Eyam

"The Plague Village"

Eyam Village.

A beautiful picture postcard village set into the countryside in Derbyshire, Quiet and sleepy, look closer and you will find a village that is proud to call out its name, well know as the Plague Village it is thought this village saved the north of England from the great plague that was raveging the south.

The Plague Cottages.

In August of 1655 the village tailor Mr George Viccars received a package of materials from London, unaware that the package concealed the carrier of the plague, the Black Rat Flea. Within a few day Mr Viccars was dead and by September 1665 another five or six villagers had passed away, by the end of October there had been twenty eight deaths.

The villagers held a meeting where it was suggested that they leave the village and move to the nearby city of Sheffield but the village preacher at the time, a very respected and highly thought of member of this small community the Rev William Mompesson feared that this action would spread the plague into the north, he persaded the villagers that the best course of action would be to cut themselves off from the outside world.

Even though this meant certain death for many a plan was put in place to advise visitors to the village against visiting, food and supplies that were needed from outside were left at the parish stones that marked the village boundary, any money that was required as payment was left in a stone trough filled with vinegar, vinegar was at the time thought to be a good antiseptic.

Eyam continued to be hit hard by the plague through 1666 and by the end of October the plague had taken 273 of the 350 that were thought to populate the village at the time, indeed even Rev Mompesson had to bury his own wife and children, there are many stories of the struggle, most differ slightly because records from this time were few, but what is certain is that this tiny village was responsible for saving the lives of thousands of people from Northern England.

Dotted around the village are information plaques that tell of its very sad story, one or two can be seen on this page.

The Riley Graves, thought to be so called because in old English Riley translates into "Field of Rye".

The Riley Graves, this grave yard of six graves stands alone in the centre of a field a short distance from the village center, these graves are sacred to the Hancock Family who were victims of the plague from Aug 3rd-10th 1666, A mother watched as during those few days her husband and five of her six children died, a story saddened by the fact that she alone had to bury her family on the farm that they worked.