Stuart

Timeline

Health

Tudor

Plague

Doctors and Hospitals

Greyfriars

Almshouses

Workhouses

Plagues

The plague visited Reading three times in the early seventeenth century, in 1608, 1625 and 1638. By this time the town was very overcrowded and there was no system of getting rid of rubbish. Anything that was not wanted, rubbish, dirt and worse was thrown into the street where it might run down the middle of the street in the gutter or might be removed by the scavenger who the council employed.

At this time no-one realised that the plague was carried by the black rat, and so no measures were taken to kill these rats. If someone in a house was found to have the plague, they had to stay in their house for five weeks so that the plague could not be spread. This of course, did not stop the rats moving from house to house. Searchers were sent out into the town to find those who had the plague and those who had died, as many families tried to hide the fact that someone was ill. Some of those that had the plague were removed to the Pest House which was in Conduit Close off Whitley Street, which was an isolation hospital where those with the plague were kept away from everyone else.