The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

EARTHQUAKES IN ENGLAND.

A correspondent of the Spectator gives the following in-
teresting account of earthquakes that have crooned in
England

At a moment when the question of an earthquake in
Ireland is being discussed, it may be interesting to
your readers to learn that shocks of some severity were
no unusual event some centuries ago in this Country.
In 974 Wendover tells us that a great earthquake shook
all England. In 1081 one occurred, which was attended
"with heavy bellowing." in 1089 there was a " mickle
earth-stirring over all England," says the Saxon
Chronicle, and the annalist notices that the harvest
was especially backward. In 1110, says Florence of
Worcester, "there was a very great earthquake at
Shrewsbury. The river Trent is as dried up at
Nottingham from morning to the third hour of the
day, so that men walked dryshod through its
channel." In 1133 there was a great earthquake in
many parts of England. In 1155, says Matthew Paris,
"there was an earthquake in Ely, Norfolk, and Suf-
folk, KO that it threw down men who were standing, and
rang the bells." The Caine writer records another in
1187, when many buildings where thrown down ; and
another in 1247, aallich he speaks of as especially vio-
lent on the banks of the Thames, where it shook down
many buildings. One feature of it was that sone days
idterwatds the sea became preternaturally calm, as if
the tides had ceased, and remained so I xthree months.
Next year the western parts of England were the
great sufferers. In the diocese of Bath wide rents
'
' pen 1 in the walls, and a cupola on the tower of Wells
Cathedral was dashed down upon the roof. At St.
I David's great damage was done to the cathedmL Two
years later a shock was felt in Buckinghamshire, which
caused more panic than injury, the accompanying
sound being like thunder underground. It was noticed
that the birds were driven wild with fear. In 1275, says
Matthew of Westminster, there was a general earth-
quake, "by the violence of which the church of St.
Michael of the Bill, outside Glastonbury fell down,
levelled with the soiL" Many other English churches
suffered in a less degree. From this time earth-
quakes seem to have been less common; but in
1382 there was one which shook down some churches
in Kent, and which a poet of the time has
described rather vividly. Three years later there were
two shocks, but they seem to have been very slight, as
Walsingham only interprets the first to mean an ex-
pedition against Scotland, and the second a vain ex-
citement in the political world. I have carefully con-
fined myself to historical notices. But there are
legends which ascribe the destruction r.l whole oitiee
or armies to convulsions of this kind. Camon records
that the town of Kenchester was destroyed by an
earthquake. The Chronicle of Eresham says the same
of Aleester. but as the visitation in this cafes was a
special judgment on the smiths of the towa, who

drowned St. Egwin's preaching with the poise of their
, hammers, there is reason to hope that it was a purely
' local infliction. Reginald, of Durham, says that at
Mungedene-hill, near Norham-on-Tweed, the earth
opened and swallowed up many thousand Scots who
were then ravaging St. Cuthbert's lands. These
traditions may, perhaps, be taken to show that the
popular fancy in England recognised earthquakes as
an °cession of violent change. Of course, Ido not
pretend that my list is exhaustive even for the 12th
and 13th centuries, nor have I touched upon such
geological theories as Mr. Geikie's, that there has been
a great upheaval of Scotland about the Antoine wall,
or a great recession of the sea since Roman times.