Plague Cottage. Sign outside Plague Cottage, Eyam, Derbyshire, UK, commemorating the site where the first victims died of the bubonic plague, after it spread from London during the Great Plague of London in 1665. Plague is caused by Yersinia pestis bacteria. The Great Plague (1665-1666) was the last major bubonic plague to occur in England and killed an estimated 100,000 people. It is thought to have been spread to Eyam by a merchant carrying a parcel of contaminated cloth sent from London.