The lepers are coming

devon.editorial@archant.co.uk
09 March 2005

LEPERS are returning to Torrington as time is rolled back 600 years for an historical new pageant.

Local artist Shan Miller of the Women's Rural Workshop is organising a torchlight procession of lepers, supporters and spectators to highlight a sombre part of the town's heritage.

She is planning to hold the event later this month as part of a wider exploration of Torrington's leper history and of ancient industries.

Clearly visible at Taddiport below the town's main South Street car park are the leper fields - narrow strips of land which in the 15th century provided subsistence for a local leper colony.

A local garden holds a leper graveyard and there are former leper cottages still occupied today. It is said that on foggy nights long-dead lepers can be seen going to and fro across Taddiport's 13th century bridge.

The disease was eradicated from Britain in the 17th century - but later this month, with the aid of costume and make-up, the lepers will make a brief return.

Shan is being helped with the pageant by other members of the Women's Rural Workshop, who are making costumes, and by town crier and local historian Al Mitchell, who is making props.

But they are seeking the help of the whole community in providing more information about the lepers -songs, poems, old wives tales, old cures, facts and folklore.

As part of her investigations into industrial history, Shan is also keen to hear from anyone who has information about the former alabaster factory thought to have been run in Taddiport by the Rose family in 1953.

Anyone who can help is asked to call (01805) 624384.