April 2008
TADS news
Burberry's Archivist
We were sorry to learn that David Quelch, a Director of Burberry's of London, had recently died. As reported in the July 2007 TADS Newsletter, David showed a party from TADS round the Burberry archives and collections in central London last May. He was particularly interested in the information we had concerning Major Roller of Tadley, who was a close friend of Thomas Burberry and one of the firms two illustrators.
Public Rights of Way map
Hampshire County Council have published a new definitive map showing the all the public paths and tracks in the county. The map can be seen at Basingstoke Library or online at http://whereilive.hants.gov.uk/rightsofway/webform1.aspx
What's on - local events
Hampshire Record Office
(Sussex Street, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8TH. Tel 01962 846154). The Record Office are now holding lunchtime lectures every Thursday from 1.15-1.45pm). For information see www3.hants.gov.uk/whatson-hro or ring 01962846154.
Exhibition - Quills to keyboards: the changing face of record keeping from Alfred the Great to the present day.
Basingstoke Archaeological & Historical Society
(7.30 pm, Church Cottage, Basingstoke.)
8th May Berkshire Iron Age Hill forts; their construction and use by Andrew Hutt of Berkshire Archaeological Trust
Friends of the Willis Museum
19 April: Its a Monk's Life, by Brother John Hodges
15 May: Upstairs, downstairs at Hackwood Park by Brian Spicer
Willis Museum exhibitions
Tooth & Claw A photographic exhibition focusing on Britain's predators at the Willis Museum
Milestones Museum
19 Jan to 20 April: Eating Creepy Crawlies. A special exhibition which delves into entomophagy, the consumption of bugs and mini-beasts. Discover some of the nutritional benefits and flavours of this alternative food source. (On loan from the Natural History Museum)
Sat 26 & Sun 27 April, 10am to 5pm Model Engineering Show.
Winchester Discovery Centre
Until 27 April: Alfred the Great, Warfare, Wealth & Wisdom. A major exhibition at the Winchester Discovery Centre, Jewry Street. For timed tickets Tel. 01962 840440. (I have been told this is well worth seeing - ed)
Last month's TADS meeting; March 2008
Death and Disease in Medieval London by John Lloyd
Boils, brucellosis, tumours, sweat, vomit, diarrhoea, abominable stenches, fumes, filth, tapeworms, amoebic dysentery, bore worms, fleas, flies, whipworms, rats, corpses of man and beast, dung, 2 donkey-width narrow streets, smallpox, VD, typhoid, bread ergotism (St Anthony's Fire disease from fungus on wheat), violence, accidents, childbirth, stillbirth, TB, bubonic and pneumonic plagues, septicaemia, etc. etc. ah, the joys of a vile medieval London!
Edward III (1312-77) agreed his capital was vile but didn't realise the dire smells were connected to disease.
14th Century London was largely confined within the walls of the Roman city: 448 acres heaving with 80,000 souls. Whole streets were confined to one trade or craft: their names but not the same smells, survive today. For example, leather boiling tanneries, wool and sheepskin processing caused 'a most disgusting stench.'
Apparently we share 65 diseases with dogs alone. Living cheek by jowl with the melting-pot of horrors above, saw an average life span of 35 years. You married (or not) at 15 but probably didn't live to see your grandchildren.
The 'rakers'(street cleaners) of the day raked street crossings in a vain attempt to cleanse smelly old London. They dodged effluent jettisoned from jettied house windows and streets swimming in every imaginable form of filth. The River Thames was London's lifeblood but also its open wound.
Physicians' hands were pretty much tied (and dirty!) by lack of knowledge and facilities, John said. The fact that families shared a bed, the floor or straw, and behaved in an uninhibited way, socially different from us, didn't help.
The various plagues and Black Death (1349) killed 40,000 Londoners (half the City's population). The brimming cemeteries and cataclysmic strife were partly caused by ships' Black Rat fleas and bodies were thrown into communal pits and covered with lime. One such pit was Houndsditch, a massive area just outside the City walls. Bun Hill (formerly 'Bone' Hill) was literally made of charnel house bones.
It is said you could avoid the plague by smoking, getting syphilis, or being in very close proximity of a HORSE, as Black Rat fleas can't abide horsey smells. Allegedly one Samuel Pepys, diarist of another era, avoided catching the great Plague because he smelled of horses, despite mixing VERY closely with lots of people...
Another horror of medieval London was the treatment of vagabonds, thieves, those causing an affray ('Fray'), petty criminals and felons. These poor souls were often tortured for minor offences: hanged, drawn and quartered; or burned at the stake; or boiled alive; or 'pressed' to death; or put in the stocks. Sometimes stocks' occupants were killed by exposure to the elements, asphyxiation or neglect. Their ears might be nailed to the pillory, etc. They were taunted by Londoners who just loved a good old public hanging etc. (often hangings were in batches of 24!).
So those were the medieval days. John said people did not CARE then.
Do we care today?
Thank you John, for your forcibly-put tales of pathos, death and disease in medieval London, meted out to 62 awestruck TADS' members.
Rosemary Bond
Page last updated: Sunday 18 May 2008