A plague doctor is coming to speak about the horrors of the time to children’s history club.

The event on December 15 will take young members of the Bourne Hall Museum Club back in time to London, 1665, when doctors busily tended to the many victims.

The speaker will explain why he wears a strange beak-like mask and will teach how to spot the plague and treat it.

He will tell how plague pits were built on an industrial scale and suffering continued until the Great Fire of London in September 1666 that left more than 100,000 homeless.

Bourne Hall Museum Club is open to children older than eight years old who have an interest in history.

In past sessions members have learnt how to make Stone Age tools and cave paintings, found out what the trenches were like and joined the Roman army.

Recently they investigated the murder of Sergeant Thomas Green who was killed in defense of the Epsom Police Station when it was attacked by Canadian soldiers in 1919.

Bourne Hall Museum, Spring Street, Ewell; December 15; 1pm to 2.30pm; £4 per child; call 020 8394 1734; email dbrooks@epsom-ewell.gov.uk; visit www.epsomandewellhistoryexplorer.org.uk/BourneHallMuseumClub.html