A wood carving depicting the 1607 flood

The flood of 1607 was the worst natural disaster ever recorded in the British Isles.

The flood affected most of the South Wales coast from Carmarthenshire in the west to Monmouthshire in the east. On the other side of the Bristol Channel and Severn Estuary, parts of Southwest England were also severely affected stretching from North Devon, through to Somerset and Gloucestershire, which together with South Wales amounts to 570 km of coastline. The coastal population was devastated with at least 2000 fatalities according to one of the contemporary sources. In some parts of the coast the population never recovered from the social and economic disaster. But what caused the flood? This seminar looks at historical documentary and geographical fieldwork evidence collected by Professor Haslett and co-workers in proposing that the 1607 flood may have been due to a tsunami.

Simon Haslett is a Professor of Physical Geography, currently undertaking further research on the 1607 flood and other inundation events around the Celtic coasts of Northwest Europe under a Short-Term Visiting Fellowship with Jesus College. He is widely published with his work including Coastal Systems (2016, University of Wales Press), and has made two BBC2 Timewatch documentaries about his research: 'The Killer Wave of 1607' and 'Britain’s Forgotten Floods'. The former was recently shown again on the BBC, and can be accessed on iPlayer here: View 'The Killer Wave of 1607' on BBC iPlayer

Date: Thursday 18 March 2021

Time: 6:00 - 7:00PM GMT

Location: Zoom. Joining instructions will be sent to registered attendees following the registration deadline on Tuesday 16 March.

Tickets: Available for students, staff, alumni and friends of Jesus College; free of charge.

If multiple alumni are watching from the same location, only one place needs to be reserved. 

How to book: Registration has now closed. To enquire if any places remain, please contact the Events team on events@jesus.ox.ac.uk

 

To visit the page for the final event in the series, please click on the title below:

Books & Histories- The Welsh College in the Reign of Elizabeth I

- 27 March 2021, 11AM GMT