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Most people in medieval times never saw a doctor. Peasants might have sought treatment in a variety of ways:

• They could visit the local wise woman, who was skilled in the use of herbs.
• Monasteries - eg at Battle, Rievalux and Tintern - had infirmaries and monks with knowledge of herbal cures.
• The priest might have used the power of prayer or might have suggested a pilgrimage to a holy shrine, eg a visit to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Canterbury, said to cure epilepsy or leprosy.
• There were many holy wells that were thought to have curative powers, eg the shrine of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary and Martyrs of Lancashire, at Fernyhalgh, or the Our Lady of Walsingham shrine in Norfolk.
• The barber surgeon would pull out teeth, set broken bones and perform minor operations, as well as cut hair.

Traditional treatments were based on a mixture of superstition, religion and herbal remedies. Some of them are still used today.