WINNATS TAKES IT ALL

Four centuries ago, the bubonic plague arrived in Eyam via a package of cloth from London

When I arrive in Eyam, tired and hungry from a route that took me over two famous British hill climbs and across several windswept plateaus of the Peak District, time is already running out for mankind. “The prognosis is very poor,” says the scientist I’ve arranged to meet here. “Frankly, it’s bloody scary. People have every right to be worried.” Dr Michael Sweet is a biologist and epidemiologist at the University of Derby who is joining me for a ride around the ‘plague village’ of England.

Four centuries before social distancing, selfisolation and local lockdowns became the global norm, the bubonic plague arrived in Eyam via a package of cloth delivered from London. Today, the village is busy with mask-wearing daytrippers who have come to visit the graves and homes of some of the 260 residents who died.

The village took extraordinary precautions to protect the surrounding communities, effectively sacrificing two-thirds of its own population,” explains