St Lawrence Church and plague village, Eyam

The trials of Eyam’s villagers make for an interesting reflection on sacrifice during a pandemic, also the endpoint of the 39-mile Peak Pilgrimage Trail from Ilam‍

Highlights

• Plague village and parish church
• Outdoor church used during the plague
• Mompesson Well
• Riley graves
• Saxon crosses at church

Greater love hath no village than Eyam. The Black Death descended on this tranquil settlement in the 17th century. The villagers chose to stay put and risk probable death, rather than run and let the sickness spread to neighboring towns. The perennial human agony of dealing with a pandemic is nowhere so acutely expressed as it is at Eyam.

It was the local vicar, a young man named William Mompesson, who inspired the people to stay and make the ultimate sacrifice. His wife Catherine was among the last of the victims, dying on August 25, 1666, at the age of 27. She and her husband had visited the homes of grieving families throughout the ordeal, ministering to them without regard for personal safety. The overall cost of such selfless courage was appalling. Three-quarters of the inhabitants died during the course of 13 grim months. Each family was expected to bury its own dead, to minimise the risk of passing on an infection through the corpse. They dragged the bodies of their loved ones as far as they could and dug their graves.

Mompesson was greatly aided in his mission by Thomas Stanley, who until recently had been vicar of the village. Ironically, he had been sacked from the post for being theologically unsound. But this is a story of Christianity’s best features rather than its worst: the two ministers worked as a team to lead the people through their earthly purgatory. The plague had arrived in the village in the most innocuous of packages, a bundle of cloth sent from London to a tailor. He lived and worked in one of the houses next to the church, which can still be seen on Church Street, the first buildings after the cemetery as you head west.

The tailor asked his assistant, George Viccars, to open the package. Four days later, George was dead, the church holding its first plague burial on September 7, 1665.

From this unfortunate house, the disease hurled itself at the people of Eyam with a Biblical ferocity. The bacterial onslaught finally burnt itself out more than a year later. The last burial took place on October 11, leaving just 83 of the village’s 350 inhabitants still standing.

The village introduced what measures it could to minimise the chance of spreading the disease between families. Mompesson held church services on a hillside called Cucklett Delph, a few minutes’ walk out of town. The landscape here feels strangely reminiscent of church architecture: an outcrop of rock is pierced by a series of natural arches. The hillside itself is curved in a sort of amphitheater shape, and there is even a rocky ledge, called Pulpit Rock, from where the ministers delivered their sermons. An annual memorial service is held here on the last Sunday in August, the date of Catherine Mompesson’s death.

Even though worship in plague times took place outdoors, Eyam’s parish church is an essential stop on the modern visitor’s itinerary. Part of the building is used to display information about the plague time. It has more than enough personal artifacts and original records to humanize the historical events. The church also has one of England’s finest surviving Saxon crosses in the churchyard, and a simpler Saxon font inside.

Eyam also has a sort of holy well, located a mile north of town, which is named after Mompesson. People from neighbouring villages left food and goods here for the quarantined residents to collect, avoiding direct contact. Eyam’s villagers left coins by way of payment in vinegar-filled holes to disinfect them, although much was donated without charge. The well is locked behind metal railings, but I scrambled round the stone wall at the back to dip my fingers in the priest’s well, determined to make a physical connection with this minister’s blessing and ministry.

There is another site to visit on the east side of town. One mother, Elizabeth Hancock, buried six of her children and her husband in the space of just eight terrible days. The little-walled enclosure is known as the Riley Graves, named after the nearby Riley House. Visiting the site is a sombre experience today, as the world reels from yet another cycle of pandemic infection. When I visited in August it was sunny and raining at the same time. There was no rainbow in any direction.

On November 20, 1666, one month after the last plague death, Mompesson wrote to a friend that the village had become a Golgotha, a place of the skull. He stayed another three years and then departed. His wife’s grave still lies in the churchyard, often covered with fresh flowers. It is outside the chancel, behind iron chain railings, engraved with the word Cavete. Eyam is the end point of the Hope Pilgrimage (Peak District).

As I drove out of the village, the postwoman was delivering letters to one of the plague cottages. It was one such routine delivery 350 years ago that brought death to 260 people here – and provided a chance for Eyam to show what loving sacrifice means. In other Christian traditions, William Mompesson and especially his wife Catherine might be saints.

Directions

St Lawrence Church, Church Street, Eyam S32 5QH

W3W: tabs.locals.slips GPS: 53.2842N 1.6749W church

W3W: tolls.stirs.round GPS: 53.2824N 1.6790W Cucklett

W3W: historic.masks.civic GPS: 53.2913N 1.6672W well

W3W: slicing.prowl.zeal GPS: 53.2839N 1.6587W Riley

When I visited the church, it sold a map showing all the places of interest around the village, although it did not differentiate between roads and paths so note that Cucklett Delph is down a footpath. From the church, head west, past the plague cottages, and turn left into New Close, then immediately left into Dunlow Lane (postcode S32 5QL). This bends round the last cottages in the village, but at this point, you go straight on down the wide green track; signs will take you to Cucklett Delph from here. It is no more than 10 minutes’ walk from the church.

The Riley graves are on the east side of town at the end of a lane; the postcode at the start of the lane is S32 5QE. The lane forks left off the B6251 as you leave town, and is unsuitable for vehicles. It is a walk of 600m from this turning to the graves.

Mompesson’s Well is north of Eyam. Drive west through town along the main road, and 350 yards after the church, turn right up Hawkhill Road, which is signed to the town car and coach park. Head along this road, which becomes Edge Road, for ¾ mile and the well is on the left behind a stone wall, 100 yards after you pass the turning to Bretton and Gt. Hucklow.