How many times have some of us driven past Eyam Hall and wondered what it must be like inside.
On our May field trip, members of the History Club at last found out and what an eye-opener it turned out to be. Built around 1671 on the sturdy, solid, English – almost going back to Tudor – style (no Continental fripperies here!) the rooms are quite small with a lot of passageways and larders and nooks and crannies. Because the rooms are quite low and are filled with the family’s portraits and furniture built up over eleven generations, they are full of old-time charm and character. The Eyam Carollers used to sing some of their unique local carols in the entrance hall and how very Christmassy that was, with a big open log fire flanked by two ancient bacon-settles (bench-seats with cupboards built in behind, in which cured sides of bacon were kept dry).
There can’t be many houses where all the generations of the same family are portrayed around the walls, but here we saw the Wright family going from wearing Ruffs in the 1600’s to wearing Redcoat military uniforms in the 1700’s and right through to the family group photographs of today.
The National Trust did us proud with wonderful cake and coffee on our arrival before leading us up a Jacobean staircase and into a bedroom with a four-poster bed complete with a 350 year old coverlet (recently discovered in an old chest). Also upstairs is the library, a nursery area complete with a railway lay-out, dolls houses etc. and another room lined with tapestries, some of which go back to the1400s. This was regarded as the warmest room in the house in which to do needlework.
In a display case showing a Victorian lady’s jewellery, there is a very pretty bracelet in which the links are in the form of Swastikas. This harks back to the time when the Swastika was regarded as a good-luck charm and long before Mr. Hitler had debased it into a hated and much reviled symbol.
In the glass of one of the bedroom window- panes, a love-struck young man in the 1700’s, skilfully engraved an eight line poem to a Miss Fanny Holme of Stockport (he was later married twice, but never to the fair Fanny!)
It is quite amazing that such a substantial building should be put up only five or six years after the Plague had reduced Eyam to a population of only about 100 – Where did the workforce come from?
However, they did manage to create a most atmospheric house with immense character and homeliness (the most worn-out flagstone leads into the pantry!)
After all that cake, the Club still managed to put away some very fine butties and chips, later on at the Anchor. You should come and join us – but watch out for the waistline!
Brian Woodall