The thought of leper colonies inspires images of Biblical times and hordes of “the unclean”, cast into enclosures separate from the general populace. The fact that the World Health Organisation (WHO) is still confronting the disease may surprise many.
Information about leprosy in the United Kingdom is hard to come by. Globally, it is clear that leprosy is not yet a thing of the past. As recently as 1992 the Catholic Church was running 793 leper colonies or leprosariums worldwide. At the end of the year 2000, the number of registered sufferers of leprosy was 600,000; over 60 percent of those were in India. Brazil followed with 13 percent and Madagascar, Mozambique, Myanmar and Nepal all had significant levels of the disease.
Closer to home, there were leprosariums in the United Kingdom at least as recently as the mid-17th century. On Guernsey there were no fewer than three. One of the colonies was situated at the end of Perelle Bay, on the west coast, a site known for its surfing today.
In the shadow of Great Torrington in North Devon, on the River Torridge, lies the hamlet of Taddiport. The name is derived from toad pit or toad gate, toad referring to leper. There was a leper colony in Taddiport from the 13th to the mid-17th century. Two strip fields, known locally as leper fields, remain just outside of the settlement. They are the remnants of an extensive medieval strip field system, in which the lepers grew food.
The church of St Mary Magdalen bears witness to the past, in 1418 it was mentioned in the Registers of the Bishops of Exeter as a leper hospital. It is one of several St Mary Magdalen chapels in the Diocese, all of which were leper hospitals. The hospital building is near the village hall and was designed to look after three patients at any time. The church is small, basic in design and barely stands out from the surrounding buildings. It is difficult to spot looking down the valley, from Great Torrington. There is a Norman window set in one wall, below which there used to be a five feet tall door.
The church, land and hospital were made part of a charity, initially to fund them for the use of lepers. By the mid-17th century there were no longer any lepers in Taddiport, Tristram Arscott was the owner of the land and buildings and he consented to their use by the poor. The charity stipulated that the buildings must be maintained and that any profit could be split annually, between the parishes of Great and Little Torrington. Land rent formed much of the income and what remains today is distributed to invalids and the old at Christmas.
Close to the church, a medieval bridge stands over the river, alongside an ancient river ford. Under one of the arches of the bridge there used to be a small alms doorway, concealing a space, where people crossing the river could leave food or gifts, without having to see the lepers.
The paucity of historical information in and around the Great Torrington area, may stem from the dramatic events of February 16th 1646. The Battle of Great Torrington, part of the English Civil War, took place between the Royalists and Cromwell’s forces. It was a pivotal encounter, swinging the balance of the war in favour of Cromwell. At 2 a.m. a fire broke out, destroying the church in Great Torrington. The church was being used as a makeshift prison and a gunpowder store. 167 men perished in the fierce blaze that followed. As is still common today, the church was a major repository for local records; births, marriages, deaths and other parish information. Many of these records were thought to be lost in the fire.
According to the WHO, the worldwide eradication of leprosy is attainable by 2005. In leprosariums around the world, victims are still being disfigured, shunned and left to die. It is rumoured that a government sells WHO provided medications, on its black market, to those who can afford to stay healthy, rather than give them to the sick. Three and a half centuries after the disease last cast its shadow across the waters of the Torridge, the battle is not yet won.
Copyright Jason Hargreaves 2010
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