Around Easter time of that year two cases suddenly occurred in the Redcliffe district of the city and they were both fatal. News of the deaths spread quickly - so did the plague, but at first it was confined to the area south of the Avon. There was then only one bridge connecting the north and south of the city. This was Bristol Bridge, which was in the same position as the modern bridge of that name but very different in appearance. The old Bristol Bridge supported houses right across its span, rather akin to the old London Bridge or the Pontc Vecchio in Florence.
The old Bristol Bridge actually had a chapel in its centre and, it was to this chapel in 1551 that worshippers who lived on or near the bridge thronged daily, praying to be spared from the danger and affliction which had befallen the city. There used to be a popular belief that running water was a preventative against the passage of infectious disease so Bristolians who lived to the north of the river thought they would be quite safe so long as they kept the river between them and the infected south.
Public opinion was so strong that it was decided to place a guard on Bristol Bridge to prevent people crossing the Avon in either direction. In Redcliffe the pestilence continued to claim victims and now the unfortunate people had to contend not only with the terrible disease in their midst but also with the problems of isolation. They could not get any fresh vegetables or provisions either from the city or from the farmers and people of Somerset as nobody wanted to run the risk of entering the plague area.
Thus they faced virtual starvation. During the reign of Henry VIII a convent, dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, had stood on the site of the King David Inn on Saint Michael's Hill, but like many others it had been suppressed during the Reformation. The nuns were scattered; some had returned to their families, others had joined convents in France, but six of the younger sisters, all daughters of Bristol merchants, had stayed together in the city and lived in a quiet house with a walled garden in Baldwin Street. When news of the plague reached them they were as horrified as everyone else at first but after a few days of contemplation they decided to leave their house and go to the assistance of the afflicted people of Redcliffe.
It was a brave step in many ways. Since they had taken the veil they had led verv secluded lives; none of them had mixed with others or gone abroad into the world of men. Their bold idea came from a genuine desire to help their stricken neighbours. The six sisters soon found out that there was no free passage across the bridge. Undaunted, they decided to hire a boat to cross the river and so transport vital provisions and medicine to the people of Redcliffe. In an old shed they established a depot for food and clothing and anything else charitably minded people might give them.
Because no boatman would help them, they had to work the little boat themselves. They ferried it across the Avon back and forth, happy in the belief that the passage across the running water of the river purified them of infection. The good sisters kept up this service for many days, their kindness and concern being welcomed by the distressed people of Redcliffe. They carried food and water to the dying and their families, often walking through dark deserted streets where braziers of charcoal and pitch burned day and night to purify the infected air. After a time the dreaded plague did spread to the rest of the city and continued to scourge Bristol until Michaelmas of that year, killing hundreds every week.
The courageous group of sisters gave themselves entirely to their work. They even organised other women into bands of nurses, as well as continuing to distribute food and medicine on both sides of the river. But gradually the disease took its toll and they too succumbed. One by one they fell, until just before Michaelmas the last and bravest of the sisters started with the `sweating sickness' and died within the day. When the plague abated the angelic women and their great sacrifice were not forgotten. The people of Redcliffe remembered them in their church. Until the end of the 19th century there was a stained glass window in the north transept of the church of Saint Mary Redcliffe which depicted them in their little boat ferrying themselves across the Avon on their heroic mission.
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