<P> The lead mining tithe was due to the rectors by ancient custom . They received one penny for every' dish' of ore and twopence farthing for every load of hillock - stuff . Owing to the working of a newly discovered rich vein during the 18th century, the Eyam living was a valuable one . Mining continued into the 19th century, after which better sources were discovered and a change - over was made to the working and treatment of fluorspar as a slagging agent in smelting . The last to close was the Ladywash Mine, which was operative between 1948--79 . Within a 3 miles radius of the village there are 439 known mines, (some running beneath the village itself), that are drained by 49 drainage levels (' soughs'). </P> <P> According to the 1841 Census for Eyam, there were 954 inhabitants living in the parish, chiefly employed in agriculture, lead mining, and cotton and silk weaving . By the 1881 Census, most men either worked as lead miners or in the manufacture of boots and shoes, a trade that only ended in the 1960s . The transition from industrial village to tourist based economy is underlined by Roger Ridgeway's statement that, at the beginning of the 20th century, "a hundred horses and carts would have been seen taking fluorspar to Grindleford and Hassop stations . Today, up to a dozen coach loads of visiting children arrive each day in the village ." </P> <P> The history of the plague in the village began in 1665 when a flea - infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor . Within a week his assistant George Vicars was dead and more began dying in the household soon after . As the disease spread, the villagers turned for leadership to their rector, the Reverend William Mompesson, and the Puritan Minister Thomas Stanley . These introduced a number of precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1666 . They included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and relocation of church services to the natural amphitheatre of Cucklett Delph, allowing villagers to separate themselves and so reducing the risk of infection . Perhaps the best - known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease . </P> <P> The plague ran its course over 14 months and one account states that it killed at least 260 villagers, with only 83 surviving out of a population of 350 . This figure has been challenged on a number of occasions with alternative figures of 430 survivors from a population of around 800 being given . The church in Eyam has a record of 273 individuals who were victims of the plague . Survival among those affected appeared random, as many who remained alive had had close contact with those who died but never caught the disease . For example, Elizabeth Hancock was uninfected despite burying six children and her husband in eight days (the graves are known as the Riley graves after the farm where they lived). The unofficial village gravedigger, Marshall Howe, also survived despite handling many infected bodies . </P>

How did the plague spread from london to eyam