The Plague In the middle of the 14th century the people of England could have
been forgiven for thinking that the fourth horsemen of the apocalypse was riding
by, for the country was struck by a dreadful pestilence which had swept Europe
from Central Asia. It arrived on the south coast in the summer of 1348 and began
spreading along the roads, lanes and waterways of England. Sunderland is
situated at the mouth of the River Wear and is one of the principal waterways in
the North East England. Two types of pestilence were involved: bubonic and
pneumonic plague.
Bubonic plague was spread by rats and its symptoms were purple blotches or
buboes which appeared on it's victims, putrefied and then burst. Pneumonic
plague was spread by direct contagion, this affected the lungs and was more
deadly, often killing within a couple of days. The Black Death killed of at
least 20per cent of England's population. The inhabitants of Wearside did not
escape, the plague arrived in 1349.
Cholera Sunderland became notorious as a result of the Asiatic Cholera outbreak
which occurred in late 1831. Sunderland was the first place in Britain affected
by this the first such outbreak in the nations history and became an object of
much ridicule for the way in which it handled the crisis.
The well known diarist, Charles Greville wrote that: 'The conduct of the people
of Sunderland was more suitable to the barbarism of the interior of Africa than
to a town in a civilized country'. It is probable that the first victim was a
river pilot called Robert Henry, but the first person to display the classic
symptoms in it's extreme form, severe diarrhoea, vomiting and cramp was a 12
year old girl. Isabella Hazard the famous 'Blue Girl' who died on 17th October.
There were 5344 cases of cholera on Wearside in 1831 and early 1832 of which 202
ended in death. Understandably the problem was most acute in the parish of
Sunderland, 156 of those who perished were residents of the parish. Special
ground was set aside in an extension of Bishopwearmouth burial ground on Hind
Street near the infirmary for the burial of victims.
Flu The most lethal epidemic to hit Sunderland was surprisingly flu. A deadly
strain of influenza appeared on Wearside in 1918. In less than a week 8,000
cases of the disease had been notified and the following week the death rate was
91.2 per thousand the highest ever recorded in Sunderland.
