"The Great Colchester Earthquake"

[Magersfontein]

Colchester in Essex is Britain's oldest recorded town. Here the Emperor Claudius was proclaimed a god. It was the city of King Cunobelinos - Shakespeare's Cymbeline - whose daughter Helena, according to legend, was the mother of Constantine the Great. The town was sacked by Boudicca, and besieged during the English Civil War. Witches were tried and hanged in Colchester. And on the morning of the 22nd April 1884... At around 9:20 that morning, the Colchester area was at the epicentre of Britain's most destructive earthquake, estimated to have been 5.2 on the Richter Scale, and lasting for about twenty seconds. The quake was felt over much of southern England and into Europe, and over 1,200 buildings were destroyed or damaged. The following day, The Times reported damage "in the many villages in the neighbourhood from Colchester to the sea coast", with many poor people made homeless, and estimated the financial cost of the quake at £10,000 pounds. Great damage was also reported in Wivenhoe and Ipswich, and buildings destroyed included Langenhoe church, and the Rose and Crown Inn at Peldon. The death of a child at Rowhedge was also reported. This curious entertainment in words and music, "The Great Colchester Earthquake" by Rough Justice, was recorded at St Mary's Arts Centre in Colchester, with actors Simon Haines, Peter Proctor, Graham Fosker, Nick Chapman and Adrian May, and was broadcast on Essex Radio's Essex Folk programme, presented by Dennis Rookard, in 1982. https://timespast.ning.com/group/hosiprog/forum/topics/the-great-colchester