Plague Comes to Nottingham
It was in the year 1667, says Cornelius Brown in his book Notes About Notts (1874 p.3) that the plague came to Nottingham.
It is recorded, says Brown, that it made "a cruel desolation in the higher part of Nottingham, but very few died in the lower" - Especially in a street called Narrow Marsh, where it was observed that the infection had no power.
During the time that the plague raged, not one person who lived in Narrow Marsh is said to have died of it. This, says Brown, induced many of the richer sort of people to crowd there and hire lodgings at any price.
The immunity of the people in Narrow Marsh was said to be as a result of the effluvia of the tanner's ooze - there then being no fewer than 47 tanners yards in the area!
For details of how plague affected other communities in Nottinghamshire, click on the place name links below:-
Balderton
Cotgrave
East Stoke
Holme
Newark-on-Trent
Curative Humours in Nottingham
The power of 'tanner's ooze' in curing fever