Links between the bubonic plague of the 14th century and St Michael’s Church and Waytemore Castle, Bishop’s Stortford
As we enter however one more 12 months residing with Covid-19, Mike James, a member of the Castle Park archaeology team, seems at the hyperlinks involving two Bishop’s Stortford landmarks and a pandemic of approximately 700 a long time back…
The rapid unfold of Covid-19’s Omicron variant has been depressing, but we are terribly well-knowledgeable about it and guarded by vaccination as a result of the swift advancements of science.
Practically 7 generations ago, in 1348-49, a further pandemic unfold westwards into the Uk, with awful implications – inhabitants mortality in Europe and the Uk was 30-40% (Covid’s is ‘only’ .25%).
The results in of the bubonic plague were being then unidentified and there had been no treatments, though lots of were being tried. The survivors could only thank God for sparing them – they need to have felt blessed. But who can guess at the repercussions of living via these types of an enormity?
1 critical survivor was Ralph de Stratford, the Bishop of London amongst 1339 and 1354. Bishop’s Stortford was the Bishop of London’s from Saxon periods (604 Ad). It would seem obvious that the 1st Stortford church was Saxon, currently being replaced by a Norman building when the Normans arrived, then outmoded by the present-day St Michael’s. But just about no physical proof for this sequence exists the earliest record for the current church is 1431.
A shorter walk from St Michael’s, the far better documented Waytemore Castle was also established by a Bishop of London, a Norman, in the 1080s. Local villages owed ‘castle guard’ to develop and manage it.
In 1346, just right before the plague arrived, Waytemore below Bishop Ralph was at its top. A licence to crenellate – give it with battlements – was granted by Edward III and it was in very good fix.
The castle precinct housed the constable (William Attewood), the bishop’s prison and a chapel devoted to St Paul – correct due to the fact St Paul was a Roman prisoner. The castle’s continues to be are flint and mortar, but its crenellations, window surrounds, doorways and methods, like St Michael’s nowadays, would have been stone.
When JL Glasscock, the builder and historian, investigated the castle keep’s ruins in 1899, no masonry was observed – presumably salvaged for reuse in other places. Limestone does not arise in this spot, so it had to be expensively carted in: perhaps Ralph decided to boost his church as very well at the similar time as his castle?
In 1352, in thanksgiving for his survival, the bishop established a chantry in his chapel of St Paul to pray endlessly for his and the Queen’s souls. But St Michael’s displays a substantially increased simple financial commitment – in time, dollars and substance. It would have taken various years to establish, by hand, getting completed just after the plague experienced subsided, just before 1431.
We can surmise that today’s church, much greater than its Norman predecessor, represents in component – like his chantry – a many thanks supplying from Bishop Ralph and the surviving Stortford inhabitants for their defense from the plague, as perfectly as a plea for their upcoming.
A Countrywide Lottery Heritage Fund donation is supporting Castle Park renovation and local community archaeology. Pay a visit to https://friendsofcastlepark.net to discover out additional.
