Eyam; Cucklet Church, a limestone outcrop - Rev Mompesson stood here to preach during the plague

The names of people who died during the plague (260, one-third of the villagers)

The Boundary Stone, halfway between Eyam and Stoney Middleton; food and supplies would be left here

Stoney Middleton Church (dedicated to St Martin)

The unusual octagonal nave is one of only two to be found in the UK

The Riley Graves; Mrs Hancok, from Riley Farm, buried her husband and six children here

Mompesson's Well; a natural spring, and during the plague, a safe place to leave food and supplies

Eyam; Humphrey Merrill's Tomb - he was the village herbalist during the plague

Eyam Historic Places Walk and Eyam Moor

August 9 in England ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

We are back in Derbyshire and drive to Eyam; our cottage is nice and well situated in the historic village of Eyam. Eyam is famous for the bravery of the villagers when the plague devastated the village in 1665-1666; they isolated themselves and prevented the plague from spreading to nearby villages and towns. We use a pamphlet detailing the many places of interest concerning the plague and see some of the other interesting things here.

The plague started here in 1665 when George Viccars, a journeyman tailor, was lodging in one of the cottages and received a box of damp cloth from London, where the plague was raging; he hung it to dry in the cottage and died shortly after.. A new young Rector, the Rev. William Mompesson, asked the villagers to shut themselves off to avoid contaminating the whole area. The captions on the photos describe a bit more detail about the plague then.

It was a very good and interesting day, with 8.8 miles walking.Read more