Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Monday, 23 November 2020
Sunday, 22 November 2020
Why is Eyam Significant? by Victoria Masson
Historic UK
Why is Eyam Significant?
by Victoria Masson
Eyam is a small village in Derbyshire. Lying between Buxton and Chesterfield it is just north of Bakewell in the Peak District. Typically rural, most of its population were farmers. In the early 1660s it did not stand apart from any of the other numerous villages that lined the trade routes from London to the rest of England. And yet in 1665 Eyam became one of the most significant villages in England. The actions of its 800 inhabitants had far reaching and important consequences for the development of treatment of the plague.
1665-6 was the last major epidemic of the plague to occur in England. As was normal the plague concentrated in London. As the rich (Including King Charles II) fled the capital to their country estates, the authorities did little. Left to fend for themselves, the poor and uneducated of London faced a merciless and terrifying foe. When the House of Lords finally met to discuss the crisis the following year they decided, instead of relief measures and aid, that the policy of ‘shutting up’ of infected individuals with their household would not apply to persons of note and that plague hospitals would not be built near to the homes of the nobility. This selfish and callous attitude added to the feeling of abandonment for many of the poor left in London.
The movement of the rich alongside the normal trade patterns of England meant that the great plague spread quickly across the country. Rural areas that may previously have been safe from the diseases of urban areas were also exposed. The plague arrived in Eyam in late August 1665. It came in a parcel of cloth sent from London to the village tailor Alexander Hadfield. When Hadfield’s assistant George Viccars spread the cloth out by the fire to air, he found it was infested with rat fleas. He died a few days later with his burial being recorded in the parish registers on 7th September 1665.
Plague Cottage
Spread by infected fleas from small animals, the bacteria enters the skin through a flea bite and travels via the lymphatic system to a lymph node causing it to swell. This causes the characteristic buboes which typically appeared under the arm but could surface in the neck or groin area also. Combined with the black bruising under the surface of the skin, fever, vomiting and spasms, the plague was a truly terrifying disease that spread with a startling ferocity.
People of the 17th Century believed in numerous theories regarding the origins of the plague. Most believed that it was a punishment sent by God for the sins of the world. People sought forgiveness through prayer and by repenting for their sins. Many felt that it was caused by bad air, which they referred to as miasma. Those who could afford it would carry pomanders stuffed with sweet herbs and spices or carry sweet smelling flowers. Windows and doors were closed and many, especially watchers and searchers in plague hit London, would smoke tobacco. Large piles of foul smelling rubbish were also cleared.
While these methods helped indirectly, for example ridding the city of rubbish meant that the rats spreading the disease had to move on for a reliable food source. Many had limited to no effect.
However in Eyam, a small village in the north, they acted in a unique way. Their intention was to act decisively and prevent the spread of disease.
Eyam Parish Church
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.
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.
Mompesson’s well on the village boundary, used to exchange money for food and medicine with other villages.
Other measures taken included the plan to bury all plague victims as quickly as possible and as near to the place they died rather than in the village cemetery. They were correct in their belief that this would reduce the risk of the disease spreading from corpses waiting to be buried. This was combined with the locking up of the church to avoid parishioners being crammed into church pews. They instead moved to open air services to avoid the spread of the disease.
The village of Eyam, while undoubtedly saving the lives of thousands in the surrounding area, paid a high price. Percentage wise they suffered a higher death toll than that of London. 260 Eyam villagers died over the 14 months of the plague out of a total population of 800. 76 families were affected by the plague; many such as the Thorpe family were wiped out completely. However the impact on medical understanding was significant.
Stained glass window in Eyam Church
Doctors realised that the use of an enforced quarantine zone could limit or prevent the spread of disease. The use of quarantine zones are used in England to this day to contain the spread of diseases such as foot and mouth. It took longer for the ideas of quarantine to filter through to become common practice in hospitals. Florence Nightingale pioneered the use of isolation wards to limit the spread of infectious diseases in hospitals during the Crimean war. This is still used today, with hospitals learning quickly that to contain the spread of diseases such as the Norovirus, isolation wards needed to be used.
Other lessons were learnt from the methods used at Eyam. Doctors began to use other practices to limit the risk of contamination. At Eyam this was done by paying for food supplies by dropping coins into pots of vinegar or water, preventing the coins from being directly handed over. This continues today with the use of sterilisation of equipment and medical clothing. Most recently, lessons learnt from Eyam have been seen in the handling of the Ebola epidemic in Africa. The quick disposal of bodies close to the immediate area of death has limited the risk of spreading the disease.
So, why is the small village of Eyam significant? In the words of a Victorian local Historian William Wood…
“Let all who tread the green fields of Eyam remember, with feelings of awe and veneration, that beneath their feet repose the ashes of those moral heroes, who with a sublime, heroic and unparalleled resolution gave up their lives, yea doomed themselves to pestilential death to save the surrounding country. Their self sacrifice is unequalled in the annals of the world.”
After 1666, although there were many isolated outbreaks, there were no further epidemics of the plague in England. While the events at Eyam did little to change attitudes initially, in the longer term scientists, doctors and the medical world used Eyam as a case study in the prevention of disease.
By Victoria Masson.
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Dairy by Mark Antony Raines
It is going to be a difficult Christmas this year whatever the government come up with number s or bubbles we must learn from history. If you let people intermix Covid 19 will be fed and it will spread again in possible bigger numbers and possibly more deaths the yet another major lock down is it not worth like other religious group s have shown us to just let be a low key one this year.
Babouscka by Mark Antony Raines

In a far off land lived a very very old woman who's name was Babouscka .
She is sitting by a glowing warm fire in her snug little cottage,she was glad of the fire as outside the cottage was nothing but snow .
"How I am glad to be inside" said Babouscka.
Suddenly she heard a loud rap on her cottage door ,she walks slowly from the bed warm fire to see who it could be for visitors were a rare thing.
She opened the door with her lighted candle in her hand,the flicking light of the candle revealed three old man with beards as white as snow and so long their almost touched the ground.
In the arms of this three old man were a box of jewels,sweet smelling oils and ointments.
"We have traveled far, Babouscka," said they, "and we stop to tell you of the Baby Prince born this night in Bethlehem. He comes to rule the world and teach all men to be loving and true. We carry Him gifts. Come with us, Babouscka!"
But Babouscka stood looking a bit confused and said .
"I sorry I can't help you the weather is cold and I need my fire,I wish you well in your journey"
She then slams the door on the three old man so the man go back to their journey to a place called Bethlehem.
After sometime sitting in her rocking chair by the fire she began to think about this baby Prince she heard the three old man call Christ,for she truly loved babies.
Tomorrow I will go to find Him," she said; "tomorrow, when it is light, and I will carry Him some toys."
The next morning Babouscka out on her warmest clothes and filled a basket full of toys for a baby would enjoy to play with.
But poor Babouscka soon realised as she went further into her journey She did not the road to Bethlehem and the three old men had travelled to far for her to overtake them.
Up and down roads,through woods and fields she travelled.
If by chance she met anyone she would say.
"I go to find the Christ Child. Where does he lie? I bring some pretty toys for His sake."
But No one could tell her which way to go ,and so she travelled for years Upon years But she never found that little baby,the Christ child.
They say that old Babouscka is traveling still, looking for Him. When it comes Christmas eve, and the children are lying fast asleep, Babouscka comes softly through the snowy fields and towns, wrapped in her long cloak and carrying her basket on her arm. With her staff she raps gently at the doors and goes inside and holds her candle close to the little children's faces.
Babouscka takes toys from her basket and lays them beside third pillows and whispers into the children s ear this Is a present from the Christ child.
Then she disappears into the night.
Saturday, 21 November 2020
The Snow Man by Mark Antony Raine
The Snow Man by Mark Antony Raines
Once upon a time and long time ago a freshly made snowman who was just made by the children was thinking to himself.
"It is very cold in this field and wind is making my whole body crackle.I wonder what that round yellow thing is surrounded by white bits of fluff ."
The snowman began to feel very odd as he was beginning to realise he was alive
The snowman had two pieces of coal for eyes;a carrot for a nose ;his month was made out of a broken rake :his arms were old broom handles but he had no feet.
As he his existence came known all the children shouted and laughed with joy and in the distance could be heard the ringing and jingling of sleigh bells.
A nearby stray dog barked in a very hoarse voice "Away Away with you "
The Snowman looked at him with a child like curiosity and asked.
"Why dog do you say away to me"
The dog just replied that had seen his predecessor last winter and when the sun goes stronger in the sky he was gone;and nd so was his friend "
At this news the snowman became really sad and wondered how he could escape this fate as he too would miss his new friends.
The dog replied .
"You better hurry as I my hairs are beginning to molt a sign of this cold weather conditions changing soon"
I don't understand you my new friend I find most disagreeable :the yellow round circle in the sky surely could not hurt me so"
Again the dog repeats to the snowman to go away then he turns around three times and runs off.
The weather did change for the next morning and thick fog covered the field and a keen wind arose that was so cold it seemed to freeze one's bones.
The fog broke to reveal the yellow round object in the sky which the snowman now knew was called the sun as his children's friends had told him.
Trees were covered with frost and the forest in the distance looked like white coral.
And where the sun shone, how everything glittered and sparkled, as if diamond dust had been strewn about; while the snowy carpet of the earth appeared as if covered with diamonds, from which countless lights gleamed, whiter than even the snow itself.
The snowman told a young girl how beautiful this thing she called winter was but she replied she much preferred the Summer.
The little girls brother said it would not be possible to have such a jolly snowman in the summer to play with.
The girl laughed, and nodded at the Snow Man, and then tripped away over the snow with her friend. The snow creaked and crackled beneath her feet, as if she had been treading on starch.
Later the girl and boy had to go home to have some tea so the snowman was beginning to feel lonely.
The dog who had told him to go away early came back to say he was sorry for being rude. It was just that he missed his old snowman friend.
The snowman said that it was ok and perhaps he could be the dogs new friend.
The snowman and dog had a really good chat until the snowman man realized the cold was delightful and the dog became very sad.
The snowman asked him what was wrong; the dog then told the snowman his story.
"When I was younger, much prettier than I am now, I used to live in a house and lie in a velvet-covered chair and sit in my mistress' lap.
She would kiss my nose and cuddle me and if my paws were wet or muddy she would wipe them with her handkerchief.
I received good meal and plenty of walks oh how I miss it"
The dog replied.
"I was obliged,"
"They turned me out of doors, and chained me up here. I had bitten the youngest of my master's sons in the leg, because he kicked away the bone I was gnawing. 'Bone for bone,' I thought; but they were so angry, and from that time I have been fastened with a chain, and lost my bone. Don't you hear how hoarse I am. Away, away! I can't talk anymore like other dogs. Away, away, that is the end of it all."
What a strange crackling I feel within me," he said. "Shall I ever get in there?thought the snowman who was feeling sorry for his new friend the dog.
"How can I help you my new friend "asked the snowman to the dog.
The dog replied that the snowman could use his magic time to get him back into the house so he could say to his family he was really sorry for what he did and the snowman would be a great plaything for his family's boy and girl.
The snowman agreed to help.
So in a puff of a shower of snow and glittering frost both the dog and the snowman were outside the dogs previous home.
The dog was very nervous and full of dread and so went ahead back into the fields when the snowman rang the bell with one of his broom stick arms .
A little girl answered the door :screaming with delight :followed by her brother then there mum and dad who had missed the dog terribly as the boy had felt guilty about making the dog angry enough to bite him ;Mum and Dad were sorry to have treated the dog so badly.
What any of them could understand they could have sworn that they saw a snowman standing beside the dog but the next minute it was gone.
Sitting in the field was the snowman :the sun was getting hotter and he was beginning to melt but this time he was not afraid as he knew if he was needed he would come back again to help.
The sun got hotter, all the snow was gone lying on the green grass of the field were two pieces of coal;all old rake;a rotting carrot and two old broom handles formerly known as the Snow Man.
"Come from your fragrant home, green thyme;
Stretch your soft branches, willow-tree;
The months are bringing the sweet spring-time,
When the lark in the sky sings joyfully.
Come gentle sun, while the cuckoo sings,
And I'll mock his note in my wanderings."
And nobody thought any more of the Snow Man.
Friday, 20 November 2020
SuperMarkets
Here in Devon local people refuse to shop at Morriston s due to no inforcement of wearing of masks or social distancing and no disinfection sprays supplied to spray trolleys.