The Plague and the Great Fire of London

1
The Plague and the Great Fire of London
Task Read the information sheets then match the
heads and tails of the sentences together.
April 14th 1666 The plague has spread quickly
through the city. Some people believe it is
spread by May 23rd 1666 Another house was
boarded up in our street today. I watched as a
red cross was painted on the door. I think this
is because June 15th 1666 Today I visited my
cousins house and saw for myself what happened to
people when they catch the plague. July 11th
1666 Today hundreds of cats and dogs were being
rounded up in our area of the city. This is
because August 6th 1666 London is like a
ghost city, I now have to walk miles to buy my
daily food supplies because September 2nd 1666
Awoke to a burning smell this morning and looked
out of my window to see the streets on fire!
People are saying that the fire started
because.. September 3rd 1666 People have been
busy trying to stop the fire from spreading any
further through the city. Some of the ways they
have fought the fire are September 4th 1666
The wind dropped slightly today, but it was not
enough to stop St Pauls Cathedral from being
burnt. The houses in Tower Street are being blown
up, it is hoped that this will

• they do not want people to go into the house in
  case they catch the plague as well.
• people think that dogs and cats are spreading
  the plague.
• many people have died so lots of shops in the
  area have had to close.
• a bakers oven got too hot.
• to fill buckets up with water and throw it on
  the flames and pull down houses before the fire
  reaches them.
• bad air or by God who is punishing people for
  being sinful.
• first they catch a fever, then they shiver and
  black lumps appear on their bodies.
• make a fire-break and stop the fire from
  spreading.

2
The Plague 1665

• In 1665 the Plague struck England once again.
  This Plague was known as the bubonic plague,
  because of the large black lumps or buboes
  which appeared in the victims armpits or groin.
  Nowadays we know that the Plague was spread by
  the fleas that lived in the fur of black rats.
  One flea bite was enough to kill a man. At first
  the victim went through great suffering.
• He would develop a fever which caused him to
  shiver violently. Some sufferers had sneezing
  fits others were horribly sick all victims had
  a rash of pink spots on their skin.
• People in 1665 did not know how the plague was
  spread. Some thought it was a punishment sent by
  God for people who had led sinful lives. Others
  believed it was caused by bad smells (miasma) in
  the air and some believed it was spread by cats
  and dogs.
• The Lord Mayor of London gave special order
• Any house containing a plague sufferer had to be
  sealed up for 40 days until the person was dead
  or better
• The door of the house had to be marked with a red
  cross and the words Lord have mercy on us!
• Searchers were appointed to examine each corpse
  for 1½p per body to find out the cause of death.
• Public entertainments were stopped
• All cats and dogs were to be caught and killed
• Fires were lit in the streets
• Bodies had to be buried after dark
• The churchyards could not cope with all the
  bodies so huge plague pits had to be dug and
  wagons unloaded the bodies into them at night.
  Thousands of people fled to the country to try
  and escape the disease. In London the streets
  became quiet no horses, no coaches. Shops
  closed, grass grew in the streets. Mostly it was
  a city for the sick and dead.

3
The Great Fire of London 1666

• London. September 2nd 1666. There are still some
  deaths from the plague but life is getting back
  to normal. It is the early hours of Sunday
  morning. Londoners are asleep. They do not know
  that another disaster is just beginning
• A baker called Thomas Farriner awoke to find his
  house on fire. His oven had got too hot and
  burning embers had leapt out and set his house
  alight. Farriner, his wife and their daughter
  manage to escape through an upstairs window. His
  maid is frightened of falling into the street and
  will not follow them. She burns to death in the
  blazing house. She is the first casualty of the
  Great Fire of London.
• The fire spread quickly through the streets
  because the timber framed houses were built
  tightly in together and it had been a long hot
  summer so the wood was very dry and burned
  easily. People were terrified. They dragged their
  goods from their houses. Some piled them up on
  wagons others put them on boats and sailed
  across the River Thames to escape the flames.
• The King ordered Houses to be pulled down to make
  fire-breaks. But people did not want to lose
  their homes so often they were pulled down at the
  last moment. By then it was too late. The pile of
  timber and plaster just caught alight too.
• The water pumping house at London Bridge burnt
  down early on so the fire fighters soon found
  they had run out of water. Throughout Monday the
  fire burned on. The evening sky was so light it
  was like daytime. A huge cloud of smoke, 90
  kilometres long, drifted over the city. The fire
  burnt on for days. Finally the wind began to drop
  and by Friday 7th September it had died out.