It's appropriate to remember the Village of Eyam and its sacrifice.

As we face Lockdown it is  a very apt time to remember the village of a mall village in Derbyshire called Eyam, and  the heroic sacrifice made by its villagers to arrest the spread of infection.

The bubonic plague was a much feared disease in mediaeval Europe. Known as the ‘black death’, it turned victim’s skin to patches of black as the flesh rotted within. This was accompanied by inflamed glands or 'buboes', compulsive vomiting, splitting headache and eventually death. When the disease first took epidemic proportions between 1346 and 1353, it wiped out an estimated 100 million people from the face of the earth, or nearly one-fourth of the world population. The bubonic plague broke again in London in 1665–66, and although smaller in scale compared to the 14th century outbreak, it still claimed some 100,000 lives in London alone.

The history of the plague in the village began in 1665 when a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor.^[13] Within a week his assistant George Vicars was dead and more began dying in the household soon after.^[14]

As the disease spread, the villagers turned for leadership to their rector, the Reverend William Mompesson, and the ejected Puritan minister Thomas Stanley.

The fact that two ministers who may well have been fundamentally opposed to each other  co-operated speaks volumes

 They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1666. The measures included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and relocation of church services to the natural amphitheatre of Cucklett Delphallowing villagers to separate themselves and so reducing the risk of infection. Perhaps the best-known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease.

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.^[14] That figure has been challenged on a number of occasions, with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given.^[14] The church in Eyam has a record of 273 individuals who were victims of the plague.^[16]

Survival among those affected appeared random, as many who remained alive had had close contact with those who died but never caught the disease. For example, Elizabeth Hancock was uninfected despite burying six children and her husband in eight days. The graves are known as the Riley graves after the farm where they lived^] The unofficial village gravedigger, Marshall Howe, also survived, despite handling many infected bodies.

The village's actions prevented the disease from moving into surrounding areas.

So don't moan, about self isolation and lock down , but inform others of what services are  available  and how to use them  ,

Like new bus and rail timetables,

New Pharmacy open Hours and how to use them.

Business that have closed or operating differently.

Stay at Home and Stay Safe.