1665 AD - Great Plague, London Gossip

Like previous outbreaks, the occurrence of Plague in 1665 was at first regarded as an annual or at least periodic event which killed a few dozen of the people living in the most crowded conditions and then rapidly died down.

By June 1665 it was realised that that year's event would be as serious as the one of 1347-50 when over one quarter of the population of England was killed.

Quite detailed records exist of what occurred in London but not in the provinces. It is estimated that 110,000 died in the capital - about 30% of the London population and that is likely to have been repeated throughout the more populous parts of the country - with only the more isolated areas escaping.

No-one knows why it died out as suddenly as it started, and in fact never again caused more than a few deaths in GB after that date. May be it was because the house-dwelling black rat was replaced by the drain and sewer-dwelling brown rat - thus fewer rats actually lived in houses.

Over a long period of time the gradual improvements in civic and personal hygiene must have been of some importance.

Birmingham suffered from the Plague at this time but accurate figures are not available of how serious it was - we do know that a plague pit was opened for burials on Birmingham Heath (towards Bearwood) and the district became known as Pest Heath for at least 200 years.