Famed for the way they protected their neighbours from the Plague, Eyam is not just a plague village.

The museum not only tells the Plague Story, but also relates the earlier development of the village, and its recovery after the Plague, as a centre for farming, mining, and, at various times, for the manufacture of shoes and silk products.

In 1665 a tailor from Eyam ordered a box of materials relating to his trade from London, that he was to make into clothes for the villagers. He unwittingly triggered a chain of events that led to 260 Eyam villagers dying from bubonic plague – more than double the mortality rate suffered by the citizens of London in the Great Plague.

Between the first death and the last, the villagers set an extraordinary and enduring example of self-sacrifice by sealing off the village from the surrounding areas to prevent the disease spreading.  More poignant than ever given the recent pandemic

The Museum tells their story.