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We know of the 1607 Somerset & Bristol Channel tsunami from contemporary publications giving eyewitness or second-hand accounts, such as
In their paper Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) due to a tsunami? (Ref.1), Simon K. Haslett and Edward A. Bryant, review the contemporary literature, and conclude that “the evidence for a storm surge is contradictory because several historical accounts note a sudden flooding of the coastline under fair weather conditions”.
Haslett and Bryant consider the description in God’s Warning… to be consistent with “more recent tsunami, such as the tsunami associated with the eruption of Krakatau in 1883, where accounts refer to the sea as being ‘hilly’, and the reference to dazzling, fiery mountains, and myriads of arrows, is reminiscent of accounts of tsunami on the Burin Peninsula (Newfoundland) in 1929, where the wave crest was shining like car headlights, and in Papua New Guinea in 1998 where the wave was frothing and sparkling (Bryant 2001)”.
They further note that the speed of the incoming wave described in Lamentable newes “affirmed to have runne .... with a swiftness so incredible, as that no gray-hounde have escaped by running before them” is indicative of a tsunami, rather than the slower pace of a storm surge. Another excerpt from Lamentable newes describes “one Mistress Van .... is vouched before she could get uppe into the higher rooms of her house, having marked the approach of the waters, to have been surprised by them and destroyed, her house being distant above four miles in breadth from the sea”.
Haslett & Bryant go on to study various geological features along the estuary in “Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Bristol Channel, United Kingdom: Impact of Tsunami?” (Ref. 2), and conclude that “an imbricated boulder train was deposited by tsunami sometime between 1590 AD and 1672 AD, a time span that encompasses the January 30, 1607, event”.
Further support is provided by “previously published yet enigmatic physical occurrences within the Severn Estuary [that] may also be associated with the 1607 flood… These include the complete erosion of all salt marsh before the mid-seventeenth century (Allen and Rae 1987) (Ref. 3) and the erosion down to bedrock of two spurs of alluvial agricultural land in the early seventeenth century (Allen and Fulford 1992)” (ref. 4).
A summary at Burnham-on-Sea.com gives a nice overview.
Map of Primary Flooding
I have compiled the information from the contemporary accounts and academic research with geological data, to create this map, to better understand the damage caused by the tsunami.
The pamphlet God’s Warning… describes “Diuers [diverse]…Churches lie hidden in the Waters, and some of them the tops are to be seene: and other some, nothing at all to be séene, but the very tops of the Steeples, and of some of them nothing at all, neyther steeple nor nothing else”. In a brief online survey of the heights of the church towers and steeples in the lowest lying areas, the shortest church tower I could find was Burnham-on-Sea’s church of St Andrews, at 78ft or 23m tall, extrapolating that, at the peak of the flooding at least, some areas must have been under at least 23 metres of water.
The primary flooding level on the map is set higher, at 30m: this is due to the availability of free data (Free topographic maps, elevation, terrain), and being able to distinguish the colour coding: however, an almost infinite volume water travelling at around 30mph would probably have no problem lapping a few metres higher where the leading waves meets higher ground. My intention is to understand the damage caused, not to map a snapshot of a level flood.
According to Bryant & Haslett in Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event…?, the maximum inland penetration of the floodwaters of the 1607 event in the area appears to have been approximately 22 km, as indicated by accounts of the flood reaching the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset (Williams 1970) (Ref. 5).
Large chalk, limestone and sandstone aquifers underpin much of the local geology. What would happen to a vast inundation adjacent to or over aquifers, especially one lasting about ten days?
Karst
Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other voids. Karst is associated with soluble rock types such as limestone. According to the British Geological Survey,”chalk is an unusual karst aquifer with limited cave development, but extensive networks of smaller solutional conduits and fissures that enable rapid groundwater flow. Small-scale karst features such as dolines, stream sinks, dissolution pipes and springs, are common”. There are large swathes of both limestone and chalk bedrock beneath south central England, and the BGS adds that their research shows “rapid groundwater flow and karst occur much more frequently than previously thought” (Ref. 6).
Likely taking advantage of pre-existing karst, as well as purportedly an underground quarry of Bath stone (limestone), Corsham Underground City is reputed to have over 60 miles of roads. There are also rumours of a secret underground military base at Peasemore, usually involving aliens and breeding experiments. There are also underground bunkers at Welford and Warren Row.
Bath is famously the location of the hottest spring in England, with an average temperature of 45 °C/113 °F. There is an excavated, well-preserved ‘Roman’ baths below ground level. I mention this only as an indication of an unusual physical process in the area that may also have been affected by inundation.
Florida is similarly on a large aquifer, an expanse of limestone: the video You Won’t Believe What’s Underneath Florida on Old World Florida’s channel gives a stunning insight into the interior of what we perceive from above to be solid rock.
Secondary Flooding
Over a period of days, maybe weeks, a sustained inundation adjacent and/or over limestone and chalk would fill interior voids,, and with a power and rapidity that could further erode the rock, increasing karst as smaller stone fragments are carried along with the water. Springs would overflow, and new springs would likely appear, with suddenly increased run-off saturating hillsides and causing land slips, some potentially very large and landscape-changing.
Rivers would burst their banks, and low lying areas would accumulate water, which would back up at river confluences. Where valleys narrowed, dams of debris - soil, rocks, vegetation, trees, branches, disintegrating houses, animals, people - could build up; only to collapse in time, sending monstrous, destructive waves cascading downstream.
The landscape could potentially be quite transformed afterwards - hills may have reduced their height and breadth, while the mud and debris would have been laid down in a thick layer over much of the lower land. The difference in elevation would have reduced, and tidal reach inland may also have reduced due to a mud-raised landscape.
I have focussed on southern England, as I am familiar with it, but the limestone aquifer stretches far north, and the effects described would not necessarily be confined to the south.
Political Background
Following Henry VIII’s ex-communication by the Pope in 1538, the Papists upped the ante. After centuries of routinely brutalising the ordinary folks, with burnings and hangings for heresy, the focus turned to stoking antagonism amongst nobles in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, stirring treachery against the England monarchy, with numerous treasonous bloody battles and plots.
When Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, died unmarried and childless in 1603, a new opportunity arose, and the Papists sought to install a sympathetic monarch, very much against the wishes of the common folk, who generally backed the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell. The fact that the people had had the time and/or need to organise and establish a new Parliament seems to indicate that a political vacuum had developed in the early part of the 17th century, despite the installation of King James I & VI and the publication of his eponymous Bible translation.
The “Civil War” was underway by the 1640’s, with King Charles I and his entourage, holed up comfortably in the fortified Colleges of Oxford, withstanding repeated sieges within its strong, high city walls. Why Oxford? Knowing the city well, I can confirm that there are extensive basements within the city walls, in the Colleges, under the shops, banks and offices, as well as tunnels connecting the Bodleian Library with other buildings.
Oxford is in the middle of a large low-lying area, at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Cherwell, with both rivers becoming silty during flooding due to the terrain. Walking through fields south of Oxford, I have never seen such muddy mud, that sticks like glue to your boots, weighing you down, while seemingly trying to suck you into the ooze. The surrounding countryside is not very fertile; the trees always look stunted to me, scrubby hawthorn and willow, compared to majestic pines and oaks just forty miles away in Hampshire, for example. Oxford is a prime candidate for having suffered a catastrophic mud flood, and would make an ideal stronghold, hidden in the murk and the mist, for those intent on disruption.
By 1659, something strange and devastating had happened to the population of England, which allowed Parliament to ratify the Cestui Que Vie Act in 1666 (French, transl. He Who Lives), essentially a legal version of a previous Papal Bull. It concerns how landlords should deal with sitting tenants who are “remaining beyond Sea for Seven Years together and no Proof of their Lives”, although the narrative often links it with the Great Fire of London. It is the basis of legal soul trading, with the creation of financial trusts for dead souls: the inhabitants of the domain of UK Ltd. are still encouraged to register their children as dead upon birth, with individuals having until their seventh birthday to protest their living.
Section 1 of the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666 states: If such person or persons for whose life or lives such Estates have beene or shall be granted as aforesaid shall remaine beyond the Seas or elsewhere absent themselves in this Realme by the space of seaven yeares together and noe sufficient and evident proofe be made of the lives of such person or persons respectively in any Action commenced for recovery of such Tenements by the Lessors or Reversioners in every such case the person or persons upon whose life or lives such Estate depended shall be accounted as naturally dead.
It is odd that an Act of Parliament could refer to an accepted notion of “remaining beyond Sea for seven years”. Why should so many of the population be presumed to have left England’s shores for good? Surely getting slaughtered in the Civil War would be self-evident? Could some survivors have theoretically escaped the flooding by boat, with loved ones holding out the hope for their return? Could some of the impoverished survivors have been enticed or enslaved on ships, bound for the promised land to plantations, never to be seen again; while the merchants moved in and extorted rent from the remaining natives and/or economic migrants? Perhaps I am reading too much into it, and it is simply a sneaky alternative spelling of the Holy See.
I am not aware of any other statute Acts in England that have a French title. Presumably, there was a rash of legal applications retrospectively claiming seven years’ absence back to 1659, although a response to a Freedom of Information request to the UK Law Commission in 2014, Topic 11, stated that, “We have now completed a search of our records and have concluded that the Law Commission does not maintain any records in accordance with the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666”.
Impact on Life
The contemporary accounts are harrowing, and paint a devastating scene on the western coasts.
As William of Usk (a Welsh town, some ten miles inland), describes in God’s Warning…, “so violent and swift were the outragious waves, that pursued one an other, with such vehemencie, and the Waters multiplying so much in so short a time, that in lesse then five houres space most part of those cuntreys (and especially the places which lay lowe,) were all ouer flowen, and many hundreds of people both men women, and children were then quite devoured, by these outragious waters…Many dead Carkasses … are dayly found floating upon the Waters, and as yet cannot be knowne who they are, or what number of persons are drowned, by reason of the same Waters, which as yet in many places remaine very deepe…”
Children who were at school “stood in great perplexitle, some of them adventuring home to their parents were drowned by the way: Other some staying behinde in in Churches, did climbe up to the tops of Steeples, where they were very neere starved to death for want of foode and fire…”. Nowhere was safe: “Some men that were riding on the high wayes were overtaken with these mercilesse Waters, and were drowned”.
Further west on the Devon coast (south of the estuary, off the map, to the west), “The lowe Marshes and Fenny groundes, néere Barstable in the Countie of Devon were overflowne, so farre out, and in such outragious sort, that the cuntrey all along to Bridge-water was greatly distressed thereby, and much hurt there done it is a most pittifull sight to beholde what numbers of fat Oxen, were there Drawned: what flockes of Shéepe, what heades of kine, have their bin lost, and Drowned in in these outragious Waters: there is little now remaining there, to be séene, but huge Waters like to the maine Ocean: The tops of Churches and Stéeples like to the tops of Rockes in the Sea. Great Reekes of Fodder for Cattle, are floating like Ships vpon the Waters, and dead Beastes swimming thereon: … The tops of Trées, a man may beholde remaining above the Waters, Upon whose braunches, multitudes of all kinde of Turkies, Hens, and other such like Poultry were faine to fly up into the Trées to save their lives, where many of them perished to death, for want of reliefe, not being able to fly to dry land for succour, by reason of their weakenes”.
A true report of certaine wonderfull ouerflowings describes how “In a short tyme did whole villages stand like Islands (compassed rounde with Waters) and in a more short time were those Islands undiscoverable, and no where to be found. The tops of trees and houses onely appeared (especially there where the Countrey lay lowe,) as if at the beginning of the world townes had been builte in the bottome of the Sea…. Adde unto these peopled places, the losse of Marshes, Corne-fieldes, Pastures, Meddowes, and so forth, more then can hee numbred: the misery of it no man can Expresse.
“A lamentable spectacle was it, to beholde whole heards of Cattle, struggling for life with the flouds, Oxen in great numbers were earyed away with the streame, and looked like so many Whales in ye Sea: their bellowing made a noise in the water as if it had bin a tempest, and that ye Sea had roared. The flocks of Sheep that are vtterly destroied by this Land-wracke are innumerable”.
On the Welsh side of the Severn estuary, according to Lamentable Newes, the waters “yet cover twenty foure miles in length, and foure and more in breadth: which it the water were quite gone againe, be not to be recovered within the space of five or sixe yeares, to bee so serviceable ground as formerly they have béene: yea, and there is no probabilitie that that part of the Countrey, wil ever be so inhabited againe in our age as it was before this floud, howsoever it hath heretofore bene reputed, the richest and the fruitfullest place in all that Countrey.
“Mistresse Mattheus of Landaffe in Glamorgin Shiere [Glamorganshire] dwelling some foure miles in breadth frō the Sea, is said to have lost foure hundreth English Ewes. Much corn is likewise there destroyed in that Countrey, many houses ruinated, and many other kindes of Cattell perished. The number of men that are drowned, are as yet not knowne to exeéede abaoue twentie hundred.” Two thousand men lost in one shire alone!
The calibre of the nobility has certainly plummeted since those days: as Lamentable Newes goes on to relate: “A multitude more then did, had perished for want of foode, and extremitie of colde, had not the right Honourable the Lord Herbert, sonne and heire to the Carle of Worcester, and sir Waltar Mountague, Knight, brother vnto the Recorder of London, who dwell neare vnto the foresaid places, sent out boates, (fetched tenne miles compasse vpon Waines) to reléeve the distressed. The Lord Herbert himselfe (as the relation is) going himselfe, unto such houses as he could, that were in extremitie, to minister unto them prouision of meate and other necessaries”.
Another consideration, as mentioned in Lamentable Newes, is that the intrusive water would be saline; salty water could saturate the soil deep in the heart of England, and not just along the coasts. The soil would likely not sustain much vegetation due to the high salt content, and give rise to famine, and a need to settle on higher ground.
It is strange how England’s ‘prehistoric’ monuments are on the higher land, with huge mounds, or flat-top hills, protected by a series of ditches, presented as ‘Iron Age’ hill forts, from 1300BC to 50AD. Meanwhile, all of the more recent ‘Roman’ artefacts are buried under a few feet of muck. Perhaps the ‘prehistoric’ features in the landscape are much more recent, with survivors having to rebuild their lives, digging ditches on what remained of the hills, for security, or a way to escape the wind and provide shelter, after a calamity on the lower ground.
I have included The Ridgeway, described as ‘Britain’s oldest road’; a long continuous path from Wiltshire, through Oxfordshire, to Buckinghamshire, which can be quite striking in places as the bare white chalk is exposed. Also, Wansdyke, another impressive, mysterious feature.
Below are two examples of the spectacular and strange land formations found on the chalk uplands:
Below is a map of the Salisbury Plain area (by Artopographer), with exaggerated elevation to show the river network. My observation is that it looks to be a recently carved landscape, as the waterways are still so clearly defined in the relatively soft chalk.
Flooding on the East Coast
A true report of certaine wonderfull ouerflowings also refers to a near-simultaneous flooding event on the opposite east coast of England, in Norfolk. During the preceding winter of 1606/7, Norfolk’s sheep suffered a devastating disease, and they “dyed in such aboundaunce, that euen Dogges grewe wearie of them”. The worst of the winter appeared to be over, with “The Marishes, & Fens, by reason of the yeeres temperature, somewhat drye, and more forward than in other yeares,” so that “euerie man to his abilitie, layd out what money hee could spare vppon Heiffors, and such other young ware, emptying their purses of Crownes to cram the Fens with Cattell”.
This flood happened at night, in the early hours of the morning. Almost all of the newly bought cattle perished, save a few that had been driven to higher ground by a couple of cattle-rustlers. “The next day they might behold their houses wading vp to the middles in Water, some calling for Boates out at Windowes, and from the stee∣ples toppe, some swimming vppon plankes…. whole Barnes of Corne, which the couetous owners horded vp in hope of a dearth, the Water discouered and brought foorth, Houshold-stuffe which the night before they packt out of the Houses in hope to haue saued, swamme vp and downe, with drowned people so confusedly mingled, as men could scarse distinguish their goods, nor know their friends.
“Three Townes thus ouerflowed with water, … their corne fields, [and] all alongst the coast and lowe Marshes of that country, to the number of many thousand Acars in seuerall places and fields are toombd and buried in the huge graue of waters… The Cattell fed in those Marshes so sodainely taken, that had they not fled to an Hill, … few or none of them could haue scaped with life: yet being there, their safety is very daungerous: for this hill being very high and narrowe in the top, is like a Rocke in the Sea, girdled about with Water, so deepe, that on foote neither Man nor Beast canne passe it, and yet not deepe enough to beare a Boat, by reason of muddy and old shrubs yt grow in it: by reason whereof the poore beasts haue fedde the Hill so bare, as it affordes neither grasse nor wood, and so do their hunger encrease, and sustenance decrease, as they do eate the tops of Molehils, and the very earth it selfe, and with lamentable bellowing complaine, and as it were make moane to their owners, who beeing wiling canne by no meanes releeue them. Hee that should see this pittifull famine of Beasts, coulde not … but pitty it”.
And Lastly
It really saddens me that these great losses of life (human and animal), and these traumas of the past are hardly acknowledged today. That these stories have not been promoted recently, despite a febrile media stoking daily “climate fear”, perhaps indicates that advantage was taken of the impoverished survivors, and more nefarious practices may have come into play which still hold cultural influence today (such as the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666).
I am now working on Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50 000 maps of the affected area, using colour coding to highlight potentially affected lowlands, which I will add to this post as and when, with the intention to provide a baseline of this theory for ground-truthing southern England’s interior low-lying villages/towns, observing the height of the mud/depth of the basements.
References:
1) Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) due to a tsunami?, Simon K. Haslett & Edward A. Bryant, University of Wollongong Research Online, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, 2002
2) Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Bristol Channel, United Kingdom: Impact of Tsunami? E. A. Bryant & S. Haslett, University of Wollongong Research Online, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, 2007.
3) Late Flandrian shore-line oscillations in the Severn Estuary: a geomorphoogical and stratigraphical reconnaissance, Allen, J. R. L., and Rae, J. E., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 315:185–230 1987.
4) Romano-British and later geoarchaeology at Oldbury Flats: reclamation and settlement on the changeable coast of the Severn Estuary, Allen, J. R. L., and Fulford, M. G., Archeol J. 149:82–123, 1992
5) The draining of the Somerset Levels, Williams, M., Cambridge University Press, 1970
6) New research reveals fresh insights into the role of karst in the Chalk aquifer, BGS Press, 20/12/2021
- A true report of certaine wonderfulle overflowings of Waters, now lately in Summerset-shire, Norfolke and other places of England, printed in London by W. I. for Edward White, (this also refers to a flood event in 1570)
- Lamentable newes out of Monmouthshire in Wales Contayning, the wonderfull and most fearefull accidents of the great ouerflowing of waters in the saide countye, drowning infinite numbers of cattell of all kinds, as sheepe, oxen, kine and horses, with others: together with the losse of many men, women and children, and the subuersion of xxvi parishes in Ianuary last 1607, printed by Edward Allde for William Welby, and
- a pamphlet entitled God’s warning to his people of England By the great ouer-flowing of the vvaters or floudes lately hapned in South-wales and many other places. Wherein is described the great losses, and wonderfull damages, that hapned thereby: by the drowning of many townes and villages, to the vtter vndooing of many thousandes of people, by William Jones of Usk, printed by Printed by R. Blower for W. Barley, and Io. Bayly,
God’s warning…describes the event: “they [the inhabitants of these countreys] might see and perceive afar off as it were in the element huge and mighty hilles of water tombling over one another in such sort as if the greatest mountains in the world had overwhelmed the lowe villages or marshy grounds. Sometimes it dazzled many of the spectators that they imagined it had bin some fogge or mist coming with great swiftness towards them and with such a smoke as if mountains were all on fire, and to the view of some it seemed as if myriads of thousands of arrows had been shot forth all at one time …”.
There are commemorative plaques on churches on both sides of the Bristol Channel, recording the flood height at over 7m. The flood at Kingston Seymour in Somerset (a village near the coast at 6m altitude) was over another metre high in the church, and did not fully ebb away for about ten days.
[Interesting date on the plaque: any ideas what “4th of JAS. 1.” means? The date of the tsunami is recorded as both 20 January 1606 or 30 January 1607 due to local variations in calendar.]
In their paper Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) due to a tsunami? (Ref.1), Simon K. Haslett and Edward A. Bryant, review the contemporary literature, and conclude that “the evidence for a storm surge is contradictory because several historical accounts note a sudden flooding of the coastline under fair weather conditions”.
Haslett and Bryant consider the description in God’s Warning… to be consistent with “more recent tsunami, such as the tsunami associated with the eruption of Krakatau in 1883, where accounts refer to the sea as being ‘hilly’, and the reference to dazzling, fiery mountains, and myriads of arrows, is reminiscent of accounts of tsunami on the Burin Peninsula (Newfoundland) in 1929, where the wave crest was shining like car headlights, and in Papua New Guinea in 1998 where the wave was frothing and sparkling (Bryant 2001)”.
They further note that the speed of the incoming wave described in Lamentable newes “affirmed to have runne .... with a swiftness so incredible, as that no gray-hounde have escaped by running before them” is indicative of a tsunami, rather than the slower pace of a storm surge. Another excerpt from Lamentable newes describes “one Mistress Van .... is vouched before she could get uppe into the higher rooms of her house, having marked the approach of the waters, to have been surprised by them and destroyed, her house being distant above four miles in breadth from the sea”.
Haslett & Bryant go on to study various geological features along the estuary in “Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Bristol Channel, United Kingdom: Impact of Tsunami?” (Ref. 2), and conclude that “an imbricated boulder train was deposited by tsunami sometime between 1590 AD and 1672 AD, a time span that encompasses the January 30, 1607, event”.
Further support is provided by “previously published yet enigmatic physical occurrences within the Severn Estuary [that] may also be associated with the 1607 flood… These include the complete erosion of all salt marsh before the mid-seventeenth century (Allen and Rae 1987) (Ref. 3) and the erosion down to bedrock of two spurs of alluvial agricultural land in the early seventeenth century (Allen and Fulford 1992)” (ref. 4).
A summary at Burnham-on-Sea.com gives a nice overview.
Map of Primary Flooding
I have compiled the information from the contemporary accounts and academic research with geological data, to create this map, to better understand the damage caused by the tsunami.
The primary flooding level on the map is set higher, at 30m: this is due to the availability of free data (Free topographic maps, elevation, terrain), and being able to distinguish the colour coding: however, an almost infinite volume water travelling at around 30mph would probably have no problem lapping a few metres higher where the leading waves meets higher ground. My intention is to understand the damage caused, not to map a snapshot of a level flood.
According to Bryant & Haslett in Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event…?, the maximum inland penetration of the floodwaters of the 1607 event in the area appears to have been approximately 22 km, as indicated by accounts of the flood reaching the foot of Glastonbury Tor in Somerset (Williams 1970) (Ref. 5).
Large chalk, limestone and sandstone aquifers underpin much of the local geology. What would happen to a vast inundation adjacent to or over aquifers, especially one lasting about ten days?
Karst
Karst is a type of landscape where the dissolving of the bedrock has created sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, springs, and other voids. Karst is associated with soluble rock types such as limestone. According to the British Geological Survey,”chalk is an unusual karst aquifer with limited cave development, but extensive networks of smaller solutional conduits and fissures that enable rapid groundwater flow. Small-scale karst features such as dolines, stream sinks, dissolution pipes and springs, are common”. There are large swathes of both limestone and chalk bedrock beneath south central England, and the BGS adds that their research shows “rapid groundwater flow and karst occur much more frequently than previously thought” (Ref. 6).
Likely taking advantage of pre-existing karst, as well as purportedly an underground quarry of Bath stone (limestone), Corsham Underground City is reputed to have over 60 miles of roads. There are also rumours of a secret underground military base at Peasemore, usually involving aliens and breeding experiments. There are also underground bunkers at Welford and Warren Row.
Bath is famously the location of the hottest spring in England, with an average temperature of 45 °C/113 °F. There is an excavated, well-preserved ‘Roman’ baths below ground level. I mention this only as an indication of an unusual physical process in the area that may also have been affected by inundation.
Florida is similarly on a large aquifer, an expanse of limestone: the video You Won’t Believe What’s Underneath Florida on Old World Florida’s channel gives a stunning insight into the interior of what we perceive from above to be solid rock.
Secondary Flooding
Rivers would burst their banks, and low lying areas would accumulate water, which would back up at river confluences. Where valleys narrowed, dams of debris - soil, rocks, vegetation, trees, branches, disintegrating houses, animals, people - could build up; only to collapse in time, sending monstrous, destructive waves cascading downstream.
The landscape could potentially be quite transformed afterwards - hills may have reduced their height and breadth, while the mud and debris would have been laid down in a thick layer over much of the lower land. The difference in elevation would have reduced, and tidal reach inland may also have reduced due to a mud-raised landscape.
I have focussed on southern England, as I am familiar with it, but the limestone aquifer stretches far north, and the effects described would not necessarily be confined to the south.
Political Background
Following Henry VIII’s ex-communication by the Pope in 1538, the Papists upped the ante. After centuries of routinely brutalising the ordinary folks, with burnings and hangings for heresy, the focus turned to stoking antagonism amongst nobles in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, stirring treachery against the England monarchy, with numerous treasonous bloody battles and plots.
When Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, died unmarried and childless in 1603, a new opportunity arose, and the Papists sought to install a sympathetic monarch, very much against the wishes of the common folk, who generally backed the Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell. The fact that the people had had the time and/or need to organise and establish a new Parliament seems to indicate that a political vacuum had developed in the early part of the 17th century, despite the installation of King James I & VI and the publication of his eponymous Bible translation.
The “Civil War” was underway by the 1640’s, with King Charles I and his entourage, holed up comfortably in the fortified Colleges of Oxford, withstanding repeated sieges within its strong, high city walls. Why Oxford? Knowing the city well, I can confirm that there are extensive basements within the city walls, in the Colleges, under the shops, banks and offices, as well as tunnels connecting the Bodleian Library with other buildings.
Oxford is in the middle of a large low-lying area, at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Cherwell, with both rivers becoming silty during flooding due to the terrain. Walking through fields south of Oxford, I have never seen such muddy mud, that sticks like glue to your boots, weighing you down, while seemingly trying to suck you into the ooze. The surrounding countryside is not very fertile; the trees always look stunted to me, scrubby hawthorn and willow, compared to majestic pines and oaks just forty miles away in Hampshire, for example. Oxford is a prime candidate for having suffered a catastrophic mud flood, and would make an ideal stronghold, hidden in the murk and the mist, for those intent on disruption.
By 1659, something strange and devastating had happened to the population of England, which allowed Parliament to ratify the Cestui Que Vie Act in 1666 (French, transl. He Who Lives), essentially a legal version of a previous Papal Bull. It concerns how landlords should deal with sitting tenants who are “remaining beyond Sea for Seven Years together and no Proof of their Lives”, although the narrative often links it with the Great Fire of London. It is the basis of legal soul trading, with the creation of financial trusts for dead souls: the inhabitants of the domain of UK Ltd. are still encouraged to register their children as dead upon birth, with individuals having until their seventh birthday to protest their living.
Section 1 of the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666 states: If such person or persons for whose life or lives such Estates have beene or shall be granted as aforesaid shall remaine beyond the Seas or elsewhere absent themselves in this Realme by the space of seaven yeares together and noe sufficient and evident proofe be made of the lives of such person or persons respectively in any Action commenced for recovery of such Tenements by the Lessors or Reversioners in every such case the person or persons upon whose life or lives such Estate depended shall be accounted as naturally dead.
It is odd that an Act of Parliament could refer to an accepted notion of “remaining beyond Sea for seven years”. Why should so many of the population be presumed to have left England’s shores for good? Surely getting slaughtered in the Civil War would be self-evident? Could some survivors have theoretically escaped the flooding by boat, with loved ones holding out the hope for their return? Could some of the impoverished survivors have been enticed or enslaved on ships, bound for the promised land to plantations, never to be seen again; while the merchants moved in and extorted rent from the remaining natives and/or economic migrants? Perhaps I am reading too much into it, and it is simply a sneaky alternative spelling of the Holy See.
I am not aware of any other statute Acts in England that have a French title. Presumably, there was a rash of legal applications retrospectively claiming seven years’ absence back to 1659, although a response to a Freedom of Information request to the UK Law Commission in 2014, Topic 11, stated that, “We have now completed a search of our records and have concluded that the Law Commission does not maintain any records in accordance with the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666”.
Impact on Life
The contemporary accounts are harrowing, and paint a devastating scene on the western coasts.
As William of Usk (a Welsh town, some ten miles inland), describes in God’s Warning…, “so violent and swift were the outragious waves, that pursued one an other, with such vehemencie, and the Waters multiplying so much in so short a time, that in lesse then five houres space most part of those cuntreys (and especially the places which lay lowe,) were all ouer flowen, and many hundreds of people both men women, and children were then quite devoured, by these outragious waters…Many dead Carkasses … are dayly found floating upon the Waters, and as yet cannot be knowne who they are, or what number of persons are drowned, by reason of the same Waters, which as yet in many places remaine very deepe…”
Children who were at school “stood in great perplexitle, some of them adventuring home to their parents were drowned by the way: Other some staying behinde in in Churches, did climbe up to the tops of Steeples, where they were very neere starved to death for want of foode and fire…”. Nowhere was safe: “Some men that were riding on the high wayes were overtaken with these mercilesse Waters, and were drowned”.
Further west on the Devon coast (south of the estuary, off the map, to the west), “The lowe Marshes and Fenny groundes, néere Barstable in the Countie of Devon were overflowne, so farre out, and in such outragious sort, that the cuntrey all along to Bridge-water was greatly distressed thereby, and much hurt there done it is a most pittifull sight to beholde what numbers of fat Oxen, were there Drawned: what flockes of Shéepe, what heades of kine, have their bin lost, and Drowned in in these outragious Waters: there is little now remaining there, to be séene, but huge Waters like to the maine Ocean: The tops of Churches and Stéeples like to the tops of Rockes in the Sea. Great Reekes of Fodder for Cattle, are floating like Ships vpon the Waters, and dead Beastes swimming thereon: … The tops of Trées, a man may beholde remaining above the Waters, Upon whose braunches, multitudes of all kinde of Turkies, Hens, and other such like Poultry were faine to fly up into the Trées to save their lives, where many of them perished to death, for want of reliefe, not being able to fly to dry land for succour, by reason of their weakenes”.
A true report of certaine wonderfull ouerflowings describes how “In a short tyme did whole villages stand like Islands (compassed rounde with Waters) and in a more short time were those Islands undiscoverable, and no where to be found. The tops of trees and houses onely appeared (especially there where the Countrey lay lowe,) as if at the beginning of the world townes had been builte in the bottome of the Sea…. Adde unto these peopled places, the losse of Marshes, Corne-fieldes, Pastures, Meddowes, and so forth, more then can hee numbred: the misery of it no man can Expresse.
“A lamentable spectacle was it, to beholde whole heards of Cattle, struggling for life with the flouds, Oxen in great numbers were earyed away with the streame, and looked like so many Whales in ye Sea: their bellowing made a noise in the water as if it had bin a tempest, and that ye Sea had roared. The flocks of Sheep that are vtterly destroied by this Land-wracke are innumerable”.
On the Welsh side of the Severn estuary, according to Lamentable Newes, the waters “yet cover twenty foure miles in length, and foure and more in breadth: which it the water were quite gone againe, be not to be recovered within the space of five or sixe yeares, to bee so serviceable ground as formerly they have béene: yea, and there is no probabilitie that that part of the Countrey, wil ever be so inhabited againe in our age as it was before this floud, howsoever it hath heretofore bene reputed, the richest and the fruitfullest place in all that Countrey.
“Mistresse Mattheus of Landaffe in Glamorgin Shiere [Glamorganshire] dwelling some foure miles in breadth frō the Sea, is said to have lost foure hundreth English Ewes. Much corn is likewise there destroyed in that Countrey, many houses ruinated, and many other kindes of Cattell perished. The number of men that are drowned, are as yet not knowne to exeéede abaoue twentie hundred.” Two thousand men lost in one shire alone!
The calibre of the nobility has certainly plummeted since those days: as Lamentable Newes goes on to relate: “A multitude more then did, had perished for want of foode, and extremitie of colde, had not the right Honourable the Lord Herbert, sonne and heire to the Carle of Worcester, and sir Waltar Mountague, Knight, brother vnto the Recorder of London, who dwell neare vnto the foresaid places, sent out boates, (fetched tenne miles compasse vpon Waines) to reléeve the distressed. The Lord Herbert himselfe (as the relation is) going himselfe, unto such houses as he could, that were in extremitie, to minister unto them prouision of meate and other necessaries”.
Another consideration, as mentioned in Lamentable Newes, is that the intrusive water would be saline; salty water could saturate the soil deep in the heart of England, and not just along the coasts. The soil would likely not sustain much vegetation due to the high salt content, and give rise to famine, and a need to settle on higher ground.
It is strange how England’s ‘prehistoric’ monuments are on the higher land, with huge mounds, or flat-top hills, protected by a series of ditches, presented as ‘Iron Age’ hill forts, from 1300BC to 50AD. Meanwhile, all of the more recent ‘Roman’ artefacts are buried under a few feet of muck. Perhaps the ‘prehistoric’ features in the landscape are much more recent, with survivors having to rebuild their lives, digging ditches on what remained of the hills, for security, or a way to escape the wind and provide shelter, after a calamity on the lower ground.
I have included The Ridgeway, described as ‘Britain’s oldest road’; a long continuous path from Wiltshire, through Oxfordshire, to Buckinghamshire, which can be quite striking in places as the bare white chalk is exposed. Also, Wansdyke, another impressive, mysterious feature.
Below are two examples of the spectacular and strange land formations found on the chalk uplands:
A true report of certaine wonderfull ouerflowings also refers to a near-simultaneous flooding event on the opposite east coast of England, in Norfolk. During the preceding winter of 1606/7, Norfolk’s sheep suffered a devastating disease, and they “dyed in such aboundaunce, that euen Dogges grewe wearie of them”. The worst of the winter appeared to be over, with “The Marishes, & Fens, by reason of the yeeres temperature, somewhat drye, and more forward than in other yeares,” so that “euerie man to his abilitie, layd out what money hee could spare vppon Heiffors, and such other young ware, emptying their purses of Crownes to cram the Fens with Cattell”.
This flood happened at night, in the early hours of the morning. Almost all of the newly bought cattle perished, save a few that had been driven to higher ground by a couple of cattle-rustlers. “The next day they might behold their houses wading vp to the middles in Water, some calling for Boates out at Windowes, and from the stee∣ples toppe, some swimming vppon plankes…. whole Barnes of Corne, which the couetous owners horded vp in hope of a dearth, the Water discouered and brought foorth, Houshold-stuffe which the night before they packt out of the Houses in hope to haue saued, swamme vp and downe, with drowned people so confusedly mingled, as men could scarse distinguish their goods, nor know their friends.
“Three Townes thus ouerflowed with water, … their corne fields, [and] all alongst the coast and lowe Marshes of that country, to the number of many thousand Acars in seuerall places and fields are toombd and buried in the huge graue of waters… The Cattell fed in those Marshes so sodainely taken, that had they not fled to an Hill, … few or none of them could haue scaped with life: yet being there, their safety is very daungerous: for this hill being very high and narrowe in the top, is like a Rocke in the Sea, girdled about with Water, so deepe, that on foote neither Man nor Beast canne passe it, and yet not deepe enough to beare a Boat, by reason of muddy and old shrubs yt grow in it: by reason whereof the poore beasts haue fedde the Hill so bare, as it affordes neither grasse nor wood, and so do their hunger encrease, and sustenance decrease, as they do eate the tops of Molehils, and the very earth it selfe, and with lamentable bellowing complaine, and as it were make moane to their owners, who beeing wiling canne by no meanes releeue them. Hee that should see this pittifull famine of Beasts, coulde not … but pitty it”.
And Lastly
It really saddens me that these great losses of life (human and animal), and these traumas of the past are hardly acknowledged today. That these stories have not been promoted recently, despite a febrile media stoking daily “climate fear”, perhaps indicates that advantage was taken of the impoverished survivors, and more nefarious practices may have come into play which still hold cultural influence today (such as the Cestui Que Vie Act 1666).
I am now working on Ordnance Survey Landranger 1:50 000 maps of the affected area, using colour coding to highlight potentially affected lowlands, which I will add to this post as and when, with the intention to provide a baseline of this theory for ground-truthing southern England’s interior low-lying villages/towns, observing the height of the mud/depth of the basements.
References:
1) Was the AD 1607 coastal flooding event in the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel (UK) due to a tsunami?, Simon K. Haslett & Edward A. Bryant, University of Wollongong Research Online, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, 2002
2) Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Bristol Channel, United Kingdom: Impact of Tsunami? E. A. Bryant & S. Haslett, University of Wollongong Research Online, Faculty of Science, Medicine & Health, 2007.
3) Late Flandrian shore-line oscillations in the Severn Estuary: a geomorphoogical and stratigraphical reconnaissance, Allen, J. R. L., and Rae, J. E., Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B 315:185–230 1987.
4) Romano-British and later geoarchaeology at Oldbury Flats: reclamation and settlement on the changeable coast of the Severn Estuary, Allen, J. R. L., and Fulford, M. G., Archeol J. 149:82–123, 1992
5) The draining of the Somerset Levels, Williams, M., Cambridge University Press, 1970
6) New research reveals fresh insights into the role of karst in the Chalk aquifer, BGS Press, 20/12/2021
