1607 Bristol Channel floods
1607 coastal flooding along the Bristol Channel in southwest England
The Bristol Channel floods of 30 January 1607 drowned many people and destroyed a large amount of farmland and livestock during a flood in the Bristol Channel. The known tide heights, probable weather, extent and depth of flooding, and coastal flooding elsewhere in the British Isles on the same day all point to the cause being a storm surge rather than a tsunami.
Description
On 30 January 1607, around noon, the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary experienced coastal and tidal flooding in many counties. Pre-dating any modern flood defence construction, low-lying land in Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, and across South Wales was flooded. 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.
The impact was extensive: it is estimated that 2,000 or more people were drowned; houses and villages were swept away; and an estimated 200 square miles (51,800 ha) of farmland and livestock were destroyed. Along the coasts of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, local economies suffered greatly as a result of the flooding.
The coast of Devon and the Somerset Levels as far inland as Glastonbury Tor, 14 miles (23 km) 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.
The public source identifies “1607 Bristol Channel floods” as 1607 coastal flooding along the Bristol Channel in southwest England. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bristol, Channel and floods.
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This entry incorporates text from “1607 Bristol Channel floods” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.