|
The Bristol Channel floods, 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. ==Description== On 30 January 1607, 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, with the foundations of St Mary's Church destroyed. Floods resulted in the drowning of an estimated 2,000 or more people, with houses and villages swept away, an estimated of farmland inundated and livestock destroyed,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The great flood of 1607: could it happen again? )〕 wrecking the local economy along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary. The coasts of Devon and the Somerset Levels as far inland as Glastonbury Tor, 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 of 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 . A chiselled mark remains showing that the maximum height of the water was 7.74 metres above sea level.〔("1607 Bristol Channel Floods: 400-Year Retrospective RMS SPECIAL REPORT" at rms.com, p.12 )〕 A number of commemorative plaques still remain, up to 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 estimate of resultant financial loss in the parish is given as approximately £5,000 (£}} as of ). 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''.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Gods Warning to his people of England. )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bristol Channel floods, 1607」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|