Bravery

Radio Record, Volume III, Issue 39, 11 April 1930, Page 28

Bravery

ERD is one of the rarest stories of collective bravery I have encountered. It concerns the little village of Hyam in Derbyshire. When the great Plague of London was raging, a box of clothes was sent from London to a tailor in the village they were damp. The servant who dried them became ill, and speedily died, as did others in the same house. ‘The dread plague had arrived. There was a stampede from the Village, a great rush to reach the wind-swept moors and put pestilence behind. But the rector, William Mompesson, did-an extraordinary thing. He saw that this action would spread the plague throughout the north of England. So he called together the 350 souls of the village and put the case to them: that they, in the interests of others, remain within a circle drawn a mile round the village; that food be brought to depots on that line from the surrounding villages, and no one g0 outside. Gripped by his plea, they stayed: for twelve months not a soul left the village, and the dreaded plague

was not scattered round the countryside, but stayed within Eyam. Three hundred and fifty souls there were at the start of that ordeal. There remained 88 when the Dark Death suddenly left. Two hundred and sixtythree died and were buried there. Mompesson’s wife was amongst them. I agree with Morton when he says that if any village ever earned a V.C. it was Eyam, for its cool, deliberate bravery.- Olive.