Cranmer Farm still exists today in the village of Walsham--farming continues on the same acreage as it was done during the medieval period by William Cranmer when the plague hit in 1349 and claimed the lives of so many of his family members
An etching of the 1348 plague ravaging Florence, inspired by Boccaccio’s The Decameron. The bubonic plague – also known as the Black Death – is estimated to have wiped out 60 – 80% of Florence’s population between 1348 and 1351. Image credit: Wellcome Collection.The bubonic plague pandemic of 1348 England killed off a third of its population. As many as three generations of men were killed, allowing a single male heir, sometimes a woman, to inherit property from multiple peasant farms, making them more economically sound and increasing their wealth.
The bubonic plague was caused by a bacterium, Yersinia pestis, previously unknown to 14th century English. The black ‘buboes,’ which were used to describe the pestilence in the 17th century as the Black Death, emerged in the area close to where the bacterium entered the body. Contact with donated clothes after the death of a family member spread the plague like wildfire.
