St Peter, Prickwillow

History of St Peter, Prickwillow

The church, and other buildings in the village, was built on piles. St Peter’s was built about 1867.

Burials were considered impossible because of the shifting nature of the soil, so corpses were carried nine miles to surrounding higher ground. The largest corn waggon would be used, two or three horses attached and the mourners would sit along the side of the waggon.

The 1893 article reported that in this part of the world, “there are houses of notoriously evil fame, opium eating is too common, popp-tea is administered to the babes to keep them asleep while the mothers are at work in the fields (which produces an evil effect that lasts through life); heavy drinking, fighting, barefaced poaching, and a terrible lack of truthfulness are among our abuses.”

In the summer drinkable water was hard to obtain since many of the dykes became stagnant. As a result typhoid and other water borne diseases were common.