In the heart of the Peak District, north of Bakewell, lies a village which appears like any other you’ll find in this national park. With pretty stone cottages and narrow streets, the village of Eyam certainly doesn’t look out of place.
Yet take a wander around this village and you’ll notice strange clusters of gravestones in odd locations, signs for ‘plague cottages’ and morbid skull and crossbones symbols carved onto graves. Visit here on Bonfire Night and instead of an effigy of Guy Fawkes being burned, you’ll see a giant rat. These all hint at Eyam’s dark history, and how it earned the name the ‘Plague Village’.
During the bubonic plague of 1665-1666 the village became known for its self-imposed lockdown, which helped to prevent the spread of the disease to nearby populations, at the cost of more than 250 lives of Eyam residents.
