The Hidden Story of the Repulse of the Spanish Armada

• Event Date: Thursday, June 3, 2027
• Events
• Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset

In this talk, local speaker and novelist Dr Justin Newland traces the origin of the Black Plague in Central Asia in the 1330s. Spread by fleas carried by rats, it travelled along the Silk Road, through deserts and across seas, where it affected all peoples, whatever their race and religion. In 1348, a special year in the English calendar, it docked in Melcombe Regis near Weymouth (whose arms are shown below), which by a chilling coincidence, was the Chinese Astrological Year of the Rat.