Bristol Channel floods, 1607
Encyclopedia
The Bristol Channel floods, which occurred on 30 January 1607 (New style
), resulted in the drowning of a large number of people and the destruction of a large amount of farmland and livestock. Recent research has suggested that the cause may have been a tsunami
.
) floods resulted in the drowning of an estimated 3,000 or more people, with houses and villages swept away, an estimated 200 square miles (518 km²) of farmland inundated and livestock destroyed, wrecking the local economy along the coasts of the Bristol Channel
and Severn Estuary
, in what was then the Kingdom of England
.
The devastation was particularly severe on the Welsh
side, extending from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire
to above Chepstow
in Monmouthshire
. Cardiff
was the most badly affected town. The coasts of Devon
and the Somerset Levels
as far inland as Glastonbury Tor
, 14 miles (23 km) from the coast, were also affected. The sea wall at Burnham-on-Sea
gave way, and the water flowed over the low lying levels and moors. Thirty villages in Somerset were affected, including Brean
which was "swallowed up" and where seven out the nine houses were destroyed with 26 of the inhabitants dying. For ten days the Church of All Saints
at Kingston Seymour
, near Weston-super-Mare
, was filled with water to a depth of 5 feet (1.5 m). A chiselled mark remains showing that the maximum height of the water was 8 metres above sea level.
A number of commemorative plaques still remain, up to 8 feet (2 m) above sea level, showing how high the waters rose on the sides of surviving churches. For example at Goldcliff near Newport
the church has a small brass plaque, inside on the north wall near the altar, about three feet above ground level today at this point, marking the height of the flood waters. The plaque records the year as 1606 because, under the Julian calendar
in use at that time, the new year did not start until Lady Day
, 25 March.
The flood was commemorated in the contemporary pamphlet entitled God's warning to the people of England by the great overflowing of the waters or floods.
. Traditionally it had been believed that the flood
s were caused by a storm surge
, a combination of meteorological extremes
and a high tide
.
Written evidence from the time describes events that were similar to those that unfolded in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, including a wave of water that rushed in faster than men could run, sparks coming off the top of the wave, a crowd of people who stood and watched the wave coming towards them until it was too late to run, and the sea receding before the wave arrived. Some of the most detailed accounts also state that it had been a sunny morning.
A 2002 research paper, following investigations by Professor Simon Haslett of Bath Spa University
and Australian geologist Ted Bryant of the University of Wollongong
, suggested that the flooding may have been caused by a tsunami, after the authors had read some eyewitness accounts in the historical reports which described the flood just like a tsunami.
The BBC
made a programme exploring the theory (The Killer Wave of 1607) as part of the Timewatch
series. Although made prior to the 2004 tsunami disaster
, it was not broadcast until 2 April 2005 and was repeated on 24 January 2007.
The British Geological Survey
has suggested that as there is no evidence of a landslide off the continental shelf, a tsunami would most likely have been caused by an earthquake on a known unstable fault
off the coast of Ireland
, causing the vertical displacement of the sea floor.
to Gloucestershire
and the Gower Peninsula
; and rock erosion characteristic of high water velocities throughout the Severn Estuary
.
There are also similarities, however, to descriptions of the 1953 floods in East Anglia
, which were caused by a storm surge. Some of the original sources frequently referred to the high spring tide and strong winds from the south west - classic conditions for a storm surge. Horsburgh and Horritt have shown that the tide and probable weather at the time were capable of generating a surge that is totally consistent with the observed inundation.
Furthermore, the same original sources make it clear that flooding occurred in Norfolk
on the night of the same date (at local high water). There is no plausible candidate tsunami that could have affected the Bristol Channel and also have propagated into the North Sea with any significant amplitude.
and Oldbury
could also be endangered.
On the 400th anniversary (30 January 2007), BBC Somerset looked at the possible causes and asked whether it could it happen again in the county
.
Old Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
), resulted in the drowning of a large number of people and the destruction of a large amount of farmland and livestock. Recent research has suggested that the cause may have been a tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
.
Extent
On 30 January 1607 (New styleOld Style and New Style dates
Old Style and New Style are used in English language historical studies either to indicate that the start of the Julian year has been adjusted to start on 1 January even though documents written at the time use a different start of year ; or to indicate that a date conforms to the Julian...
) floods resulted in the drowning of an estimated 3,000 or more people, with houses and villages swept away, an estimated 200 square miles (518 km²) of farmland inundated and livestock destroyed, wrecking the local economy along the coasts of the Bristol Channel
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
and Severn Estuary
Severn Estuary
The Severn Estuary is the estuary of the River Severn, the longest river in Great Britain. Its high tidal range means it has been at the centre of discussions in the UK regarding renewable energy.-Geography:...
, in what was then the Kingdom of England
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
.
The devastation was particularly severe on the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
side, extending from Laugharne in Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
to above Chepstow
Chepstow
Chepstow is a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye, close to its confluence with the River Severn, and close to the western end of the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway...
in Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
. Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
was the most badly affected town. The coasts of Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
and the Somerset Levels
Somerset Levels
The Somerset Levels, or the Somerset Levels and Moors as they are less commonly but more correctly known, is a sparsely populated coastal plain and wetland area of central Somerset, South West England, between the Quantock and Mendip Hills...
as far inland as Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor
Glastonbury Tor is a hill at Glastonbury, Somerset, England, which features the roofless St. Michael's Tower. The site is managed by the National Trust. It has been designated as a Scheduled Ancient Monument ....
, 14 miles (23 km) from the coast, were also affected. The sea wall at Burnham-on-Sea
Burnham-on-Sea
Burnham-on-Sea is a town in Somerset, England, at the mouth of the River Parrett and Bridgwater Bay. Burnham was a small village until the late 18th century, when it began to grow because of its popularity as a seaside resort. It forms part of the parish of Burnham-on-Sea and Highbridge...
gave way, and the water flowed over the low lying levels and moors. Thirty villages in Somerset were affected, including Brean
Brean
Brean is a village and civil parish between Weston-super-Mare and Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, England. The name is derived from "Bryn" Brythonic and Modern Welsh for a hill....
which was "swallowed up" and where seven out the nine houses were destroyed with 26 of the inhabitants dying. For ten days the Church of All Saints
Church of All Saints, Kingston Seymour
The Church of All Saints in Kingston Seymour, Somerset, England date from the late 14th or early 15th century. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.The base of the font is older than the church itself being Norman in origin....
at Kingston Seymour
Kingston Seymour
Kingston Seymour is a small village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated within the unitary authority of North Somerset, between Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare on the North Somerset Levels. The parish has a population of 338...
, near Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare
Weston-super-Mare is a seaside resort, town and civil parish in the unitary authority of North Somerset, which is within the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. It is located on the Bristol Channel coast, south west of Bristol, spanning the coast between the bounding high ground of Worlebury...
, was filled with water to a depth of 5 feet (1.5 m). A chiselled mark remains showing that the maximum height of the water was 8 metres above sea level.
A number of commemorative plaques still remain, up to 8 feet (2 m) above sea level, showing how high the waters rose on the sides of surviving churches. For example at Goldcliff near Newport
Newport
Newport is a city and unitary authority area in Wales. Standing on the banks of the River Usk, it is located about east of Cardiff and is the largest urban area within the historic county boundaries of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent...
the church has a small brass plaque, inside on the north wall near the altar, about three feet above ground level today at this point, marking the height of the flood waters. The plaque records the year as 1606 because, under the Julian calendar
Julian calendar
The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...
in use at that time, the new year did not start until Lady Day
Lady Day
In the western Liturgical year, Lady Day is the traditional name of the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin in some English speaking countries. It is the first of the four traditional English quarter days. The "Lady" was the Virgin Mary. The term derives from Middle English, when some...
, 25 March.
The flood was commemorated in the contemporary pamphlet entitled God's warning to the people of England by the great overflowing of the waters or floods.
Possible causes
The cause of the flood remains disputed, insofar as contemporary explanations blamed God. Subsequent scientific explanations ignored much of the written evidence and blamed bad weather, until recent research suggested a tsunamiTsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
. Traditionally it had been believed that the flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
s were caused by a storm surge
Storm surge
A storm surge is an offshore rise of water associated with a low pressure weather system, typically tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones. Storm surges are caused primarily by high winds pushing on the ocean's surface. The wind causes the water to pile up higher than the ordinary sea...
, a combination of meteorological extremes
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
and a high tide
Tide
Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....
.
Written evidence from the time describes events that were similar to those that unfolded in the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, including a wave of water that rushed in faster than men could run, sparks coming off the top of the wave, a crowd of people who stood and watched the wave coming towards them until it was too late to run, and the sea receding before the wave arrived. Some of the most detailed accounts also state that it had been a sunny morning.
A 2002 research paper, following investigations by Professor Simon Haslett of Bath Spa University
Bath Spa University
Bath Spa University is a university based in, and around, Bath, England. The institution was previously known as Bath College of Higher Education, and later Bath Spa University College...
and Australian geologist Ted Bryant of the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
, suggested that the flooding may have been caused by a tsunami, after the authors had read some eyewitness accounts in the historical reports which described the flood just like a tsunami.
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
made a programme exploring the theory (The Killer Wave of 1607) as part of the Timewatch
Timewatch
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29th September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual...
series. Although made prior to the 2004 tsunami disaster
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...
, it was not broadcast until 2 April 2005 and was repeated on 24 January 2007.
The British Geological Survey
British Geological Survey
The British Geological Survey is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. The BGS headquarters are in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, but other centres...
has suggested that as there is no evidence of a landslide off the continental shelf, a tsunami would most likely have been caused by an earthquake on a known unstable fault
Geologic fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust result from the action of tectonic forces...
off the coast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, causing the vertical displacement of the sea floor.
Evidence
Haslett and Bryant found significant evidence for the tsunami hypothesis. This included: massive boulders that had been displaced up the beach by enormous force; a layer up to 8 inches (20 cm) thick composed of sand, shells and stones within an otherwise constant deposit of mud that was found in boreholes from DevonDevon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
to Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
and the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
; and rock erosion characteristic of high water velocities throughout the Severn Estuary
Bristol Channel
The Bristol Channel is a major inlet in the island of Great Britain, separating South Wales from Devon and Somerset in South West England. It extends from the lower estuary of the River Severn to the North Atlantic Ocean...
.
There are also similarities, however, to descriptions of the 1953 floods in East Anglia
North Sea flood of 1953
The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm, that occurred on the night of Saturday 31 January 1953 and morning of 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.A combination of a high spring tide and a severe European windstorm caused a...
, which were caused by a storm surge. Some of the original sources frequently referred to the high spring tide and strong winds from the south west - classic conditions for a storm surge. Horsburgh and Horritt have shown that the tide and probable weather at the time were capable of generating a surge that is totally consistent with the observed inundation.
Furthermore, the same original sources make it clear that flooding occurred in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
on the night of the same date (at local high water). There is no plausible candidate tsunami that could have affected the Bristol Channel and also have propagated into the North Sea with any significant amplitude.
Future recurrence
While the risk of similar future events is considered to be low, is is estimated that the potential cost caused by comparable flooding to residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural property could range between £7 to £13 billion at 2007 insured values. Concern has also been expressed that the safety of the nuclear power stations at Hinkley PointHinkley Point
Hinkley Point is a headland on the Bristol Channel coast of Somerset, England, five miles north of Bridgwater and five miles west of Burnham-on-Sea, close to the mouth of the River Parrett....
and Oldbury
Oldbury nuclear power station
Oldbury nuclear power station is a nuclear power station located on the south bank of the River Severn close to the village of Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire, England. It is operated by Magnox North Limited, on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority...
could also be endangered.
On the 400th anniversary (30 January 2007), BBC Somerset looked at the possible causes and asked whether it could it happen again in the county
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
.
External links
- The great flood of 1607: could it happen again? (BBC Somerset)
- Anniversary of 1607 killer wave (BBC News)
Published sources
- Horsburgh, K.J. and M. Horritt (2006), The Bristol Channel floods of 1607 – reconstruction and analysis. Weather, 61(10), 272–277.
See also
- List of natural disasters in the United Kingdom
- List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll
- List of Deadliest Tsunami
- Geology of the United Kingdom
- Tsunamis in the United KingdomTsunamis in the United KingdomTsunamis affecting the British Isles are rare, and there have only been two confirmed cases in recorded history. However, meteotsunamis are somewhat more common, especially on the southern coasts of England around the English and Bristol Channels....
- 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant floodThe 1999 Blayais Nuclear Power Plant flood was a flood that took place on the evening of December 27, 1999. It was caused when a combination of the tide and high winds led to the sea walls of the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant in France being overwhelmed...