Entrenched in the Hippocratic tradition was the notion that the nature of a place determined the characteristics of people who lived there. This would have seemed self-evident to Norwich's residents who could observe at first-hand that more or less salubrious localities contained more or less healthy-looking individuals. In 1570, the civic authorities conducted a citywide census of the poor, that is, it made a house-by-house survey to identify all paupers who were apparently fit enough to work for a living and to distinguish them from those who were dependent, or might become dependent, on financial assistance from the community. The census demonstrated that some neighbourhoods contained dense concentrations of chronically crippled or bedridden residents, whilst others did not. For example, in the central part of the city closest to the economic hub, the rich and populous sub-ward of Mid Wymer – which housed the smallest proportion of sick poor of any district in Norwich – widowhood, old age and low-income employment accounted for cases of impoverishment, whereas debilitating disease in younger members of the community was rare. A very different state of affairs prevailed in the city's margins. In stark contrast to the relatively mobile residents of Mid Wymer, certain paupers (of all ages) living in the northern district ‘Over-the-Water’ were described as ‘all together lame’, ‘deff’, ‘blynd’, ‘lunatick’ or simply ‘veri sick’ (map 2). One particular enclave housed a higher number of men and women with physical incapacities than anywhere else in the city. That district was known as Fyebridge.

The association between poverty and disease in this area was very old: archaeological excavation from one of its parish cemeteries – St Margaret's Fyebridge – suggests a similar situation may have prevailed for up to 300 or 400 years (map 7, site 780N). Analysis of the skeletons removed from the site has indicated probable cases of tuberculosis and Hansen's disease (which used to be known as ‘leprosy’), as well as other serious systemic infections, nutritional deficiencies, Paget's disease, physical trauma and a possible instance of paraplegia.