Everything about Eyam totally explained
Eyam is a small village in
Derbyshire,
England. The village is best known for being the "plague village" that chose to isolate itself when the
Black Death was found in the village in August
1665, rather than see the infection travel further north. The village was founded and named by
Anglo-saxons, and was mined for lead by the
Romans
Plague history
The plague had been brought to the village in a flea-infested bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Vicars from
London. Within a week he was dead. After the initial deaths, the townspeople turned to their rector, the
Reverend William Mompesson and the Puritan Minister Thomas Stanley. They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1665. These included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and the relocation of church services from the parish church of
St. Laurence to Cucklett Delph to allow villagers to separate themselves, reducing the risk of infection. Perhaps, the best known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease. The plague raged in the village for 16 months and killed at least 260 villagers: only 83 villagers survived out of a population of 350.
When the first outsiders visited Eyam a year later, they found that fewer than a quarter of the village had survived the plague. Survival appeared random, as many plague survivors had close contact with the bacterium, but never caught the disease. For example, Elizabeth Hancock never became ill, despite burying six children and her husband in eight days (the graves are known as the Riley graves). that the Delta 32 mutation, if inherited from both parents, may provide immunity to HIV/AIDS.
More recent research at
Scripps Research Institute disputes the hypothesis that the Delta 32 mutation provided protection against the plague, suggesting instead that it's more likely to have arisen as protection against some other disease common at the time, such as smallpox. This new hypothesis is still being tested.
Saxon cross
Eyam churchyard contains a
Saxon cross dated to the
7th or
8th centuries. Initially, it was located at the side of a cart track near to Eyam. After the plague it was moved to its present location. It is
Grade I listed and a
Scheduled Ancient Monument
Notable residents
Treatments in the media
Year of Wonders (Novel, 2001) by Geraldine Brooks.
A parcel of patterns (Novel, 1983) by Jill Paton Walsh.
The Roses of Eyam (Play, first performed 1970, published 1976) by Don Taylor.
The Judas Strain (Novel, 2007) by James Rollins
A song about the plague epidemic of 1665 was written by Leeds based rock group iLiKETRAiNS and is featured on their 2007 album Elegies to Lessons Learnt
Children of Winter (Novel, 1985) by Berlie Doherty.
Kiss of Death (Novel, 2006) by Malcolm Rose Published by Usborne Publishing.Further Information
Get more info on 'Eyam'.
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