The Plague

In the middle of the 17th Century the great plague swept across England and many thousands of lives were lost. Basingstoke began to be affected in the year 1665 and the outbreak reached it's height in the middle of the following year. The Plague struck at all levels of the population, from the worker to the aristocrat, no one was safe. Sometimes whole families were wiped out in one swoop. In September 1665 Basingstoke had it's first death due to the plague. In the following year, 1666, John Puckeridge, who ran an ale house, died and was buried in the month of August. Along with him, all four of his daughters also died, and then in September his wife also died of the plague.

   There were 67 burials in the town between May and November of 1666, 44 as a result of the plague. In all there were 80 deaths in the town in 1666.

   Three Centuries earlier, Basingstoke had also been hit badly by the outbreak of the Black Death. In the year 1348 the disease spread from France to Britain, carried by rats. One third of the population of Basingstoke was killed off. The disease struck particularly hard at the working classes and within two years had killed half the population of Hampshire leading to a shortfall of manpower.