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The moving saga of life in 'Plague Village'
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Death on a massive scale | |
| Bubonic Plague has been described as 'the most dangerous disease known to mankind' and has killed more souls than all the wars ever fought between the nations of the world. |
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| It raged in biblical Asia: it raged in the Roman Empire: and it swept across Europe from the 14th Century on, when people cursed it as the 'Black Death'. At this time and three hundred years later, it also raged in Britain - and when it came, it claimed almost a third of the lives in the land. The Great Plague entered London in the 17th Century and came to Eyam by the most unfortunate of mishaps - carried by fleas festering in a box of cloth brought from the capital for the village tailor. |
 The last days of John Daniel |
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| The Plague in Eyam |  The fatal bundle of cloth is unwrapped |
| Two clergymen ensured that the village survived the next few months and
that the Plague was not spread to the surrounding area. William Mompesson was the newly appointed rector of Eyam and, with his predecessor, Thomas Stanley, he persuaded the villagers to enter voluntary quarantine, bury their own dead and even worship outdoors to limit the spread of the disease. People in the surrounding area sent provisions to the people of Eyam which were left on the village boundary. The death toll was terrible - between September 1665 and October 1666, no fewer than 76 families were stricken and 260 people - perhaps a third of the population - met an awful, pained death |
 The rectors discuss the proposed isolation of the village |
The Plague and after |
| Some families were wiped out. Others left just a single survivor - like the
Hancock family at Riley Farm, where Elizabeth Hancock buried her husband and
six children in just eight days. The sufferings of the families - the Coopers, the Hadfields, the Syddals, the Thorpes, the Blackwells, the Talbots, the Mortens, the Kempes, the Merrills, are recorded on their houses around the village. When the Plague finally loosed its terrible grip on the village it left a population of more than 400 people who once again needed to make their living. Naturally they returned to their traditional trade of lead-mining in the hills above the village. Smallholdings were tended again, and gradually the village filled with people once more. |
| Eyam Museum - Eyam past and present | ||
| Eyam Museum first opened in 1994,
and was extended and fully refurbished in 1997. In three interconnecting display areas, it tells the moving story of a village whose history is unique:
The museum was inspired by a collection created by the late Clarence Daniel, a lifelong Eyam resident and descendant of one of the 76 families afflicted by the plague. ................ |
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| Opening Times | ||
| Tuesday to Sunday - 10.00 am to 4.30 pm Closed Monday except Bank Holidays Closed November-March Groups may book by telephone or by letter Maximum number for lectures - 30 Telephone: 01433 631371 For school bookings: 0114 230 5723 For more details of the museum see
our website at:
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| EYAM MUSEUM, HAWKHILL ROAD,
EYAM, DERBYSHIRE, S32 5QP Registered charity No 702067 |
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