Diane Calton Smith, author and historian, loves writing about Wisbech. She said that the place is such a rich source of inspiration. Fact or fiction she puts as much research into both her ‘history’ or ‘mystery’ titles about our local area and some of the people who lived here. This gives her books an authenticity of time and place.
Her latest title The Lazar House was based on the Mediaeval leper hospital. Leprosy was rife in the Middle Ages. Leper hospitals were often referred to as Lazar houses, named after the Biblical Lazarus.
Recognising the need for caring for the afflicted, the Church tried to offer assistance. Hospitals were usually for the support of travellers and pilgrims (i.e. hospitality), and infirmaries offered longer term care for the sick and infirm. These institutions needed generous donations to achieve their aims, but these were usually available as it could be seen as a way to relieve sins and spend less time in purgatory. As they were primarily ecclesiastical, not medical, there was a need to look after the soul, and a chapel was an integral part of the layout.
There were laws setting out how lepers could dress and behave. They had to be recognisable to the general population, as a precaution to contagion, as it was known how infectious the disease was. Having just gone through the years of Covid, this struck a chord with the audience.
It is known that there was a leper house on the boundary of Wisbech and Elm in the 12th century, however, its exact location is as yet unfound. However, there are tantalising clues. Diane told us how there is Mediaeval stonework within the Peckover House cellars, and the field between the Nene and Leverington was known as Spital-field (from hospital). A wonderful model of the imagined Wisbech Leper Hospital was available for close-up viewing.
‘The Lazar House’ is set in 1339, at the time of Edward III and Diane took us through a typical day from pre-dawn, through the seven services to compline. We all imagined ourselves as lay brothers or sisters living a ‘day in the life’, working under the instruction of the Master of the Hospital. There would also be an experienced monk, university trained in the use of medicines (yes, we all thought of Cadfael!). There was no cure for leprosy, but there were options to assuage sores and pain.