Village that quarantined itself against the 1665 plague.
Eyam is the plague village. When infection arrived in a bale of cloth in 1665, the villagers chose to seal themselves off rather than carry it to their neighbours, and around a third or more died over the following fourteen months. Small plaques still record names and dates on the cottage doors. St Lawrence’s church tells the story, and its churchyard holds a Saxon cross older than the tragedy.
