Eyam

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Eyam (pronounced "Eem") is a small village in Derbyshire, England. The village is best known for being the "plague village" that chose to isolate itself when the Black Death was found in the village in August 1665, rather than see the infection travel further north.

1 Plague history
2 Eyam's role in genetic research
3 Saxon cross
4 FEEDBACK

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Plague history

The plague had been brought to the village in a flea-infested bundle of cloth that was delivered to tailor George Vicars from London. Within a week he was dead. After the initial deaths, the townspeople turned to their rector, William Mompesson and the Puritan Minister Thomas Stanley. They introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread on the illness from May 1665. These included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and the relocation of church services from the parish church of St. Laurence to Cucklett Delph to allow villagers to separate themselves, 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 raged in the village for 16 months and killed at least 260 villagers: only 83 villagers survived out of a population of 350.

When the first outsiders visited Eyam a year later, they found less than a quarter the village had survived the plague. Survival appeared random, as many plague survivors had close contact with the bacterium, but never caught the disease. For example, Elizabeth Hancock never became ill, despite burying six children and her husband in eight days (the graves are known as the Hancock graves). The unofficial village grave digger also survived, despite handling many infected bodies.

The novels Year of Wonders (2001) by Geraldine Brooks and A parcel of patterns (1983) by Jill Paton Walsh are fictional accounts of the plague in Eyam.

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Eyam's role in genetic research

Some research indicates that the villagers of Eyam may have had some genetic protection from the bubonic plague. A CCR5 gene mutation designated as "delta 32" was found in a statistically significant number, 14%, of direct descendants of the plague survivors. The Delta 32 mutation appears to be very rare. In fact, the levels of Delta 32 found in Eyam were only matched in regions of Europe that had been affected by the plague and in Americans of European origin. It has also been suggested that the Delta 32 mutation, if inherited from both parents, may provide immunity to HIV/AIDS.

More recent research at Scripps Research Institute disputes the hypothesis that the Delta 32 mutation provided protection against the plague, suggesting instead that it is more likely to have arisen as protection against some other disease common at the time, such as smallpox. This new hypothesis is still being tested.

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Saxon cross

Eyam churchyard contains a Saxon cross dated to the 7th or 8th centuries. Initially, it was located at the side of a cart track near to Eyam. After the plague it was moved to its present location. It is Grade I listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

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FEEDBACK

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County: Derbyshire

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