I can't say that any of the characters felt unique, and that was probably one of my biggest problems with it. The subject matter was similarly mediocre. 'The plague, the church, village herbal women fight the patriarchy' has been done to death, and there wasn't much that made this exploration of those topics unique. Furthermore, the pacing was unnecessarily ponderous, and I spent much of this novel wondering when something was finally going to happen. Sure, it's basically Mae's coming of age story, but I wasn't interested in her at all, so I was pretty bored throughout. By November, when the plague had claimed no more lives for some weeks, it was believed the outbreak was over. Some 260 lives had been claimed, according to church records. The plague ran its course over 14 months and one account states that it killed at least 260 villagers, with only 83 surviving out of a population of 350. [18] That figure has been challenged, with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given. [18] The church in Eyam has a record of 273 individuals who were victims of the plague. [21] The Plague Village of Eyam, Derbyshire, John Symmonds, St George’s News – Waterlooville’s Parish Magazine, December 2017

Ross, Eleanor. "Did this sleepy village stop the Great Plague". BBC – Travel. BBC . Retrieved 2 September 2020. Civil parish population 2011". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office for National Statistics . Retrieved 24 March 2016. But rather than flee, the terrified locals united behind their rector, The Rev William Mompesson. He argued that they should quarantine themselves, allowing nobody to enter or leave the village – fully knowing that many would not survive. It was believed that the vinegar would disinfect the money and help stop the spread of the disease. As well as Eyam, we get to travel to the plague capital city of London. This brings the small and isolated village into stark contrast and it shows how the plague ravaged the streets, people’s lives and the entire country as a result. Those poor villagers, miles away, were never far from my mind.

'Their selfless decision saved the north of England'

From the M6, Macclesfield or Buxton... If travelling northbound on the M6 - from junction 17 through Congleton then Macclesfield. Coming southbound on the M6 - junction 19 and follow signs through Knutsford. Both routes - follow signs to Buxton then A6 eastbound towards Bakewell. Approximately 4 miles east of Buxton turn onto the B6049 north-east until it crosses the A623, turn east towards Chesterfield. Approx 2 miles east turn north onto small road to Foolow. Turn east in Foolow towards Eyam. Riley Grave-Stones: a Derbyshire story", published under a pseudonym in The London Magazine for January – June 1823. [55] An account of the plague in Eyam and the encounter between the author and a granddaughter of one of the victims, it is prefaced by lines purporting to come from a poem titled "The Plague of Eyam" and also contains the lyric "Eyam Banks". The Church’s dominance in the 17th Century was still supreme, even after the religious roller-coaster of the Tudor period. The local Reverends were pillars of the community, often the most educated people in the village. Eyam had two Reverends. Thomas Stanley had been dismissed from his official post for refusing to take the Oath of Conformity and use the Common Book of Prayer. His replacement, Reverend William Mompesson had worked in the village for a year. Aged 28, Mompesson lived in the rectory with his wife Catherine and their two small children. Both highly educated, it was the actions of Stanley and Mompesson that resulted in the outbreak of plague in Eyam being contained to the village and not spreading to the nearby city of Sheffield. This was another place where outlying villages used to deliver parcels to Eyam and money dipped in vinegar was exchanged. Wet Withens Embanked Stone Circle – Northwest of Grindleford, Derbyshire". www.stone-circles.org.uk.

The Great Plague - the outbreak which affected Eyam in 1665 - saw entire areas completely quarantine themselves to avoid spreading the disease. Restrictions on any public gatherings, church ceremonies and funerals were banned in 1665, just like now. In hindsight, I thought it helped add her understanding of what really happens. But I mostly found it awkward, confusing and unnecessary. The villagers of Eyam were ground zero for an outbreak of bubonic plague that had apparently been introduced to the remote village from flea infested bolts of cloth brought into the town. Best guess estimates of the population in 1665 set it around 380 villagers. By the fall of 1666, only about 120 were left. While people all over London and other places in England were hurriedly leaving the areas of plague infection, the villagers of Eyam, under the strong guidance of their pastor Michael Mompellion, decided to stay put, self-quarantine themselves and ride out the storm. They saw it as a test of their faith and trust toward God, and felt that they would be blessed beyond all measure once the plague left them.A three point plan was established and agreed with the villagers. The most important part of this was the setting up of a Cordon Sanitaire or quarantine. This line went around the outskirts of the village and no Eyam resident was allowed to pass it. Signs were erected along the line to warn travellers not to enter. During the time of the quarantine there were almost no attempts to cross the line, even at the peak of the disease in the summer of 1666. Eyam was not a self supporting village. It needed supplies. To this end the village was supplied with food and essentials from surrounding villages. The Earl of Devonshire himself provided supplies that were left at the southern boundary of the village. To pay for these supplies the villagers left money in water troughs that were filled with vinegar. With the limited understanding they did possess, the villagers realised that vinegar helped to kill off the disease. Spare minutes of a country parson: A volume of miscellaneous poetry. Manchester. 1874. pp.43–44. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link)

It is now known some were genetically immune to the plague – and there are still some of those descendants living in the village today. For the dying, though, there was indignity and suffering, thankfully for just a few days; for the dead, not even the dignity of a funeral service. Villanova Digital Library – A Moral Ballad of the Plague of Eyam, 1666". digital.library.villanova.edu. What really captivated me about this was the fact that it's all told from the perspective of Leah, Mae's older, and long dead, sister. I cannot stress enough how well this was done. Leah's character, despite not being able to directly interact with any of the other characters, is so well thought out. She is flawed and sometimes really unlikeable, but altogether human. People are looking for answers. It's also a time with great political and religious unrest; not to mention what they consider the real threat of witches.In 1665 a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor of Eyam. This bundle led to the spread of the bubonic plague throughout the village. Following subsequent deaths, therector Reverend William Mompesson advised the entire village to quarantine itself to prevent the spread of the disease to neighbouring villages (a rather apt story considering the recent pandemic). A It had the symptoms of a very bad flu – headache, nausea, weakness, fever. It sometimes affected breathing. The main features were swellings, called buboes – some as big as an egg, Many people died of it. At that time, although many cures were tried, there was really no cure for the Plague. There were no vaccines, no NHS, no national advice through the media. The best people could do was to quarantine themselves to try to prevent the plague passing from one person to another. Nobody knew how it was spread. It was generally believed to be airborne.

Het draait rond Mae en Isabel, twee vrouwen met een interesse in geneeskunde en dan komt het woord heks dichtbij in de 17de eeuw. Maar we leren ook Isabel's man Johan zijn achtergrondverhaal kennen. Hij trekt naar Londen waar hij de gevolgen van de pestepidemie waarneemt. En dan heb je nog Rafe, die bij Isabel en Johan woont en waar Mae wel interesse in heeft. Eyam Banks", an anonymously authored lyric that accompanied an account of the plague published in 1823. [50] What could have been just another book about how witches lived in the 17th century turned out to be quite satisfying. While the plague didn't discriminate, killing young, healthy people as much as anyone else, Covid-19 is said to be more dangerous for older people and those with health issues such as heart disease, lung disease or diabetes.

Eyam was then contained and survived on its own for the next 14 months. They decided to rely on themselves and received supplies from outlying villages. When the scale of the epidemic became obvious, anyone who could afford to leave London did so. By early summer 1665, the King, his court, and parliament had all fled, leaving behind those citizens who could not afford to abandon their homes and livelihoods. These fortunate few did not return until February 1666 when the plague began to fizzle out. However, out of those left behind, records indicate that between 1665 and 1666, out of a total population of 460,000 as few as 68,596 or as many as 100,000 people died in London of the contagion.