Plague and Dead Lane

Last week we had a quick look at disasters and plague houses in and around Loughborough. Today, a quick word on the plague house and some comments upon Dead Lane.

Following the death of Clemente Parsons and his son, Richard Harryman was paid eleven shillings to build the Pesthouse in The Rushes. Hewgh Foster provided either the foundation for the building, or the doorway and Nicholas Smith was paid five shillings for nails, and eighteen pennies for carrying stone to the house.

Of course, you know what I'm going to say next ... Nicholas Smith also died of the plague in May 1610.

Percy Davenport, author of that 1935 article on the plague, goes on to say that the Accounts of the Bridgemasters include an entry which indicates that they paid five shillings to have the Pesthouse taken down. Initially this sounds odd, but Percy establishes that this probably refers to a building that was already standing that was to be replaced by this new one that was currently being built. A later entry in the accounts shows that the building (whether this means the old one or the new one isn't quite clear) was sold to a John Marshall of Cossington for the sum of fifty shillings. Where exactly the Pesthouse was on The Rushes is not clear.

Next we learn that people buried at this time weren't given their own coffin, so one coffin was re-used time and time again. This particular coffin was made by Robert Joyner who was paid two shillings to make it.

As well as casting huge bells for churches and cathedrals, Taylors the bellfounders on Freehold Street, also make handbells, but I don't think they were responsible for making the handbell used during times of plague in Loughborough, as Nicholas Smithe was paid four shillings and sixpence for it. Besides, Taylors were not in Loughborough at the time.

And so to the topic of Dead Lane, or le Dede Lane, or le Dedlane, or Dedelane, as it has variously been known.

Percy suggests that the story of the origin of the street name, handed down from generation to generation of Loughborough folk, and even told by a respected school teacher to pupils of the Churchgate school in the 1890s, is an unlikely tale.

Percy thinks it's also unlikely that plague pits were dug along Dead Lane in the 17th century, and has not found any evidence that the ground had been consecrated. The street name goes back much further than this, and Percy goes on to quote five instances of mention of the name Dead Lane in old documents:

the oldest comes from a deed probably in the reign of Edward II, so between 1307 and 1327, in which it is recorded that Adam, the son of Ellias de Shathewelle, was granted land in Dede Lane.

in 1460 William Staunton rented a piece of land near Dede Lane from the Lord of the Manor, which land was adjacent to several tenements on Dede Lane itself

unscoured ditches on Dede Lane in 1486 led to a number of people being fined

in 1488 someone appears to be illegally living on le Dedlane

rentals paid to the Lord of the Manor in 1490 refer to le Dede Lane

So, there were people living on Dead Lane from times much earlier than the plague of 1609-1610, and even before the earliest mention of the plague in Loughborough, in 1515.

Percy's final comments are, well, either ironic, or poignant:

"I strongly hope that the suggestion which has recently been mooted, for changing the name of this old lane, will not be listened to by the Corporation."

Today, Dead Lane, which if I remember rightly, ran alongside the Shakespeare Street School, is no longer there, being covered by the ground level car parking area of The Rushes shopping centre.

The school at the top of Shakespeare Street 

The new build at the end of Shakespeare Street along which Dead Lane used to run

Dead Lane used to be on the left of what is now a ground level car park in The Rushes

Post Script
I've made this post into a video. Here's the link: https://youtu.be/nBPzHBD8QlA

Dyer, Lynne (2017). Disasters in Loughborough! Available from:  https://lynneaboutloughborough.blogspot.com/2017/10/plague-and-dead-lane.html  [Accessed 22 October 2017]

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Lynne