Eyam Plague

[Sheffield History]

 

Appropriate given the current Coronavirus Covid-19 scenario, here's a walk through the village of Eyam on a bright sunny day for those who can't get out of their home to go walking etc

Put it on full screen, grab a cuppa, and enjoy this calm leisurely walk through Eyam Village and I'm sure we can reflect on their actions back in the plague days, and how it mirrors the kind of self isolation we are currently being asked to do in order to save lives.

Enjoy..

[History dude]

We once went there with the Manor Memoires people.

Bet the residents never thought that they would be in that situation again!

I once saw a documentary on channel four about how some of the residents never got the plague and some became ill and recovered. A person who recovered put this down to eating bacon!

However they tested the DNA of modern residents, who were the descendants of those that survived, and that revealed that from those that had got sick and recovered got one part of a two part gene inherited from one of their parents. And if they got one part of the gene from the father and one part from the mother they were completely immune to the black death. It seems those that had survived the original plague of the 14th Century developed this gene in response to it. The residences many years later when it attacked again had one or two parts of the genes. Those families that had not inherited the gene of course did die in the epidemic.

Ironically those that have inherited the gene from both parents are also immune to the AIDS virus. Which uses the same way of invading the white cells as did the black death. Neither of the two virus' can invade the white cells due to this genetic mutation.        

[Davey1889]

Does anybody here remember the Eyam boot factories, specifically the one owned by the West family?

I bought a book a few years ago that was the memoirs of somebody who grew up in Eyam in the 40's that referred to the owner as Pharaoh West because of how he treated his workers. This was my Great Uncle who I never met but knowing the other males in my family this is entirely in character!

Apparently the factory closed in the 50's when Edmund West embezzled a deal of money and drowned himself in the village pond which may or may not be true...

[Edmund]

The factory was still in production in 1957 - see here, visit by Derbyshire Archaeological and Natural History Society:

Derbyshire 1957 A.M.H Soc Bulletin

The firm was liquidated in 1975:

[Davey1889]

Thanks Edmund! That's really helpful...