Sick get a look-in
KEN PYE’s latest book, Even More Merseyside Tales, is available in all good bookshops or from Ken directly (as are all of his books and factsheets).
THE very word had the power to conjure fear and panic. In the Middle Ages leprosy was endemic in England, and with no cure, victims of the devastating disease became crippled and disfigured.
These days, a cure for leprosy – now also known as Hansen’s – is effective and readily available and scientists have learned that to catch the disease, a healthy person must have months of close contact with someone who has it.
But in pre-Reformation Britain, people believed it was highly contagious and those infected were obliged to live outside of communities in areas known as leper colonies.
In those times everyone was obliged to go to church on Sundays and make their confessions to the parish priest – and that included those with leprosy.
But sufferers were not allowed inside churches for fear of infecting the congregation and especially the priest, and although historians are divided on the subject, some believe they followed the service through a special unglazed window, known as a “squint”.
Such a window is built into the rear wall of All Saints’ Parish Church in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall. The squint is very low from the outside, but was originally the height of an average man!
The Childwall squint appears to be an arched window, cut into the base of an outside wall of the church, to a depth of about 18in.
Deeper
An open grill, about 12in sq, is set at the top of this, which looks directly into the rear of the church.
On closer inspection, this recess can be seen to reach down below the current level of the surrounding graveyard for a couple of feet.
In fact, it is even deeper than this and was originally cut to accommodate an adult standing fully upright. This window is now below ground level because, when the old tower was demolished, in 1810, the debris was never removed, only smoothed over.
The raised level of the graveyard now hides the rest of the squint, and it is only when one goes into the church that the original height of the window can be seen.
Could it be that, each Sunday, after the main congregation had gone inside, those carrying the disease crowded around the window, which looked towards the altar?
Through this could they listen to the service and, later, in turns, they would make their confessions to the priest, through a grille set into the small window – hence ”squint”?
Leprosy was common across Britain from around the 12th century, particularly in and around towns like Liverpool.
The dreadful disfigurement that comes with the untreated disease was seen by many as divine punishment for sin, and people believed that they could catch moral corruption as well as physical illness from its sufferers. Thus victims of leprosy were generally forced to live outside normal society, in colonies established on the outskirts of villages and towns, near enough to obtain essential supplies but far enough away so as not to be a threat.
The colony would also need to be close to a river, brook or pond so that they had access to fresh water.
However, these communities of men, women and children, were largely self-sufficient – because they had to be.
Surviving
By the time of King Henry VIII’s Reformation of the English Church in the 1530s, leprosy had mostly died out in England. The All Saints’ squint was eventually glazed over and left as the partially hidden grilled window that we can see today.
However, inside the church the full and original height of the window can be seen, where the priest once stood. The Childwall “Lepers’ Squint” is one of only a few surviving in Britain.