The village that quarantined itself during the plague

A closer look

Three centuries before global lockdowns became a trend, the tiny village of Eyam set the gold standard for self-sacrifice. When the bubonic plague arrived in a batch of flea-infested cloth, the villagers made the agonizing decision to seal themselves off from the surrounding towns. You can now walk the grim boundary stones where food was dropped off in exchange for vinegar-soaked coins, honoring a town that chose collective doom to save the north.