Eyam - Derbyshire's Plague Village
How a Village's Self-Sacrifice Prevented the Spread of the Plague
Plague arrived in the village in 1665, while the Great Plague was raging in London. Carried by fleas and promoted by overcrowded and unhygienic conditions, the disease had spread across the kingdom, though rural areas remained largely untouched. In late summer 1665, however, a man called George Viccars (described by some as a tailor but more likely the tailor's assistant) opened a delivery of cloth from London.
The Symptoms of the Plague
Bubonic plague, also known as the Black Death, was spread by rats and the fleas which lived on them. When he opened the package of cloth and set it to dry it in front of the fire, George Viccars unwittingly released the fleas, and with them the deadly disease, into the village. He was to become the first victim.
A progressive disease, the bubonic plague had many symptoms:
- a headache
- fever , accompanied by various other aches and pains
- vomiting and nausea
- exhaustion
- swellings in the lymph nodes, hard and painful (these were the buboes which gave the plague its name)
- internal bleeding, manifested in black boils and bruising on the skin as well as blood in the urine
Perhaps at first no-one would have been alarmed by Viccars' malady: Derbyshire, like much of rural England, was free of the disease. But when his headache became a raging fever, others may have become concerned. By then it was too late. The plague moved rapidly and by 7th of September George Viccars was dead.
As it had done elsewhere, the plague spread relentlessly through Eyam. In the tailor’s house (known today as Plague Cottage) four people died. At nearby Rose Cottage all nine members of the Thorpe family were taken. All ages were fell victim. Whole families were wiped out, or left with only one or two survivors. One woman, Mary Hadfield, who had lived in the cottage where the disease first struck, lost seventeen relatives and was the sole survivor of her family.
For over a year, the disease ravaged Eyam. Though some of those who succumbed recovered, most did not. In the winter of 1665-6 the virulence of the infection eased, only to return in the following summer. In one month alone, August 1666, 78 people died – seven of them on one day.
The mortality rate was so high that many of the dead could not be buried individually in the churchyard but were interred in mass graves. Between George Viccars’ death in September 1665 and that of Abraham Morten on 1 November 1666, over seventy families were affected and 260 villagers – roughly one-third of the total population - died.
How Eyam Village Responded to the Outbreak of the Plague
As increasing numbers of villagers fell ill and died, the village’s rector, Thomas Mompesson, and his predecessor, Thomas Stanley, realised that there might be a way to prevent the plague spreading through the countryside. Despite the temptation to flee, they proposed that the villagers should adopt a self-imposed isolation, with no-one leaving the village and no-one entering it.
Although this meant their own chances of escaping infection were reduced, the people agreed. The isolation lasted for months, and during that time Eyam was cut off from the surrounding countryside. Families, friends and sweethearts were separated, some for ever. Food was brought from neighbouring villages and left at specified points on the outskirts of the village where coins were left as payment. (These were purified in either vinegar or running water to prevent the spread of infection).
Mompesson and Stanley proposed other methods to try and minimise the spread of the disease, most notably restricting large gatherings. This meant that not only did families have to take responsibility for the burial of their own dead (avoiding large funerals); but the village's church services were held outdoors, as it was thought that enclosed spaces promoted infection.
The methods implemented may well have contributed to the high death toll in Eyam itself, but in the wider context, the villagers' self-sacrifice proved effective. The disease did not spread beyond the village boundaries and did not ravage the Derbyshire countryside as it had so much of the rest of England.
Eyam Today: The Visible Evidence
Although it is almost three and a half centuries since the plague arrived in Eyam, it is impossible to walk along the main street without being reminded of this terrible episode in its history. Throughout the peaceful and tranquil centre, cottage after cottage is marked by a series of plaques listing the names of those who died there. Even the busy village pub was once a home where four of a family of six died.
Though most of the dead were buried elsewhere, the churchyard holds the graves of some of the victims and the church itself has a memorial window and a book of remembrance permanently on display. Many of the mass graves are still visible, often no more than a patch of grass at the end of a row of buildings.
Most poignantly, the episode is remembered in the gates of the village school. Here, a pattern in iron depicts children playing among the words to a famous nursery rhyme.
Ring a ring a roses
A pocket full of posies
Atishoo, atishoo
We all fall down.
Where it all began - Plague Cottage, Eyam
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