Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The lessons Hancock’s ancestors could teach us all about lockdown
Eyam’s courage remembered
sidents of plaguewould never have so reckless, they say. Cummings’ actions
is as if people think wo fingers up at the quote Dominic me. But if he stuck fire it isn’t as if we e same. We all have to live by our own morals and even though times are difficult we have just got to hold on to that.
“My family were survivors of the plague. I think in history we too will remember the people who lost their lives in this crisis.”
Across the road Claire Raw, a social worker and district councillor, has seen families struggle through the crisis with no help at all. Claire says:
“The way the
Government has handled this crisis has been very poor. If we had gone into lockdown sooner we would have saved thousands of lives.”
In the centre of the village it is clear how seriously locals are taking this latest pandemic. Handwritten signs declare Eyam to be closed, and people are asked not to sit on wooden picnic benches outside the closed pubs and cafes, such as the Village Green cafe run by Sarah Price, 50. She closed her doors the Friday before lockdown for fear of spreading the virus.
It is not hard to imagine the terror and agony of villagers who quarantined themselves in these streets 355 years ago.
Eyam seemed a long way away from London, which was being ravaged by the Black Death, when the tailor received the bale of cloth from the capital in August 1665.
His assistant George Viccars hung the cloth in front of the hearth to dry, unknowingly releasing plague-infected fleas.
George died of a raging fever on September 7 – Eyam’s first victim.
As more villagers fell ill, newly appointed rector William Mompesson decided that church services would be held outdoors, at nearby Cucklett Delf, a beauty spot where a service is still held every year.
But the pestilence quickly swept through the community, and between September and December 1665 42 villagers died, by which time many of the rest were on the verge of fleeing their homes and livelihoods to save themselves.
At this point Mompesson intervened and, believing it was his duty to prevent the plague spreading and killing many more, decided the village should be quarantined.
Meeting with villagers on June 24, 1666, the clergyman told his parishioners Eyam must be enclosed, with no one allowed in or out, promising that he would remain with them, willing to sacrifice his own life rather than see nearby communities decimated.
Despite knowing they were condemning themselves to almost certain death, villagers agreed to the “cordon sanitaire”.
For years afterwards, Eyam was known as the “plague village” and outsiders were too afraid to enter.
Today, though, it is precisely this that keeps tourists coming, with visitors keen to learn all about its history as the village that sacrificed itself to save others.
Finders International is a specialist probate genealogist firm and features on the BBC’S Heir Hunters TV series.
www.findersinternational.co.uk.