach was being taken, with the victims forcibly confined to their homes until Parish officials were sure any danger of infection had passed. By this
point some or all of the occupants of the house could have perished. The Parish was responsible for providing victims with food, fuel and medicine during the period of incarceration. An outbreak in 1635 was considered to warrant the construction of a Pest House – a type of isolation hospital for those with the plague, and other contagious diseases. It was partly paid for by a grant of £40 from King Charles I, although it is not clear why he did this. No pictures exist, but from Parish accounts we know it was built of brick and
timber and plastered, with inner and secure outer doors, and was heated with coal. Access was probably by a trackway from Blackheath Hill, which was the first part of the modern road to be constructed. The site of the Pest House was roughly where Dutton Street is today. A relatively small number – about 20 – died in the 1635/36 outbreak. Only six or seven victims would have been accommodated in the Pest House at a time – the preferred means of quarantine was still to secure people in their own homes. The Parish employed three types of officials to assist with treatment of victims: Searchers examined the living and dead for symptoms of the disease, and would remove possessions and clothing that may be a source of infection and burn it on the edge of Blackheath. Vi c t i m s o r r e l a t i v e s w e r e compensated for anything destroyed this way, the items having been valued beforehand. Searchers were not allowed to live in their own homes – some would stay with victims and others at the Pest House. Warders combined the roles of watchmen and odd job men – they cleared people from the streets before a burial and carried the searchers from place to place. Visitors would be allocated one or more victims’ homes to look after. The Pest House’s Rules and Orders required children to be taught to read, for care of the sick, for church attendance and religious education, for the cleanliness of the premises and the inmates, and the prevention of drunkenness, immoral and indecent behaviour. Close by the Pest House, to the west, was The Burying Ground, though it is only shown on two maps, including one from 1739. How many were buried there is not known. The Great Plague of 1665 London also affected Greenwich badly. 840 people died in the Parish; local records for this period are not as extensive as those for earlier outbreaks. Samuel Pepys documented his stay in Greenwich that year – his diary notes an unburied body lying in the streets. The Pest House had fallen into disuse by 1766 and was demolished to make way for the new Greenwich Workhouse. Whether those buried there were exhumed and reinterred, I do not know. However, my advice to those living in Dutton Street is not to dig too deeply in the back garden...
The Pest House ISOLATED: Similar Pest House in Finsbury
COTTAGES: Dutton Street today
‘Victims of the Plague were burried just to the west of the brick and timber isolation building. Were their bodies ever moved? I don’t know. But if you live in Dutton Street don’t dig too deep in your back garden’ BIGGER: Greenwich Workhouse following expansion, 1800
tales of misery in new workhouse BUILDING and managing workhouses was the responsibility of the local Parish or Parishes – they were for people who had no other means of support, including the poor, the old, infirm and single woman with children born out of wedlock. Conditions varied from place to place, but were harsh to discourage people from adding to the drain on public money. The new Greenwich Workhouse was built on the north side of Maidenstone Hill, partly on the site of the Pest House, by that time in a “ruinous” condition, and adjacent land to the south, leased from The Crown in 1765 for one shilling (5p) a year, then purchased in 1799 for £53 17s 6d (£53 87.5p). The site
straddled what is now Dutton Street. In 1783 there were 306 men, women and children, with the Workhouse Mistress reporting four or five children were sharing a bed. By 1798, to ease the overcrowding, the building had been enlarged. It included a five-storey main with cellar and attic, a separate building for spinning and wool storage, four external “privy” blocks, and gardens and yards. Although the main block faced Maidenstone Hill, the rear part of the site abutted an embankment which overlooked gardens and, further away, the town itself. The perimeter walls were topped with “flint glass” and the gates with spikes in
order to try to prevent escapes. Able-bodied adult inmates had to work for the Parish and the Royal Navy. This included picking oakum – taking apart old ropes – to be reused in shipbuilding for the Navy, or mending roads for the Parish. The Workhouse also ran a mop-making and clothing business, which included spinning the yarn from wool on the site. At one point staff included a mistress: Salary £25 5s per annum; a superintendant of spinning yarn £8 8s; his assistant who also read prayers on £8 8s; and a beadle £25, with duties extended beyond the Workhouse. The regime could be harsh: In 1788, for escaping over the wall, a William Godfrey
was “tied to the whipping post in the yard, stripped naked from the middle upwards and whipped by the Beadle till his back bloody.” However, after his punishment, Godfrey applied to be released and was given a pair of shoes and a shirt on request. Workhouse Committee papers from 1827 record that a Mary Warren, aged 25, and her illegitimate son James, aged 4 months, were taken for a short time into the “house” before being discharged and given money to buy clothes. The building remained until at least 1841, when the Census noted only two remaining residents, a gardener and his wife; the site was sold off in the same year.