5/ The first reports of the Black Death come from Sicily in October 1347. 12 Genoese galleys, which were said to have come from the Crimea, entered the harbour of Messina in Sicily. The crews were said to have 'carried such a virulent disease 'in their bones that anyone who only spoke to them was seized by a mortal illness and in no way could evade death.' (Editor's note - Susan and Christopher later conclude that this was just coincidental, and that the plague had already been in Messina for a few weeks, and the ships occupants were in fact not infected. However the image of the 'deadly disease ships' is one that history has grasped. Even if it isn't true!)

6/ A symptom of the black death was Haemorraghagic spots caused by blood seeping from damaged blood vessels beneath the skin. They were known as 'God's Tokens.

7/ The average rate of spread of the medieval plague was between 1 and 5 miles (2 to 8 kilometres) a day, which suggests that it was mainly carried by infected people travelling on foot rather than on horseback.

8/ The plague probably arrived in Britain at Melcombe Regis (now called Weymouth), in Dorset, then an important town and port on the south coast - although Bristol and Southampton have also been suggested as the entry point. It may also have come from the Channel Islands, where it was already rampant and the fishermen were unable to pay their taxes because they were all stricken. Its arrival has been variously dated between June and early August 1348.

9/ The general direction of the spread of the Black Death in Britain can be determined from ecclesiastical records describing how the bishops in each diocese hastily had to appoint new clergy to replace those who had died.

10/ Historians disagree about the total number of people who died from the plague in London. Some have suggested a figure of 100,000. But a more reasonable estimate would probably be between 20,000 and 30,000 deaths, out of a population of 60,000 to 70,000, which would be in line with the death rates in other English cities.

11/ Because the devestation of the Black Death was outside their comprehension, people accepted unquestioningly the doctrine of the Pope and the Church that the visitation was God's punishment for their manifold sins. This unhelpful doctrine prevailed for the next 300 years and beyond. Presenting the Pope's message for Lent in February 2002, Archbishop Paul Cordes, the head of the Vatican's agency for humanitarian aid, maintained that there was scriptural authority for the idea that those who contract illness do so because thay have sinned and asserted that illness is the result of sin.

12/ The Black Death moved from the most southerly point of Europe northwards to the freezing, inhospitable Arctic Circle, some 2200 miles (3500 kilometres) in less than three years.

13/ Plague victims suffered a sudden and high fever and developed large, foul-smelling boils; they were sometimes delirious and a severe headache was the usual prelude to death.