 The last recorded death from plague came in 1679, and it was removed as a specific category in the Bills of Mortality after 1703.It spread to other towns in East Anglia and the southeast of England but fewer than ten percent of parishes outside London had a higher than average death rate during those years.Urban areas were more affected than rural ones; Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Southampton and Winchester were badly affected, while the west of England and areas of the English Midlands escaped altogether.