St Mary's Ashwell

Decoding the grafitti: large letters

The large letters tell us about when the Plague came to the village in 1350, and left the village in 1361 when there was severe gales. There is also some smaller graffiti accessible here.

The below words are in their original:
Pestile (n) cia
M.C.T.(er)x penta
miseranda ferox violenta
(discessit pestis) superset plebs pessima testis in fine qevent(us) (erat) valid(us)
(...h)oc anno maurus in orbe tonat MCCCLXI

Which translated mean:
There was a plague
1000,three times 100, five times 10,
a pitiable, fierce violent
(plague departed); a wretched populace survives to witness and in the end
a mighty wind, Maurus, thunders in this year in the world, 1361

Note: the words/letters in brackets are missing or indistinguishable on the wall.
Move your mouse over the image below to highlight words and decode the Graffiti

Unfortunately this does not work on phone, please use a laptop or computer.