12: Eyam

14 months of quarantine - Sound familiar? That's what the village of Eyam had to do when The Great Plague made it's way to their village in Derbyshire in 1665. Classics teacher, baker and vegetable grower, Vic Boorman joins Nicky and Ben to throwback to their timely trip to Eyam in Summer 2020. Vic also lets us in on a lesser known historical hobby of hers, Letterboxing.

References:

Balding, C. (2016) Eyam, Derbyshire, Ramblings - Series 32, [Available at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0745gt3]

Brooks, G. (2001). Year of wonders: A novel of the plague. New York: Viking. Chicago

Foster, A. (2020) Eyam, The Plague Village (Pandemic Super Special), Vulgar History [Available at https://anchor.fm/vulgarhistory]

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Transcript

00:00:01 Ben

Hello and welcome back to the Benjamin Britain Podcast podcast where we chat about all the sites in Clive Aslett landmarks of Britain.

00:00:08 Ben

The 500 down relax that made our history and we invite people who have been to these places with me to chat about our days out there and the history that happened.

00:00:16 Nicky

I'm Nicky and I'm one of the Co.

00:00:18 Nicky

Presenters and editors.

00:00:19 Ben

And I'm Ben Sullivan and this is my project.

00:00:22 Ben

Which people seem quite interested in.

00:00:24 Ben

So we made a podcast about it.

00:00:25 Nicky

Then do we have any comments on our last episode before we get into this?

00:00:29 Speaker 3

Thanks.

00:00:30 Ben

We do our last episode with Amy was a fun one and listeners should know that August Amy came out in the same day as she released a podcast which she had produced for BBC Sounds.

00:00:42 Ben

It's called

00:00:43 Ben

Black Jewish Lives Matter, and if you want more Amy Leibowitz audio action, you should definitely check out her broadcasting. People sounds 'cause it's.

00:00:51 Ben

Absolutely brilliant. So well done Amy. On two massive publications Saturday.

00:00:52 Vic

Yep.

00:00:57 Ben

And yeah, that's a couple of couple of fun comments. Yeah, Amys Landmark was Gordon's wine bar in London. And two my friends reached out and told me that their first date was at Gordons Weimar.

00:01:08 Vic

Lovely.

00:01:08 Ben

If only they knew the historical significance. And yeah, somebody reached out. We shall not be named and asked why, why I hadn't introduced me to them yet.

00:01:11 Speaker 3

And then.

00:01:11 Speaker 3

Then

00:01:18 Ben

So yeah, maybe Benjamin.

00:01:19 Ben

Britten will double up as a matchmaking service in future.

00:01:23 Nicky

And everyone will have to meet Gordon's line.

00:01:24 Speaker 3

No.

00:01:25 Ben

Oh yeah, warehouse warehouse to go through historical date.

00:01:28 Ben

Exactly.

00:01:28 Ben

Was a it was a fun episode.

00:01:30 Nicky

If anyone wants to leave any other comments on that episode or any of the other ones they've listened to, they can do so on our Instagram at Benjamin Britten Pod or Facebook page.

00:01:40 Nicky

Then I understand that you may have not mentioned one of the birthday presents that you got from your botanist.

00:01:46 Ben

Stuff.

00:01:47 Ben

I know and it's a really good present too. They bought me a my very own plot of land and so I'm officially a landowner in Britain.

00:01:57 Ben

Not as big as my first broadband. I anticipated it to be. It's 100 square inches on a farm in North Devon and which they have bought for me for her from a local farmer.

00:02:03 Nicky

Wow.

00:02:09 Ben

It's this is a real.

00:02:10 Ben

Thing a lot of languages my own and I've decided to name it Benjamin.

00:02:15 Ben

Britten, of course. What else?

00:02:16 Vic

I need to.

00:02:17 Nicky

Go along with your siblings and plants. They I don't know Welsh flag maybe?

00:02:20 Speaker 3

Huh?

00:02:23 Ben

Well it’s a piece of land in North Devon, exactly wells, and I've also decided it's Sam, one of the potential sites where I'm going to bury the book.

00:02:27 Vic

Close vessel.

00:02:31 Ben

When I'm finished with this project, Benjamin Britten in Benjamin Britten. Yeah, let the worms enjoy it for that numbers, yeah.

00:02:32 Nicky

Nice.

00:02:36 Vic

I like it.

00:02:38 Nicky

So it would be site #501 really.

00:02:41

Oh yeah.

00:02:42 Nicky

OK, so getting onto you today's episode. This is a lovely chat that we have offering Vic which throws back to a trick that the two of us up some of our other friends went on in the summer of 2020.

00:02:55 Nicky

So it's quite recent and it is very, very much linked to the theme of the year it was played.

00:03:01 Speaker 3

Yes.

00:03:02 Nicky

Isolation, quarantine, and so we think you're really going to enjoy it and then later in the episode we talk about Vic's passion, her hobby for letterboxing.

00:03:04 Speaker 3

Thanks.

00:03:12 Speaker 3

You got lost.

00:03:13 Nicky

You're gonna love it you're gonna love it maybe look y'all even decide to take it up yourself. So without further ado, let's head over to Vic.

00:03:14 Speaker 3

Sorry.

00:03:25 Ben

2nd, It's guest is someone we've known since 2009, and our first year of university. She's a classic teacher who, despite being pretty chilled about any history which takes place.

00:03:28 Speaker 4

Benjamin Britten, yet the places and spaces around you.

00:03:34 Ben

Today

00:03:34 Ben

00:03:46 Ben

After the fall of Rome has done 25 historical landmarks with me.

00:03:51 Ben

I'd call her a.

00:03:52 Ben

Reluctant landmark are. It's just a shame for her.

00:03:55 Ben

She's engaged to a man who absolutely loves them. It's the allotment loving baking expert. It's Nick borman. Welcome to the podcast.

00:04:03 Speaker 3

Hello.

00:04:05 Vic

Thanks for having me reluctant land marker is is definitely a good title for me.

00:04:10 Ben

Yeah, I mean for somebody reluctant you should have done a lot of them.

00:04:13 Vic

Some weekends, then some weekends it's the only time I get to see Alex is when I go to an unlock with you and him.

00:04:21 Nicky

We are referring to Alex Fenton who did the Hellfire Caves episode.

00:04:25 Ben

Yes, your fiance is Alex Fenton, who has done 76 land.

00:04:30 Ben

Access which is more than anyone else but from Nicky, he's really the number one landmark fan and I don't think you quite match his enthusiasm. Pick. Would that be fair to say?

00:04:38 Vic

That would be an understatement, yes.

00:04:42 Vic

I mean I, I love him, I love history and I love you, but I cannot stand lamb.

00:04:45 Ben

00:04:50 Speaker 3

00:04:51 Nicky

Excellent, I'm really glad you've come along.

00:04:55 Ben

Very good, we're off to a flying start.

00:05:00 Nicky

Is it because they take Alex away from from you or is it you know there's a bit more to it than that?

00:05:06 Vic

Yeah, good question. OK, Full disclosure. I actually don't and I'm nervous saying this 'cause I know this is recorded. I actually don't.

00:05:14 Vic

8 landmarks, but I I was married around a few. I can't read what they were Ben, but like some early early days in the kissing rain and I just didn't really understand what I was doing in a field.

00:05:22 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:05:24 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:05:27 Vic

Looking at like the rock or some type back somewhere, and so I've started like create this character of just hating landmarks.

00:05:35 Speaker 4

Huh?

00:05:35 Vic

But it's actually the nugget of it, and Ben knows is really. I don't actually hate landmarks. I secretly like nightly.

00:05:42 Ben

Wow, I knew I knew deep down underneath the levels of resentment and hatred there was someone who actually liked going to sit battle sites in the pouring rain.

00:05:52 Vic

Yeah, you've got to really love the history of the thing that you're looking at, and also most of the time. I just never really. I never listened to your little.

00:06:00 Vic

Level start explaining what you're looking at. Unless it was a Roman one, I'd listen to the Roman one.

00:06:05 Nicky

As a teacher of Classics, is there a point where you're like? These ones are great. I don't care about these ones.

00:06:12 Vic

We actually had this conversation this afternoon about my not about which landmark I would choose for the podcast, but which are some of my favorites. I like anything with a good story. I think a lot of them are quite juicy and.

00:06:22 Ben

Yeah.

00:06:24 Vic

Like did I don't know someone got murdered there or something happened like right like those ones.

00:06:29 Ben

We have done at least one Roman Fort Vick. I remember we did. We did richboro. Manafort didn't win.

00:06:34 Vic

I'm glad you named it 'cause I couldn't remember the name, but that's that's a highlight for me.

00:06:39 Nicky

What do we have we had?

00:06:40 Nicky

Headsets or like one of those walkie talkies and you could walk around, visualize what was going on and the road to London and onwards.

00:06:43 Speaker 3

OK.

00:06:48 Vic

Kind of thing, but.

00:06:49 Vic

Yeah, rich grows up there 'cause it was the gateway I guess for the Romans into England and into the UK and.

00:06:55 Vic

And that's a hugely important part, and you don't really need to know much about Roman history to appreciate what that symbolize or what that meant.

00:07:02 Ben

There's one landmark in particular in the 25 you visited, which I think you were genuinely excited. I've been more excited than any.

00:07:09 Ben

Nelson, it's not the mark you chose to discuss today, but it's the one we visited in Lancaster. You remember this one.

00:07:16 Vic

It nearly was. It was nearly my Jason one for today.

00:07:20 Ben

And I hardly even remember what that landmark is, and that's me. What was it? They were furniture makers, right?

00:07:25 Vic

They were yes, yeah. So it was. It was a historical furniture maker and my dad makes furniture in the market town of fine with him.

00:07:33 Vic

He knew exactly who they were, and they're like a household name, and I think I am my father daughter.

00:07:38 Vic

So I appreciated the kind of niche that he found himself in a furniture world, hence why I was very excited to meet one of his.

00:07:45 Vic

Princesses.

00:07:46 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:07:46 Ben

I'm so delighted by that memory. It's a very rare landmark which I am totally unenthusiastic about and this one just did not did not do it for me at all, so there's nobody I'd rather have done that landmark with in the world than you.

00:07:58 Nicky

Yeah, yeah.

00:08:00 Vic

Yeah, but have you have you never met me before Ben? I like things that everyone else hates so I I find my niche being a weird one.

00:08:06 Speaker 3

Hi.

00:08:08 Ben

And.

00:08:09 Ben

Right furniture got it? Zack you're you're getting married to Alex Fenton at some point in the future, is that right?

00:08:17 Vic

Monday one day

00:08:19 Vic

At the moment, yes.

00:08:22 Ben

Well, I just want to let you know I've got a book full of 500 venues for potential weddings.

00:08:26 Speaker 3

2nd.

00:08:27 Ben

If you're interested, you know you can.

00:08:30 Ben

Flick through it, you can choose.

00:08:31 Ben

Whichever one you want, no problem with me.

00:08:33 Vic

I've got 2 words for you. Fuck off

00:08:36 Nicky

2nd.

00:08:37 Vic

Come for any listeners out there that just think I just hate landmarks. I don't but part part of my relationship with Ben I think needs explaining the night Alex proposed.

00:08:49 Vic

This is nearly it wasn't just shy of 13 years.

00:08:53 Vic

With the fucker

00:08:54 Vic

Right 90 years I've been in the waiting that very night.

00:08:58 Vic

Alex suggested, let's get married at a historical landmark. Then we'll be really happy.

00:09:02 Vic

Second, he doesn't understand my reference to embrace and unlocked. That is why.

00:09:05 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:09:13 Nicky

That's not, that's not all of it. It's the fact that you have to share your anniversary with Ben Ben birthdays, of which he always tries to get people to go to landmarks.

00:09:24 Ben

It was my birthday before it was your anniversary, OK?

00:09:26 Nicky

I'm done.

00:09:29 Ben

At the adjust.

00:09:30 Nicky

Well, I'm sure we can draw you up a short list.

00:09:33 Nicky

But it has to be one that Ben hasn't done yet. Otherwise you.

00:09:36 Ben

Yeah, exactly exactly. And and then my Instagram photo can be straight from your wedding photographer. We'd have to get everyone together.

00:09:36 Nicky

Know boys?

00:09:43 Ben

You know you and Alex can be in the middle if you want. I suppose we'll get the book in. I'll set my tripod that, but we'll take a nice group photo and.

00:09:50 Vic

And, uh, here's a question. Is Lindisfarne and a landmark?

00:09:55 Ben

Yes, yes it is.

00:09:56 Vic

This this is the conversation.

00:09:57 Vic

You said before yes it as a as a girl.

00:10:00 Vic

Lindisfarne was the place I wanted to get married. No spoilers. It's it's not my chosen landmark for today, but wouldn't that be a cool place to get married?

00:10:10 Ben

I'm.

00:10:11 Ben

I'm indifferent, I mean it be OK, you know. I mean all right.

00:10:18 Ben

Get me there right now.

00:10:20 Nicky

Good, the groundwork is set.

00:10:21 Speaker 3

Hey.

00:10:22 Ben

Vic, you're into classics. We know that, but do you have a favorite period of British history? It could be from the whole suite, the whole range of British history though. I'm putting you on the spot. Oh, she's thinking.

00:10:34 Vic

That's massively put me on the spot.

00:10:36 Ben

Did you? Did you ever study at school?

00:10:37 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:10:39 Vic

No, no, well, no no, that's not true. That's not true. I've studied it in Liverpool and found it really boring.

00:10:44 Ben

Well, it does sound boring.

00:10:45 Vic

Really boring, I did Nazi Germany, but that's not British history. Vietnam War also not British. Yeah, so actually I I've. I've studied British history. Very very little actually. The most I've ever studied. It is as a teacher.

00:10:50 Ben

I did a lot of international history, yeah?

00:11:00 Vic

In terms of the Roman invasion and so like if you really pinned me down, it would probably be like the story of Boudicca and kind of the British tribes in terms of at the same time as a Roman invasion. That's probably where I'd go.

00:11:06 Ben

Nice.

00:11:12 Ben

Nice yeah.

00:11:12 Ben

Nice.

00:11:12 Nicky

Yeah, that checks out.

00:11:14 Ben

I, I don't think there's a landmark about Budaka in my book. I don't think so. Which is such a massive emission, yeah.

00:11:15 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:11:21 Nicky

No, but there's an amazing statue on Westminster Bridge, which you know could be a good alternative for at some point in the future.

00:11:25 Ben

That's amazing.

00:11:29 Ben

That is true.

00:11:31 Nicky

OK, I think now is a good time to get to the landmark that you have both visited together and knowing they think what it is.

00:11:38 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:11:41 Nicky

I also attended this landmark Vic. Would you like to tell us what your landmark of choice is from Ben?

00:11:48 Vic

Yes, I have chosen even the Plague Village in Derbyshire.

00:11:52 Ben

Excellent such a good choice. Such an appropriate choice.

00:11:57 Vic

Feels appropriate right now, huh?

00:11:58 Nicky

It does, yeah, tell us why you've chosen EME.

00:12:01 Ben

I I did not know the story of this village before before we visited at all.

00:12:06 Vic

Yeah, it was funny, wasn't it? 'cause we I sent you.

00:12:09 Vic

That book then remember.

00:12:10 Ben

Fine, I do I do.

00:12:13 Vic

Yeah, so so the story.

00:12:14 Vic

Of EME came to my attention in April Slash, May 2020. And if you think back to.

00:12:21 Vic

What we were living at the time it was the first knocked out there was a lot of confusion and a lot of fear.

00:12:26 Vic

Someone, another teacher I worked with recommended a novel a year of wonders by Geraldine Brooks and I read it and I couldn't put it down.

00:12:34 Vic

It just really stuck with me and I started to research the place of EME and one thing led to another and then Fast forward to.

00:12:42 Vic

With the August end of July 2020, we all went there, which I was really excited about because all of a sudden this novel would come to life and it really was a historical landmark. It was a really worthy place to visit and and a story to be told.

00:12:56 Ben

Amazing setup, will dive in a bit deeper in a moment I'm sure.

00:13:00 Ben

But it was the summer restrictions have been lifted, and we're all coming together, and Nicky had organized a weekend for us without telling anyone where we were ending up.

00:13:09 Ben

In fact, I think you gave us the post code like a day before, didn't you where we had to drive to?

00:13:13 Vic

Now the warning, the warning.

00:13:15 Ben

Which was a fun experience and we ended up our weekend in the Peak District.

00:13:18 Vic

So at risk of one round to say sounding a bit sort of emotional or mushy in in some ways.

00:13:23 Vic

That's why even is quite important to me as well, because that weekend was really important to all of us in 2020. Not seeing each other, we were reunited.

00:13:28 Vic

That grass

00:13:28 Vic

00:13:31 Nicky

A little bit of a white lie on my part that obviously I said there will not be any landmarks. This is not a landmark trip.

00:13:38 Ben

Nicky, I believed you are absolutely hate when landmarks get in the way of other organized activities. Yeah, because I, I hate it.

00:13:46 Ben

Like I want people to actually want to do landmarks not to be dragged along that as a general rule, sometimes people get dragged its collateral damage and so Nicky when you said we're not doing landmarks this weekend, he didn't even Google.

00:13:50 Speaker 3

Yeah, yeah.

00:13:56 Ben

That we can find.

00:13:56 Ben

00:13:59 Ben

Which landmarks were in the area? I just I just committed to the fact?

00:14:03 Ben

That we weren't doing that marks.

00:14:04 Nicky

Yeah yeah, yeah.

00:14:04 Ben

So what, So what?

00:14:06 Ben

So when Nicky organized a scavenger hunt around the Peak District, it was my one and only surprise landmark, and it was it was.

00:14:15 Ben

Incredible, yeah, but what you know Vic Tallis?

00:14:16 Vic

It's a special level.

00:14:19 Ben

Can you remember the history? You remember why? Why it would be in my book in the first place?

00:14:23 Vic

In 1665 a a bundle of cloth traveled from London up to Even so. The village in Derbyshire, and so the person received it, but they unwrapped it and they didn't realize that they let loose the fleas and that we're carrying the plague. So so that was in 1665, and essentially for like a year or so.

00:14:38 Speaker 3

00:14:43 Vic

Until 1666, in village was faint with the play.

00:14:47 Vic

Big and huge number of the the village died. The reason the village became famous was because they chose to quarantine themselves so they socially distance.

00:14:57 Vic

They met their church, met outside. So in a nutshell, that's the story of Iemand, and so by by quarantining themselves, they saved the rest of Derbyshire from the play, kind of sacrificed themselves to save everybody else.

00:15:07 Ben

Yeah, it's an amazing story, and in 2020 words like quarantine and phrases like self isolation pandemic.

00:15:16 Ben

Plague these were kind of like part of our really common vocabulary for the first time ever and then we were at historical landmarks from 350 years ago where they were having exactly the same conversations and making exactly the same decisions about self isolating to stop the spread of the disease. And I've never been at a landmark which ever felt more appropriate at the time.

00:15:36 Ben

You were there then that one so.

00:15:36 Nicky

So in the the photo that we took, we're all standing there with our with our masks on and covering up our faces in the in the local parish church.

00:15:46 Ben

Yeah.

00:15:47 Speaker 3

It's.

00:15:47 Speaker 3

00:15:47 Nicky

It's there, this, which is still obviously tiny even today.

00:15:50 Vic

I would add another word to that list, Ben. The word that I was struck by was.

00:15:54 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:15:55 Speaker 3

Oh yeah.

00:15:56 Vic

As 20 and 30 somethings, maybe we are less afraid than than some other people in our lives by kind of the current circumstances, but I was really struck by that when I read the story of ehm, they they didn't have the same understanding of medicine or treatments and bacteria for what they did have was a belief in.

00:16:12 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:16:15 Vic

Of which is and.

00:16:16 Vic

Other and and who has brought this plague on us and and you begin to turn on each other.

00:16:22 Vic

And at the time that I learned this story, that I really felt that I would go out on the street and I would be terrified to go near anybody else unless they were my friend and part of my bubble. And in on my side of things. So it was the fear, actually, that.

00:16:33 Speaker 3

Picture me.

00:16:38 Vic

It catches me the story of ehm, how terrified would the village have been or this kind of silent killer, that they didn't really understand what it was and they sort of knew what to do about?

00:16:48 Vic

Got it, yeah?

00:16:48 Vic

Got it.

00:16:48 Ben

Yeah, as Clive sets out in his little paragraph about this, and as this really plays out in the novel you mentioned, big years of wonder, it's the vicar of the town who was the authority, the leader, and it was he. His name was William Mompesson, who pushed the village into first closing the church.

00:17:08 Ben

Which obviously is a big deal in 1665.

00:17:10 Speaker 3

Umm?

00:17:11 Ben

But then the even bigger deal of saying.

00:17:12 Ben

Right, no one comes in and no one can stop my village until the Blakes gone or will dead and he convinced them to sacrifice himself and save, not spreading the playground.

00:17:23 Ben

The Peak District Clyde doesn't get emotional about many landmarks. This when he gets emotional about he spends his. He ends his description by saying they deserve to be remembered as heroes.

00:17:33 Ben

And kind of gotta. Gotta agree with that.

00:17:36 Nicky

Yeah, I can't imagine being in that situation where you go. Yeah, you know what? Actually, there's a good chance we're going to die and I think that it was. It was a really high percentage of them that died like.

00:17:46 Nicky

You, you're almost your entire family could be wiped out in some cases to be able to just say, yeah, actually we'll do this on behalf of everyone else.

00:17:54 Nicky

It's it's crazy there wasn't that much plague in that part of the country at the time. It was quite concentrated in London, right?

00:18:00 Speaker 3

Right?

00:18:00 Speaker 3

00:18:01 Nicky

And so to be able to say, actually, we're going to do this so that the rest of the mid.

00:18:06 Nicky

Lens is safe is a massive deal I I think. I don't think that many people would do that.

00:18:11 Vic

No, and that's why if you think about William and his message, compare it to our dear friend Bo Jo.

00:18:18 Vic

And actually his messages stay at home, like save lives. And how that was received by a lot of people.

00:18:18 Ben

Uh.

00:18:24 Vic

But actually, if you really dig down into the message that that is sending, it does save lives and and actually.

00:18:31 Vic

Even like if we're skeptical in the 21st century, how on Earth did they feel about 500 years ago?

00:18:37 Vic

When people just drop down dead left, right and center.

00:18:40 Nicky

They have no idea why that they didn't. At least they didn't know what it was I was listening to a podcast which I will reference in our show notes that they used to put their coins into vinegar to any bacteria off the coins so that they could put them on these.

00:18:42 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:18:53 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:18:57 Nicky

Rocks they put money down and then the merchants from other villages or towns would give them food and property.

00:19:03 Speaker 3

That's.

00:19:04 Nicky

But yeah, I thought that was interesting 'cause they obviously had some kind of recollection that there was something bad that they were touching or doing.

00:19:11 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:19:12 Nicky

But yeah, not really knowing the science, it's quite like fascinating to think how much they would have known, yeah?

00:19:18 Vic

Yeah, so vinegar vinegar has been seen as a disinfectant for ever since the Roman times. Actually, I I learned this actually through teaching about Roman toilets recently, and you know the the shared the shared pool brush that they would use instead of toilet paper.

00:19:24 Speaker 3

How?

00:19:27 Ben

2nd.

00:19:34 Vic

Would go into a bucket.

00:19:35 Vic

Of vinegar before the next user.

00:19:36 Speaker 3

00:19:38 Nicky

No.

00:19:38 Vic

And but but that for me is amazing. 'cause you think? OK, over 2000 years ago they had some idea of hygiene.

00:19:46 Speaker 3

Yeah, what?

00:19:46 Vic

Came again, not what we know, and certainly they didn't necessarily understand what was what and what caused disease and illness, but they knew what got rid of it. And they mean what could wipe it out and.

00:19:58 Vic

So yeah, that's fair from eating as well.

00:20:00 Ben

What I find fascinating is their fundamental solution to stopping a pandemic is kind of the same as ours, but before we had vaccines in that period before, I've actually been developed. Our solution was not much more sophisticated than theirs is technically fixed, it was.

00:20:14 Speaker 3

No changes.

00:20:15 Ben

It was literally stay at home and do not mix with others. Indoors is pretty simple, but it was affecting the the plague did not spread around the Peak District.

00:20:20 Vic

Yeah.

00:20:25 Ben

Mean client says between half and 3/4 the village ended up dead drama Vicweei am also as part of Nicky Scavenger Hunt ended up at this grave site outside of the town.

00:20:35 Ben

Outside of the village.

00:20:36 Vic

Riley graves yeah.

00:20:38 Ben

Right, great yeah, do you remember going going up there?

00:20:41 Vic

Isn't that the story of Elizabeth Hancock?

00:20:44 Ben

Yes, can you recall the details?

00:20:46 Vic

Yeah, her story sticks with me quite strongly, actually. So little of Hancock in the space. Is it the space of about 8 days she had to bury her six children and her husband that she remained unaffected by the plague and they will be buried together at known as Riley Graves.

00:20:53 Speaker 3

Huh?

00:20:58 Ben

Live in.

00:21:03 Vic

Named after the farm that they all lived at.

00:21:06 Ben

And and if you are in the Peak District, visiting EMU can actually go and a bit out the village to visit these this graveyard, can't you this family graveyard?

00:21:13 Vic

Yeah.

00:21:14 Ben

From the 17th century, which is eerie. It's right there on the side of a hill side of the peaks, kind of.

00:21:19 Ben

Feel the loss, yeah.

00:21:20 Vic

You do and.

00:21:21 Vic

I think you feel the loss when you visit team anyway, don't you? Because it's so much part of the history and I and I think fine.

00:21:26 Vic

We weren't alive in 1665, fifty 66, but the fear created by a plague and the effects of a plague is so human.

00:21:34 Ben

Slightly lighter tangent because obviously.

00:21:36 Ben

About the plague here, but you of course thick.

00:21:40 Ben

And you Nicky, I believe, got spending much longer in this village and I did because.

00:21:45 Ben

What?

00:21:46 Ben

What happened was I was I was in.

00:21:48 Ben

I was in a little group with with Sam Horton who was on an earlier podcast and when he realized that he had me captive really and that once he clocked.

00:22:01 Ben

That basically Alex Fenton and Vic and Nicky were going to be waiting for us to turn up at this landmark for a photo.

00:22:09 Ben

He put the brakes on our activities and I didn't quite realize what he was doing.

00:22:14 Ben

And he said, Ben Ben Ben before we go to EME.

00:22:17 Ben

Let's go to this.

00:22:18 Ben

Brewery come on let's OK Sam shut.

00:22:21 Nicky

Something to do?

00:22:22 Ben

And we must have spent an hour at this small micro brewery in the middle of nowhere drinking beer, having a great old time putting off Peter not quite clocking that you guys are sitting there in EMR, just waiting for us to show up.

00:22:35 Ben

And when I arrived, I kind of kind.

00:22:37 Ben

Of felt felt.

00:22:38 Ben

The daggers about the resentment from a.

00:22:40 Ben

From a lot of people in that little group.

00:22:42 Ben

Yeah.

00:22:43 Speaker 3

Yes.

00:22:43 Nicky

So I suppose I should probably point out at this stage that because obviously there was still a pandemic, we basically bubbled ourselves into groups.

00:22:52 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:22:52 Nicky

The activities we're doing we were outside, but paired up basically. And So what I did is I made it into a competition. I also put on Chatsworth House, knowing full well that I would never make it.

00:22:55 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:23:04 Nicky

There because I was trying to organize this treasure hunt and send clues, but I was like you know what it's fine sacrificed.

00:23:11 Nicky

But yeah, I thought I'm going to go to a team 'cause I don't want to miss this one and I'll meet everyone there and give them the fluent next clue in person when Alex and Vic turned up.

00:23:20 Nicky

You could just tell if it was like, well, come on, let's go. It's a competition. I looks like no, I think we just wait just wait a bit because it would be really good to get but it's very slow and no.

00:23:31 Nicky

Especially as knowing that I was going to stay as well side note, I was massively hungover.

00:23:37 Vic

Did you check them like round the back a few times?

00:23:40 Nicky

Yeah, like many are playing victim before me, I've stranded.

00:23:43 Speaker 3

That's right.

00:23:46 Nicky

I agree.

00:23:47 Nicky

Yeah, I was. I was sick and dying.

00:23:49 Vic

Strong at this point, though I had such mixed emotions one I was delighted that I wasn't the one. Being sick around the bit by bit, but two, I am spectacularly competitive and even though I was very, very interested in team I was.

00:23:58 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:24:02 Vic

Yeah.

00:24:02 Vic

00:24:07 Vic

More interested in not losing.

00:24:09 Nicky

Yeah we need ambition, yeah?

00:24:11 Vic

Yeah, and hence my my anger at that point.

00:24:15 Ben

I'm jealous because you guys got.

00:24:16 Speaker 3

Yeah.

00:24:16 Ben

To spend, you know the best part of an hour maybe exploring email and I I was in and out I was in and out in 10 minutes and one day I'm going to have to go back and actually, you know, take the tour and go inside the.

00:24:29 Ben

Church it was obviously closed for us.

00:24:31 Nicky

Yeah, eventually in and Sam and Briony turned up and we took a picture. I took a photo outside the church with them with all our mask and it was quite difficult to decide where to take a photo because.

00:24:35 Ben

Yeah, yeah.

00:24:43 Nicky

Like with so many of the other landmarks, it at the end of the day it's a place where lots of people have died.

00:24:49 Nicky

And it was.

00:24:49 Nicky

Yes, it is quite samba like. Even though we are having a fun time you don't want to take a photo that is disrespectful.

00:24:57 Ben

Strip.

00:24:57 Nicky

Benjamin's Britain

12: Eyam

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