It is surprising how much information can be gleaned from parish records concerning health and welfare. For example, in the latter half of the 18th and early part of the nineteenth centuries, those who were too poor to pay for medical treatment when ill, applied to the Overseers of the Poor and bills were settled out of the Poor Rate. The detailed accounts record these payments, together with the patient's name and, in many cases, the nature of the illness. There was no resident doctor, so those who required treatment were tended by doctors from Basingstoke or Whitchurch. One of the doctors who visited the sick in North Waltham in the late eighteenth century, was a friend of Jane Austen's family who were living nearby in Steventon at the time.

Burial registers sometimes give the cause of death, especially when it resulted from something out of the ordinary, and frequently comments concerning the death were written in the margins. The mortality rate for babies and children was very high. However, if they were fortunate enough to survive their early years, barring accidents, people generally lived to a good age, although arthritis and rheumatism aggravated by working out of doors, poor nutrition and basic living conditions, must have affected their quality of life. The Black Death is almost certainly the first epidemic which North Waltham as a community would have experienced and this is dealt with more fully in the chapter concerning Population and People. Sometimes the lack of entries in a register can give important information. In 1665-6, when the Plague devastated London and other parts of the country, North Waltham remained unscathed. Only one burial is recorded for that historic year and no reason for the cause of death was reported. Nearby, Basingstoke was severely affected by this epidemic and the Churchwarden's Accounts for the town state that:

"The Plague broke out in 1666 and there were upwards of 80
knells recorded"

In 1798, Mr Covey, a physician, was paid £17. 15. 6d for

"tending Mary Serle and 6 children in the smallpox."

It is not clear whether they were Mary Se(a)rles children, but it appears that they all survived the disease as there are no entries for them in the burial registers and no coffins were provided from the Poor Rates. There was, however, no happy ending for Mary Biggs and in 1784 as she died of smallpox at the age of sixteen. Mary was from one of the wealthier village families but such infections affected all classes of society. In her time, Queen Elizabeth I had allegedly been a victim and her face was scarred for life. As well as the Plague, Basingstoke suffered smallpox epidemics on quite a large scale; one of the mayors fell victim and died of it during an especially severe outbreak.

It is possible that North Waltham mostly escaped when places nearby were stricken, for two reasons. Firstly, it was a very self contained village and its self-sufficiency, together with the appalling state of the roads, meant that people travelled only when there was a real need. The centre of the village was "by-passed" then, as it still is by the A30 (the Roman road from Winchester to Silchester), thus making it a little off the beaten track for travellers, who may have been carrying disease. With the services of the Wheatsheaf, and later the Sun and Flowerpots to hand, casual visitors would have had no need to come into the village itself. Secondly, the number of wells, the depth of the water and the nature of the bed-rock, assured a plentiful and clean supply of water all year-round.

Its isolation was not sufficient to prevent an outbreak of scarletina in 1855. Nine children and one adult died of it between the months of July and November. A total of 19 parishioners were buried here that year, 13 of them children and it must have been a time of great sadness and anxiety in the community. The word "Scarletina" is written beside the appropriate entries in the burial register and there would surely have been others afflicted who survived. By this time, the Union Poor Houses had been established and with the changes in the giving of relief to the poor, specific details are not recorded in parish records.

Accidents were commonplace, and those working on the land were particularly vulnerable. "Accidentally shot himself", "accidentally burne'd", "died with a load of chalk falling on him" appear in the burial registers as the cause of death for some unfortunate villagers. In 1772, there is an account in the Hampshire Chronicle of an accident in Popham Lane in which a horse and cart turned over and the young driver broke both thighs. "Died drunk" is also recorded as a reason for death and in 1872, William Bennett, simply "dropped down dead".

Some unspecified cause of death resulted in four children being buried on April 3rd 1798, three of whom were from the same family. This must have been a terrible tragedy for Thomas Waldron and his wife Elizabeth; of their ten children baptised in North Waltham, only four survived beyond childhood. The coffms for the dead children were paid for from the Poor Rate and cost 21/=. A further 1 1/6d was spent on the burials. Later that year, Thomas himself was ill and received payment from the same source.

In 1879, the Sun Public House was the scene of a sad incident. On February 10th, the following entry appears in the burial register:

"Thomas Brown, found dead in an outhouse. Supposed to come from Wootton Bassett, Wilts. Note: this man proved to belong to Wootton Bassett, Wilts, his true name being James Colley, about 48 years."

An extract from the report of the inquest in the Basingstoke Gazette for February 15th 1879, explains the affair in more detail:

"It seems the deceased had been lying about in stables and outhouses in a most destitute state. On Thursday he went to the Sun and complained of being unwell. The Landlady gave him some warm milk which appeared to do him good. He afterwards went out into the stables where he was found in a lifeless condition."

William Redding was buried in 1686, his death being qualified by the statement "a vagrant, very aged". Again in 1804 an entry states baldly:

"May 12th, Mary Cox, pauper, who died in Wright's barn."

In the Poor Rate accounts there is a little more information about Mary Cox:

"Cox, Mary. Traveller at Mr Wright's buried, 27/="

The entry also mentions that she was laid out by the wife of Philip Lewington and that an inquest was held. These sad incidents must be illustrative of many others and for anyone who was destitute and then became ill, the outlook must have been extremely bleak.

As far as women were concerned, childbirth was one of the greatest hazards. Indeed, there are many entries recording cases where mother and baby have been buried together or within a very short time of each other. Death of a baby at birth was very common and twins were especially vulnerable. The village always had a midwife who in addition to attending to the emergence of life, often dealt with the laying out of the dead. In 1794, Dame Love was paid 4/ = for delivering Ann May of a son, Joseph. Mrs Love received a further 5/3d for preparing her for burial, as she was one of the unfortunate ones who died, with her son, when he was born. Ann and her baby boy were buried together on August 29th. Ann's was a "colourful" life. She had several illegitimate children who were all supported by the "Parish" and a husband who was in prison.

Illegitimacy was a not infrequent occurrence in North Waltham and "base born" appears beside many entries through the centuries. In a few cases, the father's name is mentioned as well, but it was mostly the women who had to shoulder the responsibility for their children.

The care of the sick and the dying was generally undertaken by the family, but in cases of need, others were paid to tend them. These carers were often widows or wives of men who were receiving financial help from parish funds and this system appears to have worked quite well . How the individuals concerned felt about it is not known. The medicines dispensed by the doctors who were called in appear to have been fairly simple and mostly comprise recommendations for administering port, brandy or food. "Medicine" of an unspecified nature is also mentioned and it is perhaps as well that patients were generally ignorant of what they were being prescribed! Hospitals in the area were built eventually and care for the sick who needed specialist treatment was undertaken in those establishments.

Home remedies would have been most commonly used and no doubt each family had its own preferred "cure" for such everyday afflictions such as general aches and pains, colds, constipation, tummy upsets and the like. If headaches were the problem, then the Batchelor Journals provided the following magic cure:

"A cure for the Head Ack - Take an Orange and quarter him in fower and take out the meate, then lay one quarter of the Piell to one Temple and another quarter to the other Tempel, the Redd side of the Piell next the Tempel".

(An early combination of aromatherapy and acupressure perhaps!) Other remedies from this fascinating book include treatment for a "Burne" and a "Resait for Cankered Teeth". The former involved egg white spread on the affected area; "worms" were thought to be the cause of the latter. If anyone wanted to destroy a rat using the Batchelor method, there is a recipe using such a lethal cocktail of poisons it could have wiped out not just rats but everyone in the village!

The following are typical entries from the Poor Rate accounts for North Waltham.

1776/7	Waterman Dr -Kewering John Knight	3/=
1785/6	Dame Allen - Bleeding	6d
1786/7	MrLyford - Bill for Goodchild's Hand	21/=
1804	Dr Workman - Bill for Beal's girls eyes	3/6d
1817/18	Lewis, Eliz (Betty) ointment for the itch - care by Dame Love 6/= - care by Martha Langridge 6/=
1818/19	Anon The Woman who fell sick August 26th	6/=

It is unfortunate that more documentation does not exist for the financially independent. Whilst they would have suffered most of the same illnesses at least a little more affluence gave them some degree of comfort. In the days of unsophisticated medical care "survival of the fittest" and good fortune must have determined the fate of many.

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First Posted March 2000 Copyright © Ann Lloyd 1998.

Acknowledgements