The Black Death starts in China and reaches England in 1848.

The disease reached South Warwickshire in the spring of 1349 and swept through the county in the next few months. In September 1350 in Alveston there were 27 holdings “in the lord’s hands” (i.e. vacant) out of a total of about 83 (33%); the number of tenants who had died was probably in excess of a third, but in the year that had elapsed after the plague some vacant holdings had been filled. The epidemic had a long-term effect because it caused a high mortality among young people and children. At Alveston it was stated that in the case of a third of the vacant holdings there were no heirs, suggesting that whole families had been wiped out, or that young men had died before they could father children.