England, Wales & Scotland - East Midlands
Eyam
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Eyam (pronounced “Eem”) (wells dressed last Saturday in August). This large mining and quarrying village was made famous by its self-imposed quarantine when plague hit the village in 1665. It was thought that the virus arrived in a box of cloth from London brought by a visiting tailor. The rector persuaded the community to quarantine themselves to prevent the plague spreading to outlying villages. For over a year the village was supplied by neighboring villagers who left food and supplies at outlying points. Tragically 259 people from 76 families perished—little plaques on Eyam’s cottages give the names of the victims who lived there. The church has a plague register and just inside the door is the letter written by the young rector when his wife succumbed (Katherine Mompesson is buried near the Saxon cross in the churchyard). The most poignant reminder of these grim days lies in a field about ½ mile from the village where within a solitary little enclosure, known as the Riley Graves, are the memorials to a father and his six children, all of whom died within eight days of each other.
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