1940: Over 500 men between the ages of 20 and 23 registered for 'call-up' at the Peterborough Labour Exchange on this Saturday. Of these only five registered a conscientious objection. In the end 490 actually signed up. 64 with the Navy and 130 with the RAF. The rest offered no definite preference. Not surprisingly, bearing in mind the industrial landscape of Peterborough, there was more than the usual number of recruits who were in reserved occupations - mainly engineering. (Gray, David, Peterborough at War 1939-1945, David Gray, 2011)
Taken from The Peterborough Book of Days by Brian Jones, The History Press, 2014.
Founded before 1125, St Leonard's Hospital was a leper (or lazar) house supported through almsgiving by Peterborough Abbey. Leprosy was particularly prevalent at this time though such houses also provided for other categories of ill and destitute people. St Leonard’s became known as “The Spital”,Spital was a Middle English term used to describe a hospital or its endowed land.
It was still in existence in the 16th century and is assumed to have closed at the time of the dissolution of the monastery.
It was probably located close to the northern end of Peterborough railway station with its own cemetery to the west which is likely to have housed some of those who died from the plague. It gave its name to St Leonard’s Street which was the section of Bourges Boulevard which now runs past the station.
Associated with the hospital was a healing spring or well which was still documented in the mid 17th century.
The Black Death (or the Great Pestilence as it was known then) hit Peterborough in 1349. This terrible disease, now called bubonic plague after the enlarged lymph nodes (buboes) resulting from the infection, is caused by an organism called Yersinia pestis carried by the fleas on black rats, though at the time it was thought to have been caused by bad air known as 'miasma'.
Approximately a third of the townspeople and 32 of the 64 monks at the monastery perished in a matter of weeks, and many of those who died were buried in mass burial pits to the west of the town and in the burial ground of the leper hospital of St Leonard. A higher proportion of monks died perhaps because they were helping tend to the sick.
The plague returned to Peterborough on many occasions causing a great deal of death and suffering until the last outbreak in 1665.
The image shows the Triumph of Death by P. Bruegal (1562) inspired by the Plague.
Said to have been founded at the gates of Peterborough monastery, the Hospital of St Thomas the Martyr was originally named St Thomas of Canterbury. It was founded by Abbot William of Waterville (1155-75) and provided a hospital for the poor. Abbot Benedict completed the building between 1177 and 1194 and Abbot Acharius granted money from the chapel of St Thomas the Martyr (a huge draw to pilgrims and therefore a good source of income) to pay for the nuns who cared for the patients and to provide provisions for the sick. Many of the pilgrims visiting the abbey at this time would have been unwell, so this was a rather clever plan to use pilgrims' money to pay for the sick.
References:
'Hospitals: St Leonard & St Thomas Martyr, Peterborough', in A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 2, ed. R M Serjeantson and W R D Adkins (London, 1906), p. 162. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.... [accessed 12 July 2019].
A Peterborough Cathedral Timeline https://www.peterborough-cathedral.org.uk/history.aspx [accessed 12 July 2019]
A List of the Abbots of Peterborough https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbot_of_Peterborough [accessed 12 July 2019]
On 23 March 2020, Boris Johnson the Prime Minister announced a 'Stay at Home' order in response to the world wide corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In this order, publicised with the phrase Stay at Home, Protect NHS, Save lives, the UK public was told that they were only allowed to leave their homes for limited reasons, including food shopping, exercise once per day, medical need and travelling for work when absolutely necessary. Schools were shut to pupils, exceptions made only for vulnerable children and the children of essential workers.
Image: Center for Disease Control, USA. In public domain
Said to have been founded at the gates of Peterborough monastery, the Ho…