Eyam
Coordinates: 53°17′02″N 1°40′16″W / 53.284°N 1.671°W
| Eyam | |
 |
|
  Eyam
Eyam shown within Derbyshire |
|
| Population | 926 (2001[1]) |
|---|---|
| OS grid reference | |
| District | Derbyshire Dales |
| Shire county | Derbyshire |
| Region | East Midlands |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | HOPE VALLEY |
| Postcode district | S32 |
| Dialling code | 01433 |
| Police | Derbyshire |
| Fire | Derbyshire |
| Ambulance | East Midlands |
| EU Parliament | East Midlands |
| UK Parliament | High Peak |
| List of places: UK • England • Derbyshire | |
Eyam (pronounced /ˈiːm/) is a small village in Derbyshire, England. The village is best known for being the "plague village" that chose to isolate itself when the plague was discovered there in August 1665, rather than let the infection spread. The village was founded and named by Anglo-Saxons, although lead had been mined in the area by the Romans[2].
Contents |
[edit] Plague history
The plague had been brought to the village in a flea-infested bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Viccars from London[3].
Within a week he was dead and was buried on 7 September 1665.[4] 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 1666. These included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and the relocation of church services from the parish church of St. Lawrence 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 it is stated that it killed at least 260 villagers with only 83 villagers surviving out of a population of 350.[4] This figure has been challenged on a number of occasions with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given.[4]
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).[3] The unofficial village gravedigger Marshall Howe also survived, despite handling many infected bodies, as he had earlier survived catching the disease.[4]
[edit] Places of interest
Today Eyam has various plague-related places of interest such as the Coolstone, a stone in which money, usually soaked in vinegar, which was believed to kill the infection, was placed in exchange for food and medicine, and the Riley graves as mentioned above. The only pub to be found in the village is the Miner's Arms. Opposite the church is the rather grand-looking Mechanics' Institute, used as the village hall meeting rooms. The Mechanics' Institute was established in Eyam in 1824,[5] with a library paid for by subscription, which then contained 766 volumes. There were 30 members recorded in 1857, paying the equivalent of 1 p per week.[6] Up the main street is the Jacobean house Eyam Hall, built just after the plague. The green opposite has an ancient set of village stocks reputedly used to punish the locals for minor crimes. There is a picturesque Youth Hostel in the village.
[edit] Anglo-Saxon cross
Eyam churchyard contains an Anglo-Saxon cross dated to the 7th or 8th centuries. Initially, it was located at the side of a cart track near Eyam. It is Grade I listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument[7]. It is believed that the cross originally lay on a moor outside the village and was later moved to the churchyard. It is covered in complex carvings and is almost complete, but is missing a section of the shaft.[8]
[edit] Eyam's role in genetic research
Some research indicates that the villagers of Eyam may have had some genetic protection from the bubonic plague.[3] A CCR5 gene mutation designated as "Delta 32" was found in a statistically significant number, 14%, of direct descendants of the plague survivors. The Delta 32 mutation appears to be very rare. In fact, the levels of Delta 32 found in Eyam were only matched in regions of Europe that had been affected by the plague and in Americans of European origin. It has also been suggested[9] 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 is more likely to have arisen as protection against some other disease common at the time, such as smallpox. This new hypothesis was still being tested as of 2004.[10]
[edit] Notable residents
- Anna Seward, acclaimed poet (1747–1809)[11]
- Richard Furness, the Poet of Eyam (1791–1857)
- Hon. Robert John Eden, M.A. Rector of Eyam between 1823 and 1825. Afterwards 3rd Lord Auckland; Bishop of Sodor and Man 1847 - 1854, then Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1854 - 1869.
- Egbert Hacking, Rector of Eyam between 1884 and 1886, later Archdeacon of Newark
[edit] 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.
- We All Fall Down (song, 2007), written about the 1665 plague epidemic in Eyam by Leeds-based band iLiKETRAiNS, and featured on their 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.
- TSI: The Gabon Virus (novel, 2009) by Paul McCusker and Walt Larimore, M.D.
The naming of William Rutherford (Novel 1992) by Linda Kempton (writer), published by Heinemann ltd
[edit] See also
- Derby plague of 1665, Great Plague of London (also in 1665)
- Beau, writer of the song "The Roses Of Eyam"
[edit] References
- Footnotes
- ^ "Parish Headcounts: Eyam CP". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics. http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=3&b=793301&c=eyam&d=16&e=15&g=434246&i=1001x1003x1004&m=0&enc=1&dsFamilyId=779. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ "Living with the plague". Local Legends. BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/legacies/myths_legends/england/derby/. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ a b c "Mystery of the Black Death". Secrets of the Dead. PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/case_plague/index.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ a b c d Clifford (1989)
- ^ White's History, Gazetteer & Directory of the County of Derby, for 1857
- ^ http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/DBY/Eyam/MechanicsInstitute.html
- ^ "Eyam Saxon cross". Images of England. English Heritage. http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/details/default.aspx?pid=1&id=80635. Retrieved 2006-04-17.
- ^ Neville T. Sharpe, Crosses of the Peak District (Landmark Collectors Library, 2002)
- ^ Eyam at derbyshireuk.net Accessed 5 February 2008.
- ^ "Genetic Mutation Protects Against both HIV and Plague? Not So, Say Scientists at Scripps Research". The Scripps Research Institute. http://www.scripps.edu/news/press/021104b.html. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
- ^ "Eyam" a poem by Anna Seward accessed June 2007
- Sources
[edit] External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eyam |
