British Tsunami 1607

[Andy_T]

Did anyone see this documentary?
I just noticed it's posted on YouTube and titled "The Killer Wave of 1607".

Eye witness accounts mention sparks and smoke coming off the mountain high waves and this was said to be a phenomena reported by many eyewitnesses of Tsunamis. Also geological evidence around coastlines of the Bristol Channel of a Tsunami, although it's not possible to date the event from the geological evidence.

The program said 2000 people and hundreds of thousands of sheep & cattle died and the scary thing is that a fault line in the Irish see caused an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale about 30 years ago.
Now the population in the lowlands of the Bristol Chanel is in the tens of thousands so if an earthquake measuring >6 on the Richter scale would result in a far greater loss of life today than the event in January 1607.

Andy_T       

[Ruskie]

The TV programme mentioned refered to aired in 2005. Many of the people who contibuted to the thread haven’t logged in for years.  I am sure the subject may be of interest to others though. (More people in the world now than in 1607 so it probably follows that there would be more deathsj.

In the brown bar at the top of the page you will see headings HOME FORUM HELP etc ..... if you click on HOME you will see a list of topics currently being discussed (includes both brand new and ‘revived’ topics such as this). There may be something of interest there which you might like to contribute to.

[Viktoria]

Well there was “the great storm” which completed the silting up of the River Zwin which had made Bruges a great seaport.
It had gradually been silting up for years but the storm at the same time as
the one mentioned if memory serves me right,I will have to check,finished
the job.
However that meant Bruges did not develop like Antwerp for example and we have the lovely town almost trapped in time.
The marshes left are now a fantastic bird sanctuary and the sleepy towns of Damme , Sluis  and  Oostkerke fell asleep.
The irony was that a great storm in the eleven hundreds had opened up the river .
I wonder if the “tsunami” was anything to do with the storm that silted up
the Zwin.
Viktoria
Well found the book which I ought to have consulted in the first place
and don ‘t think there is any connection,distance for one thing but dates too .
Sorry. How do I delete posts?
Viktoria.

[hanes teulu]

An article in the Monmouthshire Merlin, 26 Sep 1829, referred to a tract entitled "God's warning to his people of England by the great overflowing or floods, .... London 1607" as the source of the story.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A00015.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

[Cell]

Did anyone see this documentary?
I just noticed it's posted on YouTube and titled "The Killer Wave of 1607".

Eye witness accounts mention sparks and smoke coming off the mountain high waves and this was said to be a phenomena reported by many eyewitnesses of Tsunamis. Also geological evidence around coastlines of the Bristol Channel of a Tsunami, although it's not possible to date the event from the geological evidence.

The program said 2000 people and hundreds of thousands of sheep & cattle died and the scary thing is that a fault line in the Irish see caused an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale about 30 years ago.
Now the population in the lowlands of the Bristol Chanel is in the tens of thousands so if an earthquake measuring >6 on the Richter scale would result in a far greater loss of life today than the event in January 1607.

Andy_T       

Thanks for bringing attention to it (that it's now on youtube) . I've now just watched it   . It certainly looks as if it was a tsunami and not a flood/storm It's the eyewitness reports they can't dismiss ( the pamphlets) .
It must have been one hell of a speed to be faster than a greyhound, and to kill that  many people, plus the "sparks".
Very interesting. Being in Aus I didn't get to see it on the Tv when it was released.  I read. about it an article on it in one of the papers at the time ( before documentary was made or aired).
Kind regards:)

[Andy_T]

Thanks for your feedback and thoughts cell and it's great that you found the documentary on YouTube.

Andy_T

[ozlady]

There's a brass in Goldcliff Church commemorating the great flood. An interesting account of the event in Roy Palmer's "Tales of Old Monmouthshire", Logaston Press.

[Mowsehowse]

Strange for this thread to re-open after lying dormant for so long.

I had moved to Newport (Gwent,) around 2004 and I remember the whole area gearing up to 400 year anniversary events to mark the massive flooding which had occured. 

Almost every village church we visited on the Gwent Levels has a plaque showing the height the water reached.

There were talks by Professor Simon Haslett who worked out of Newport University for a time, flower festivals and pageants as I recall.

I suppose we were all more tsunami conscious at the time, after the horror of Boxing Day 2004, but research seems to prove that the coast of Ireland was not involved in such flooding in 1606/1607.

This lack of evidence in Ireland does point towards a huge storm surge creating an unusually fierce Severn Bore rather than a genuine tsunami.
https://static.rms.com/email/documents/fl_1607_bristol_channel_floods.pdf

Nevertheless, there was desperate flooding causing massive damage and great loss of life all over the Gwent and Somerset levels.