A step back in time

On or around 10th August 1666, Elizabeth Hancock was burying the last of her family at the Riley Graves in Eyam. Her husband and six children had all died of the plague in a week. Hers is just one story from the plague village of Eyam in Derbyshire: a place where almost every stone tells a story.
The story of the plague village began sometime earlier, of course. The panels on each cottage or Inn record those who died. The lists include whole families.
My walk began in the free car park on the edge of the village. I set off up hill. Note to reader: its quite hilly round Eyam. With the Autumn colours in the landscape it was quite beautiful. The Riley Graves are set in an enclosure in a field. At the time, in order to avoid spreading the disease, public funerals were not held and Elizabeth Hancock buried her whole family herself.

I came back into the village by the Chapel. A notice there tells that Revd Thomas Stanley was a dissenter and in 1662, just a few years earlier, had been removed from his living. He stayed in Eyam and helped his successor, Revd Mompasson, during the plague years. He was one of my forebears in faith.
The village has some excellent cafés, most of which were full of cyclists on a sunny Sunday. The museum is also very interesting, telling the story of the plague, if indeed that’s what it was. Unidentified haemorrhagic illness is the best than can be said from current evidence. DNA testing of those folks descended from plague survivors is currently being used to help develop a vaccine for HIV. I left the village as it started to rain, determined to return for more walks in the future.

From Psalm 139: God, you have looked for me and you know me. You know when I sit down and when I get up; you perceive my thoughts from far away. You understand my travelling and my resting; you are familiar with all my ways.

After so long, the memory of this faithful group of ordinary people lives on. The village is ordinary enough too, but a walk in those lanes is to step back in time and wonder at life and death then, and how it was to survive.

God grant a quiet night and a peaceful end.

JAL 20.10.2019, Eyam, Derbyshire.