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The dark history of Eyam, the original plague village

The village of Eyam in Derbyshire, which holds a 'plague trail' has become a popular dark tourism site in current times - Getty Images
The village of Eyam in Derbyshire, which holds a 'plague trail' has become a popular dark tourism site in current times - Getty Images

It’s a lost-in-time story of sacrifice. The tale of the Derbyshire village that voluntarily quarantined from neighbouring communities when a pandemic hit in 1665 has entered into folklore. Hundreds died, but their bravery stopped the spread of bubonic plague across the rural hamlets of the Peak District to the cities of Sheffield and Manchester beyond.

The village of Eyam has been dramatically thrust back into the spotlight this year, however. The history-repeating parallel between the heroic sacrifice of our 17th-century forefathers and the global response to the coronavirus pandemic has made it an unlikely haven for dark tourism fans. While I find it busy with walkers sipping coffees around a flower-garnished village green on an autumnal day, its dark past hangs like mist over the peaks.

The plague spread in September 1665 after George Viccars, a local tailor, took delivery of flea-infested fabric from London. Over the next 14 months, around a third of the villagers lost their lives. The rector of the local church, William Mompesson, was no public health official, but he did devise an early take on social isolation, pledging to stay with his parish if they committed the ultimate act of self-sacrifice. The events are remembered on the last Sunday in August at the Plague Festival.

“The idea of quarantine and forming social bubbles shows incredible foresight. We can learn a lot from the stoicism of the people to do the right thing,” says Peak District guide Mark Sweeney.

Families were told to bury their dead in fields, rather than the village graveyard, leaving tiny plots of ancient stones scattered around the landscape  - Getty Images
Families were told to bury their dead in fields, rather than the village graveyard, leaving tiny plots of ancient stones scattered around the landscape - Getty Images

The plague trail follows Lydgate, a path through farmland to the point of no return: the Boundary Stone. The storm-smoothed grit stone has six small holes, where the people of Eyam left vinegar-soaked coins in return for supplies of food and medicine from the neighbouring village of Stoney Middleton, one mile away.

The path passes the Lydgate Graves, a small enclosure where early victims were buried. As the death toll rose, Mompesson told families to bury their dead in fields, rather than the village graveyard, leaving tiny plots of ancient stones scattered around the landscape. Today, the sound of children playing at the local primary school carries like whispers on the breeze.

Church Street takes me past the immaculately kept Plague Cottages. No 2 is where, on Sept 7 1665, Viccars was the first to fall victim to the plague. Today there’s a welcome sign above the door and a cheery series of gnomes around a soothing water feature in the garden. “I lost my wife a couple of years ago, so feel I have to maintain the garden in her memory,” says tenant John Mytton. “She always said that, given its tragic history, we should make this place welcoming.”

The nearby Parish Church of St Lawrence has an intriguing array of graves: one marked with a skull and cross bones, another a Celtic cross. The most poignant of all is the grave of Catherine Mompesson, the rector’s wife, who died towards the end of the outbreak in autumn 1666. She suffered the ignominy of having the stonemason spell her surname incorrectly on the tomb, which is etched with an egg timer as a reminder of the transient nature of life.

The village of Eyam in Derbyshire, where the first case of the bubonic plague was found - istock
The village of Eyam in Derbyshire, where the first case of the bubonic plague was found - istock

The modern stained-glass window depicts scenes from Eyam’s tragic tale, such as lovers Emmott Syddall and Rowland Torre, who called to each other across the valley at the Boundary Stone. When quarantine was lifted, Rowland, who lived in Stoney Middleton, learnt that his lover had died.

Another powerful echo of the current day is a reproduction of the plague records, which recount the quack remedies of the time, such as applying the plucked anus of a pigeon to sores to draw out the disease. The idea of injecting disinfectant seems like just another variation some 350 years later.

Sara Price, owner of the Village Green café, says more visitors have come to Eyam to discover its tragic backstory since the easing of the national lockdown. “There’s an atmosphere in the village, but it’s a stillness, not a sadness,” she says. “I think both residents and visitors alike have a greater understanding of the community sacrifice, given our own experience this year.”

We finish our walk at the Riley Graves, on a hillside overlooking the eastern edge of the Peaks towards Matlock. Elizabeth Hancock buried her husband and six children here over the course of eight days, dragging the pustule-covered corpses to their graves with ropes to avoid touching the infected bodies. It makes for an eerie site on an autumn evening, with the ghosts of the past ever present, a century-spanning story that inspired the modern-day poem “Lockdown” by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage…

And I couldn’t escape the waking
dream of infected fleas
in the warp and weft of soggy cloth by
the tailor’s hearth
in ye olde Eyam

The Details

Plague village tours with Live for the Hills cost from £140 for a three-hour visit with a private vehicle. Michelin starred Fischer’s Baslow Hall in the village of Baslow, just south of Eyam, offers doubles from £207 per night including breakfast. The Village Green café is a good lunch stop. For more information: visitpeak district.com.

Three other dark tourism sites in Britain

Shrewsbury Prison

Shrewsbury has a lock-in with a difference: a night behind bars in its haunted prison. After a guided night-time tour of the Victorian building with an ex-prison officer, you can bed down in the cells. The prison was decommissioned in 2013 and is now as a tourist attraction with overnight ghost-hunting tours for Hallowe’en. shrewsburyprison.com

International Slavery Museum

Housed in the same building as the Merseyside Maritime Museum, this museum focuses on the Atlantic slave trade from West Africa to the Americas, as Liverpool confronts its role in the slave trade. New this year are the painting Contributions, an ode to the Windrush generation, by the artist Shane D’Allessandro, and the Black Salt exhibition. liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Bodmin Jail, which last operated in the 18th century, is now open to visitors - Getty Images
Bodmin Jail, which last operated in the 18th century, is now open to visitors - Getty Images

Bodmin Jail

This 18th-century jailhouse recently reopened to visitors. Napoleonic prisoners of war built the prison with granite quarried from Bodmin Moor, and 55 executions were carried out here, eight of which were of women. By day, the Dark Walk self-guided trail leads you through a snapshot of Victorian penal life, while after dark, spooky experiences for adults (£55pp) explore the jail with the ghost-busting paranormal manager. bodminjail.org

Restrictions on travel around Britain and regional areas can change at short notice. Always check the local guidance before travelling: gov.uk/guidance