Five Children in Sixteen Days: Bristol’s Forgotten Plague

In the summer of 1645, plague swept through the Bristol parish of St Stephen’s with devastating speed. Using original parish burial records and historical research, this documentary reconstructs how war, trade, and overcrowding turned one waterfront community into the centre of a deadly outbreak. Through the stories hidden inside the parish register, we uncover families who lost multiple children within days — including the Huling family, who buried five children in just sixteen days, and the Prise family, who lost four in little over a week. This film explores: • The impact of the English Civil War on disease spread • Bristol’s role as a major port city • The lives of ordinary working families in St Stephen’s Parish • Child mortality during the 1645 plague outbreak • The surviving burial records that preserve these stories centuries later Based on detailed archival research into the 1645 St Stephen’s burial register, this episode brings individual lives back into focus from one of Bristol’s darkest moments.