The author, herself an inhabitant of the village of Littleham, became intrigued by a recurring date on the headstones in Littleham churchyard. She was driven to begin her research to try to discover what it was that linked the high number of deaths that had occurred in 1871. Even factoring in the high infant mortality rate that was the norm at the time, Liz began to wonder just what lay behind these deaths and the stories of the suffering that ensued.
Liz Shakespeare’s Style
The book is constructed in chapters that examine chronologically the sources that reveal the facts of what happened in Littleham back in the winter of 1870/71. These chapters of research are interspersed with ‘imagined reconstruction’, inspired by Liz’s feeling that she ‘knew some of these people; that [she] lived not only in the village of today but connected by imagination to the village of the past’. Whilst this style may not appeal to every reader, it certainly adds colour and depth to the bare facts which, on their own, make for depressing enough reading.
Fever in Littleham
Upon searching the register of baptism and burials for Littleham, the author discovered the following statistics: ‘the average number of deaths in Littleham from 1813 – the first entry – to 1899 was just under six each year. In 1871 there were 21 deaths. 13 of those were children under 12 years old.’ This anomaly is explained by further research that reveals a virulent fever swept through the village from November 1870 to March 1871, carrying off so many of its inhabitants.
Grief in Littleham
Such stories are, no doubt, recorded in every county of England but when the reader is confronted with the ‘imagined reconstruction’, it is impossible to not begin to feel intense pity for those afflicted by this tragedy. Each death brings its own consequences of grief and sorrow but particularly moving is the story of Martha Powe. At the beginning of the story, Martha is a contented wife and mother of four children and gradually the fever deprives her of three of her children, her husband and, therefore, her security. She was forced by necessity to move away from Littleham with her only son and to take in washing to make ends meet.
Fever is a powerful account of how the lives of ordinary folk were affected by a calamitous event and is testament to the neighbourly care they rendered one another, despite the grinding poverty and over-crowding. This is a book that would fascinate all those interested in the history of Devon and the wider history of social deprivation and disease.
Fever - A Story from a Devon Churchyard by Liz Shakespeare, Letterbox Books 2005
ISBN 0 9516879 1 3
