Roses of Eyam

The Roses of Eyam is a remarkable and true story of a village stricken with plague through the arrival from London of a box of clothing; of the villagers’ determination, under the persuasions of the present and former Rectors, to prevent its spread by remaining within the village and containing the disease at the certain risk of their own lives; of the human tragedies and even comedies that ensued; of the idealism and the courage required to live with that idealism. Eyam’s closest city, Sheffield, was saved from an outbreak and other villages were protected.

The Coronavirus crisis has powerful echoes in the Derbyshire village of Eyam that once self-isolated to save others. The parallels between Eyam’s self-imposed quarantine and our own recent social isolation draw relatable comparisons to the bubonic plague outbreak of 1665-6, when the inhabitants of Eyam quarantined themselves, in a famous act of self-sacrifice.