I am not responsible, but when I first came to this parish there were two piers thrusting into the English Channel, now there is only really one but from my upstairs guestroom I can glimpse the stump of the other, which after a fire a couple of years ago is gradually being torn to pieces by the wind and waves.
In 1703 the Sussex coastline was changed dramatically, most of lower Brighthelmstone (the former name of Brighton) disappeared overnight, literally on 26/27th November.
Across the country the booming roar of the wind became all pervading. Barns, outhouses, sheds and stables, haystacks and even men and animals were whisked into the air, no match for winds that were estimated to have exceeded over 120mph. Even such well built edifices as Westminster Abbey suffered greatly with the heavy lead on its roof "rolled up like parchment and blown clear of the building". Near Moorfields a whole row of houses was levelled and many London churches including St Mary Aldernay and St. Michael lost spires and towers.
The following day Defoe saw 700 ships between Shadwell and Limehouse "most crushed together" with one boat rammed up and over another. On the Isle of Wight spray from the tumultuous seas covered fields with a snow like incrustation of salt rendering whole pastures inedible to sheep and cattle. Thousands of trees toppled in the New Forest and back at the Eddystone after the storm had abated visitors found not a stanchion of the lighthouse remaining nor any trace of Winstanley.
Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces". So much water had been forced into the Severn estuary that a huge flood inundated much of Bristol with water nearly 3 meters above previous high tides. In other parts of the country the sea came in 16 miles. The prosperous town of Rye lost its income as its harbour was swept away.
Off Cowes and Portsmouth these mighty vessels lay at anchor along with attendant merchantmen and store ships. In a veritable maelstrom brought about by the combined effects of hurricane force winds, high tides and the turbulent nature of the waters confined between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, ships were scattered and overwhelmed. Daylight revealed a mass of stricken vessels in the Solent and Spithead.
It was even worse in the 'Downs', a four mile wide channel between the notorious Goodwin Sands and Deal off the Kent coast. On that fateful night there were over 100 merchant ships and a number of naval vessels at anchor. By dawn many had been smashed to pieces and 1500 seaman had lost their lives.
Overall the number killed ranged from 8,000 to 15,000 along the whole coastline and the North Sea where some vessels were even blown to Sweden including Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship The Association.
Queen Anne who had been forced to hide in a cellar ordered a day of National Prayer and Penitence for the “Sins Which Do Cry Unto God”, the Puritans of the time saw a lack of personal morality as the cause. (I do remember seeing a pamphlet which blamed involvement with Catholics in the Spanish War of Succession, for such a disaster). Today we would not see gambling, whoring, infidelity and political corruption as the cause but a new type of immorality, ecological exploitation, wasteful consumerism and unchecked global warming.
In 1703 the Sussex coastline was changed dramatically, most of lower Brighthelmstone (the former name of Brighton) disappeared overnight, literally on 26/27th November.
Across the country the booming roar of the wind became all pervading. Barns, outhouses, sheds and stables, haystacks and even men and animals were whisked into the air, no match for winds that were estimated to have exceeded over 120mph. Even such well built edifices as Westminster Abbey suffered greatly with the heavy lead on its roof "rolled up like parchment and blown clear of the building". Near Moorfields a whole row of houses was levelled and many London churches including St Mary Aldernay and St. Michael lost spires and towers.
The following day Defoe saw 700 ships between Shadwell and Limehouse "most crushed together" with one boat rammed up and over another. On the Isle of Wight spray from the tumultuous seas covered fields with a snow like incrustation of salt rendering whole pastures inedible to sheep and cattle. Thousands of trees toppled in the New Forest and back at the Eddystone after the storm had abated visitors found not a stanchion of the lighthouse remaining nor any trace of Winstanley.
Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces". So much water had been forced into the Severn estuary that a huge flood inundated much of Bristol with water nearly 3 meters above previous high tides. In other parts of the country the sea came in 16 miles. The prosperous town of Rye lost its income as its harbour was swept away.
Off Cowes and Portsmouth these mighty vessels lay at anchor along with attendant merchantmen and store ships. In a veritable maelstrom brought about by the combined effects of hurricane force winds, high tides and the turbulent nature of the waters confined between the Isle of Wight and the mainland, ships were scattered and overwhelmed. Daylight revealed a mass of stricken vessels in the Solent and Spithead.
It was even worse in the 'Downs', a four mile wide channel between the notorious Goodwin Sands and Deal off the Kent coast. On that fateful night there were over 100 merchant ships and a number of naval vessels at anchor. By dawn many had been smashed to pieces and 1500 seaman had lost their lives.
Overall the number killed ranged from 8,000 to 15,000 along the whole coastline and the North Sea where some vessels were even blown to Sweden including Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship The Association.
Queen Anne who had been forced to hide in a cellar ordered a day of National Prayer and Penitence for the “Sins Which Do Cry Unto God”, the Puritans of the time saw a lack of personal morality as the cause. (I do remember seeing a pamphlet which blamed involvement with Catholics in the Spanish War of Succession, for such a disaster). Today we would not see gambling, whoring, infidelity and political corruption as the cause but a new type of immorality, ecological exploitation, wasteful consumerism and unchecked global warming.
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