Maggie Thomas, Ella Carter & Dr Ann Pulsford The Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom The Laboratory, Citadel Hill, Plymouth, PL1 2PB
The 1831 Cholera outbreak started in Sunderland, from a ship carrying sailors with cholera from the Baltic. From there the disease spread to other UK towns and cities.
In 1832, Devon’s cholera deaths were second only to London. The railways carried visitors to the county from infected areas and poor sanitation spread cholera in drinking water. The disease spread from ports like Plymouth, where infected sailors came ashore.
1832 Tavistock 1849 in the time of Plympton 1832
Cholera arrived in Underwood, Plympton, on 13 July 1832, when Mellania Thorn visiting from Plymouth died of the disease. 10% of the population of Underwood, Plympton died in the outbreak.
DEVON Exeter Bere Ferrers
Plymouth Tavistock
Noss Mayo Plymouth 1832 | 1849 | 1866
In 1849 Cholera in Plymouth killed 1800—more than the 1134 victims in 1832. The disease spread rapidly through the overcrowded parts of Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse. A cholera hospital was built in Devonport. Hospital ships were required for a further epidemic of cholera in 1866. They were rented from the Royal Navy to use as isolation hospitals in a bid to contain the disease.
Bere Ferrers 1849
The parish registers from Bere Ferrers record 143 deaths from the 1849 cholera epidemic, a large increase from the previous year. These outbreaks decimated small communities.
Noss Mayo & Newton Ferrers 1849
The isolated villages of Noss Mayo and Newton Ferrers were also infected in 1849, from a sailor carrying the disease. There were 50 deaths, and more than 200 villagers were infected. Some reports suggest that this was the source of the 1849 Plymouth outbreak. Assistant surgeon Stephen Bowden disinfected the entire village of Noss Mayo with Burne ’s Solution (‘chloride of zinc’) and managed to contain the disease.
The ‘Honour Oak’ tree in Whitchurch, commemorates the 1832 cholera outbreak in Tavistock. Money was le at the oak tree in exchange for food, as the town was quarantined. In 1849, there were 53 recorded cholera deaths and the victims are buried in the south-east ‘cholera corner’ of Dolvin Road cemetery, Tavistock.
Right: Graves at ‘Cholera Corner’ in Dolvin Rd cemetery,
Tavistock and the Honour Oak tree plaque. (Image: A. Pulsford)
Rebecca Henwood from Tavistock documented a vivid recollection of the 1849 cholera epidemic*. She le the town a er her neighbours in Exeter Road died of cholera and walked many miles with her three children to the mine where her husband worked. Her family slept in the engine house until it was safe to return to Tavistock.
*Western Morning News, 6 May 1911
Below: Bere Ferrers, one of the many a ected villages. (Images: A. Pulsford)
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