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All the United Kingdom England Odiham Odiham Pest House

Odiham Pest House

A rare survivor from the age of plagues.

Odiham, England

Added By
Alison Pinto
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The Odiham pest house.   HenryLawford/CC BY 2.0
The Odiham pest house.   HenryLawford/CC BY 2.0
The inside of the pest house.   HenryLawford/CC BY 2.0
  AdOYo / Atlas Obscura User
  AdOYo / Atlas Obscura User
The pest house is located on the grounds of the Church of All Saints.   Lewis Hulbert/CC BY-SA 3.0
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About

In the days before modern medicine, catching plague, smallpox, leprosy, or tuberculosis could prove a death sentence, or leave a sufferer with lifelong complications. Across the United Kingdom and the United States, communities came up with a solution to halt the spread of disease: the pest house.

These small dwellings, some used into the 20th century, were where people suffering from contagious diseases could stay while they were traveling or if they needed to be isolated from their communities. Usually, they only had basic amenities, and towns typically situated them far away from the main settlement.

Odiham's pest house dates from the early 1620s, and stands in the Church of All Saints churchyard.  A local gentleman, Julian Smith, originally funded the building as a house for those suffering from extreme poverty. But smallpox was rife in Odiham in the 1700s, making a pest house a necessary evil. It seems likely that the afflicted lived housed in the pest house until they either recovered or died.  Records of the time refer to burials near the "old Pest House."

Despite the construction of a new pest house on the outskirts of town in 1781, the "old" pest house, which had reverted to its original use of housing the parish poor, was continuously in use over the centuries and has survived to the present day, the last occupant leaving in 1930. Now, the small building is one of the five remaining pest houses left in the United Kingdom.

The dimensions of the building are tiny, and the interior consists of a single room. In the past, it also included a sleeping loft.  The Pest House was restored by the Odiham Society in 1981, and now serves as a Heritage Centre.  

 

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Plague Houses Homes

Know Before You Go

The Heritage Centre in the pest house is open from 10am to 4 pm on weekends. To visit, go through the gate from the churchyard.  For access at times other than the weekend, a key is available to borrow from the shop "Odiham Cards" in the High Street.

Community Contributors

Added By

5beasts

Edited By

Anne Ewbank, AdOYo

  • Anne Ewbank
  • AdOYo

Published

September 9, 2020

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Sources
  • https://odiham-society.org/projects/the-pest-house/
  • http://www.hantsfieldclub.org.uk/publications/news44/build44c.html
  • https://www.hampshire-history.com/odiham-pest-house/
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pest_house
Odiham Pest House
1 The Bury
Odiham, England, RG29 1ND
United Kingdom
51.253047, -0.939574
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