The Black Death

 1347-1351

The Black Death or Bubonic and Pneumonic plagues to give its proper names, was thought to have originally  started in China  and quickly found its way through Europe in the year 1347 and finally into England in the first part of 1348.

It is probably through the Port of Southampton that the Black Death arrived to these shores,  and quickly spread throughout England

Between 1347-51 the clergy of Winchester lost 48.8% to the plague.

In 1349 the manor of  Padworth  was devastated by the Plague. By April of that year there were 64 clergy appointments,  the Basing Deanery was hit particularly hard. In 1350 Monk Sherborne Priory was shown in “desolation” through lack of income.

The plague finally subdued in 1351, but would return in later centuries. It is estimated that 25million of the population of Europe between 1347 and 1351 succumbed to the plague  and  1000 villages disappeared.