The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-04-26 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER.

ALARMING EARTHQUAKE IN THE
EASTERN COUNTIES.
GREAT DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY.

On Tuesday the metropolis and portions of the
Eastern Counties were visited by several earthquake
shocks, which caused much destruction of property,
especially in Essex. The centre of agitation, if the
severity of the shock can be taken as a criterion,
appears to have been at Colchester, where, in addi-
tion to the undulation of the earth, subterranean rum-
blings were heard. The wave seems to have radiated
in all directions—north, south, and east—with the
result that in nearly every town and village in these
parts of Essex the disturbance was felt; buildings
rocked to and fro, furniture was displaced, doors were
opened, bells were rung, pictures, gasaliers, and other
pendauts were set oscillating violently, and in some
instances serious damage was done.
In London a shock was plainly felt along the line
of the Strand at twenty minutes past nine, the time
being fixed by the stoppage of one of the clocks at
the establishment of Messrs. W. H. Smith and Sons.
At this hour the compositors at the Lancet office felt
it with such distinctness that they hurried into the
street under the impression that the building was
about to fall. The men were so panic-stricken that
they refused to resume work until the surveyor bad
been sent for to certify to the safe condition of the
building. Several residents in the Strand also bear
testimony to the violence and distinctness of the shock.
A young woman engaged at one of the restaurants at
the northern side felt the chair upon which she was
sitting rock violently under her, and saw the furni-
ture in the room shaking. A tradesman states that
his attention was arrested by a crackling sound, fol-
lowed by a short but violent shock, during which
every article of furniture in the room jarred and
quivered. At a bookseller's on the south side several
employes were alarmed, and state that it appeared to
them that the volumes were about to tumble from
their shelves. As far as can be gathered, the shock
appears to have been of short duration, and to have
caused no material damage to any structure. In many
parts of London the shock is said to have been felt,
but no A larmh iou woo oatiocii.
The workmen engaged in repairing the Victoria
Tower at the Houses of Parliament were conscious
of a distinct vibration at 9.15, which was so marked
that they were apprehensive that some portion of the
ponderous building was giving way and that a
" settlement " might ensue. A careful examination
of the structure was subsequently made, but it did
not appear to have sustained any injury.
At Colchester the shock was felt at about 9.20,
turning people who had not already risen out of their
beds, unroofing houses, and splitting walls. About
40 feet of the stone spire of the Congregational
Church broke off, and fell with a loud crash, partly
into Lion-walk and partly on to the roof of the church.
The shock commenced with a rumbling sound, in-
creasing in intensity for about 20 seconds, until it
seemed as if the houses were coming down, and then
suddenly ceased. The people rushed to their doors in
alarm, and the whole of the inhabitants turned out
fearing an explosion had occurred. The police and
fire brigade assembled and went down to the gas-
works in the belief that an explosion had occurred
there, but all was comparatively safe. The entire
damage sustained in the town is estimated at £lO,OOO.
At the North Railway Station the 9.20 train, just
about to start, rocked so much that the driver was
thrown off the engine on to the platform. The shock
was felt intensely in the camp and barracks. The
Colchester Water Tower seemed to rise and subside
without sustaining any damage. In the surrounding
districts the damage is heavy. At East Morsea
several farm houses are demolished, and Langenhoe
Church is almost destroyed. Business was
practically suspended at once, schools and factories
were immediately closed, and crowds of persons
filled the streets. In all directions fallen chimneys
and portions of buildings were visible, and for some
moments people were in considerable danger in
walking through the streets. The Elephant and
Castle public-house at Headgate appears to have
been considerably shaken, a gap being made be-
tween it and Mr. Fuller's sale-room; the window-
sills are also bent by the force of the shock into the
form of a semicircle, and cracks appear in the
walls. In Mr. George Beaumont's timber-yard in
the Rawstorn road, the prostrate trees upon which
workmen were engaged rolled from side to side.
A young lady was walking in Sheep's head
meadow, at the back of the castle, and she experi-
enced no sensation of the earth moving, but saw to
her astonishment and consternation a cottage in
Maidenburgh-street topple over and become a partial
wreck without any apparent cause. On the other
band, the gardener to Mr. Horace Green, at King's
Ford, distinctly felt an upheaval of the ground, and
saw his employer's residence apparently totter. A
cottage on the estate was destroyed, happily, without
injury to the occupants. It is remarkable that at
each place within the area of the disturbance the time
of its occurrrence is noted at the same—namely, 9.20.
A special thanksgiving service for the deliverance of
the town from destruction was held at night in St.
Leonard's Church, Colchester.

The little village of Wivenhoe, situated about
three miles from Colchester, appears to have sustained
the most complete demolition. Hardly a house in the
place has escaped the loss of its chimney-stack, and
it can only be likened to a town which has undergone
a prolonged bombardment. Here, as at Colchester,
the shock was felt at 9.20, and the same state of
terror and confusion prevailed for a long time after-
wards. The whole village population turned out
of their houses, uttering loud cries of distress in their
ignorance of the cause and extent of the remarkable
phenomena, their dwellings being meanwhile con-
verted into ruins by the falling gables and chimneys.
The church at; Wivenhoe, as in the other villages,
suffered by reason of its prominence, although the
damage was not more than the dislodgment of a
portion Of the masonry of the tower. At Messrs.
Brown's rope works a tall chimney was split almost
it two, and is in imminent danger of falling, while
several chimney stacks on the dwelling-houses
adjoining were overthrown. With all this destruc-
tion only one casualty to the person is reported in the
village, that of a woman who was struck by falling
dAris, but a sad incident in connection with the
occurrence was the premature death of an invalid,
who lay in estronis, and whose end was hastened
by the shock and terror induced by the alarming
disturbance. The vicar of Great Wigborough sent to
Colchester for an explanation of the disturbance,
being under the impression that the shock was the
result of a great explosion in the vicinity. Mr.
Goodey, an architect of Colchester, at once pro-
ceeded to the Tillage and found that similar devas-
tation had been wrought there as at the surrounding
villages. The parish church had lost the pinnacles
of the tower, which had fallen on to the roof
and made great havoc, whilst the residence of
Mr. Blythe, a local landowner, had been partially
destroyed and rendered uninhabitable. A
similar condition of thimgs obtained at many
of the farmhouses in the vicinity, the upper
portions of the dwelling-houses having been
demolished, and in some of them it was impossible
that the occupants could sleep to-night owing to their
dangerous state. The old church at Langenhoe was
a complete wreck, the spire having fallen on to and
through the roof, bringing down a portion of the
wall; and this, added to the fact that the foundations
had been so shaken as to render them unsafe, will
necessitate the entire rebuilding of the edifice. At
this place also widespread destruction was observable
amongst the smaller cottages and farmhouses, by the
subsidence of walls, and the fall of chimneys and
other prominent parts of the buildings.

At Chelmsford the shock was distinctly and gene-
rally felt. The massive pile known as her Majesty's
Prison vibrated and seemed to be for a few
moments agitated as a vessel would by the swell of
the sea. The officials noticed it distinctly, and
turned, out to see what was amiss. The earth wave
seemed to travel from north-east to south-west—
that is, from the direction of Colchester. Mr. It.
Z. Pitts, Mr. P. A. Wells, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Hen-
nah, and others living near the foot of the hill felt
their houses rocking in a most remarkable mamier
for several seconds; whilst pictures on the walls
oscillated considerably and the crockery rattled. At
the same moment a horse at the top of the hill fell to
the ground, but without sustaining any material
injury. At Boreham House, the residence of Major
Tufnell-Tyrrell, the house bell sounded and the hall
clock stopped. The signal-box at Chelmsford Rail-
:my Station, which stands at a great elevation, visibly
moved from side to side, and the signalman was
bumped once or twice against the apparatus. A
patient at the Chelmsford and West Essex Infirmary
was frightened at the disturbance, the building being
agitated for several seconds, and the furniture and
pictures shaken.
An Ipswich correspondent says the duration of the
shock there was generally estimated at about three
seconds. Mr. Tommereau, 'of Christchurch Park, re-
ports that the walls of his house perceptibly shook,
and the bells rang violently, and he -thinks the oscilla-
tion mug from west to east. The Bev. E. Oakley re-
ports that a distinct rumbling accompanied the shock.
Mr. Vulliamy, county coroner, confiArns this, adding
that at his house the noise resembled that of a train
passing over a viaduct. Mr. Biddell, who lives in one
of the highest parts of the town, says -the floor of the
dining-room heaved and his chair rocked. Pendants
of a glass cone fixed to the ceiling jingled violently,
and the bells on the kitchen wall rang, and continued
to tinkle for several minutes.

Considerable excitement was caused at Sheerness,
the public buildings and private dwellings being
severely shaken. Great alarm was felt at the dock-
yard, and telegrams were despatched to various
places in the neighbourhood to ascertain if an ex-
plosion had occurred. The utmost uncertainty pre-
vailed as to the cause until the arrival of the evening
papers. The shock does not appear have been felt
by the ships at anchor ía the Medway.
A shock of earthquake was felt at Woolwich, and
appears to have been especially severe in the eastern
part of the Royal Arsenal. Mr. Wallace, manager of
the Government gasworks, states at he felt the
trembling of the ground distinctly, and that th-;
sample bottles and other articles on the desks an_
shelves of his office were visibly shaken. A clerk wh,
was writing had his hand jerked forward, so that lit;
pen described a mark of several inches upwards upoi
the page, and several foremen in the fuse and al
stores and other adjacent buildings also experience

the shock. The time was about twenty minutes after
nine a.m. t.f _

A shock was distinctly felt in Cambridge about a
quarter past nine. Some of the university buildings
were felt to shake, and in other parts of the town doors
were opened by the vibration, and glass was violently
shaken.

FOUR WOMEN BURNT TO DEATH.
In London, on Wednesday morning, shortly after
two o'clock, a fire was discovered at the Bell Hotel
(Mr. Billinghurst's), Old Bailey, opposite Newgate
prison. The conflagration, which appears to have
originated in the bar, quickly spread, and threatened
the buildings in Prujean-square, at the corner of
which the hotel is situated. Chief Engineer Fogden,
of the Watling-street Fire Station, was quickly on
the spot with an engine, but in the meantime the
hydrants had been set to work, and were
subsequently supplemented by three or four
other engines which came from various neigh-
bouring stations. Notwithstanding the energetic
efforts of the Fire Brigade, the conflagration
burned with remarkable rapidity, and at three o'clock
penetrated through the three floors to the roof, a
portion of which at least fell in. It was soon dis-
covered that the building next door to the hotel,
partly occupied by the Sunday School Union, and an
advertising agency had ignited, but the brigade suc-
ceeded in getting the fire under, and kept the confla-
gration almost entirely within the limits of the pre-
mises where it started.

That the fire had been attended with fatal results
was fully realised when the building was sufficiently
cooled to allow the firemen to make a search of the
interior. This, however, was not until four o'clock,
and even then very great care had to be exercised
owing to the falling pieces of wood, and the rotten
state of that portion of the flooring which had not
been entirely consumed. The first entry was made
from the front of the house, and after searching for
a short time the firemen, now aided by the daylight
which began to break dimly through the
charred and smouldering building found the
remains of one of the victims, supposed
to be a barmaid. Further search revealed
the presence of three others, all women, and all cf
whom were so terribly burnt as to be completely un-
unrecognisable. Strangely enough, too, one of the
victims, supposed to be the manageress, Miss liuggate,
and one of the barmaids, were, although found in
their beds, almost fully dressed, having on both
petticoats and boots. it is supposed, therefore, that
they heard Mr. Billinghurst, the proprietor— who,
although he does not live on the premises, was in
the house at the time the fire broke out—call out
to them to make their escape, but probably not
realising that the danger was so imminent, hurried
on some clothes, and so lost their one chance of
escape, the flames spreading with inconceivable
rapidity. The first body, that of one of the barmaids,
was brought down the escape and placed against the back
of the building at about twenty minutes past four,
the firemen previous to bringing it down being
obliged, owing to its terribly burnt condition, to coin-
pletely swathe it in sacks and strips of canvass. The
other three were similarly treated, and altogether
it would be difficult to imagine a more ghastly spec-
tacle than that presented by the roughly-covered
corpses) whose stature in one or two cases had been
considerably diminished by the extremities having
been burnt completely away. All of the victims slept
at the top of the house, and even had there been
facilities for gaining the roof the unfortunate
creatures could not have profited by them, as it
would have been impossible, owing to the greater
height of the neighbouring houses, to have gained the
roof of either. From the fact of the women having
been found partly dressed, it is thought that they
were fully conscious of their terrible position for
some time before their death; and the opinion pre-
vailed among the officers of the fire brigade that
owing to the rapid spread of the flames the women
must have been literally burnt to death, instead of
suffocated, as at first supposed.