April 1884 - The great English earthquake

Thanks to our relatively benign geology, UK earthquakes tend to be fairly low-key affairs, rarely causing more damage than the odd collapsed chimney, lost roof tile or disturbed night’s sleep.  A far cry from the devastating events that have left many dead this week in Iran.

But in April 1884 The Engineer was picking over the aftermath of  one of the UK’s biggest ever seismic events: the great English earthquake.

‘On Tuesday morning, at about twenty minutes past nine, what was evidently a severe earthquake occurred along our eastern coast,’ wrote the Engineer.

Also sometimes referred to as the Colchester earthquake, the tremors caused considerable damage throughout Essex and Suffolk and were even felt in London. According to some reports between three and five people lost their lives.

Reliant on somewhat confusing second-hand accounts of the earthquake the article expresses scepticism over “exaggerations which describe what people thought took place.” However, it does acknowledge that the event was unusually severe.  ‘At present we are not in possession of full particulars of the extent to which buildings have really been destroyed or shattered, but it seems clear that more destruction has been wrought than by any earthquake in this country since the latter end of the thirteenth century.’