EYAM - the Plague Village

 (pronounced E'Em)

We have just gone through almost 2 years of 'lockdown' due to a modern global plague, and when people said that quarantine doesn't work, I pointed them towards the story of Eyam.

The plague, which was a highly infectious and very unpleasant disease, widely known and experienced in Britain and Europe, came to Eyam in the summer of 1665, possibly in a bale of cloth brought up from London. The people in the house where it came to, caught the disease and died in a short space of time. Before long, others had caught the disease and also died, after a short and very painful illness. It spread rapidly.

 

The local rector, The Rev. William Mompesson* and his predecessor, led a campaign to prevent the disease spreading outside the village to the surrounding area. This involved the people of the village remaining in the village and being supplied with necessary provisions by people outside. There is still on the outskirts of the village a location called the Boundary stone, where traditionally, money was placed in small holes filled with vinegar for the provisions which those from the local area brought for the villagers. As a result of this action, the disease did not spread but almost a third of the villagers died.

 

Interestingly some of the villagers who were in contact with those who caught the plague, did not catch it. This was because they had a chromosome which gave them protection. This same chromosome has been shown to still exist in those who are direct descendants of those who survived the plague, and who are still living in the village at the present time. The action of the villagers in staying in the village is almost unique and makes the village the place of significance that it is.

Walking down the main road and reading the boards outside every cottage, is very sobering. Combine that with a visit to the graves on the hill outside the village, and you can appreciate what these people went through to try and protect the rest of Derbyshire

Every September, they roast a whole sheep in the centre of the village, to celebrate the survivors of the plague

The village stocks outside the old market hall

In the parish church of St. Lawrence, the terrible effects of the plague at Eyam are quickly brought home by the Plague Register in the south aisle. This was copied from the parish register of the time and gives the names of all the people who died during the fourteen months of the plague in 1665 and 1666. In all, 260 people died out of a population of approximately 350.

The unusual sundial on Eyam church was built by William Shaw and is dated 1775. On a sunny day it not only shows the time quite accurately in half hours, but it also indicates the time in places worldwide.

* So.....a little more about William Mompesson - what happened next

Rev William Mompesson, the Rector of Eyam, who isolated his village to save others from the Plague..... He did this with the support of Rev Thomas Stanley, a more puritan minister who had been ejected (or chose to leave) from the same benefice at the Restoration.

There is a famous window in Eyam church showing Mompesson and Stanley, but what happened to Mompesson later?

The key to Mompesson's progress is his relationship with the Savile family of Rufford Abbey. They were patrons of Eyam and through his second marriage to the widow Anne Newby he became related to them. So it is not surprising that we next find Mompesson moving to another benefice which the Saviles controlled, at Eakring in Nottinghamshire - very close to Rufford Abbey.

The traditional story of what happened next is that the villagers were so afraid of the plague, which they associated with Mompesson, that they refused to go into the church with him. Instead, he preached to them at a place called Pulpit Ash. Today this site is marked with a cross...but is the story true?

The reality seems to be that when Mompesson arrived the church was in a dangerous condition, perhaps because the area was heavily nonconformist. The maintaining of the nave was the parish's job. So perhaps Mompesson decided to put them all to the inconvenience of having services outdoors until they organised the repairs! There is now a great window at Eakring also showing Mompesson.