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November 2022 November 2022

BERE REGIS HISTORY SOCIETY

The 1889 Earthquake felt at Bere Regis

The earthquake mentioned in the Bere Heath School log-
book by the Mistress, Miss Horth, was felt over a wide area
of northern France and southern England and had its
epicentre just off Normandy. Slight damage was noted on
both sides of the channel, in England from Penzance to
London and as far north as Worcester.

Northwest Europe is not a serious earthquake zone but over a hundred small
quakes have been recorded in the UK since 1839. There are known fault-lines off
the East Kent coast, also not far from the Wales-England border and another one
centred on a small village in Cumbria, together with others in Derbyshire and
Nottinghamshire. There was even an earthquake in Cornwall in the 1980s, but this
occurred when disused mines in the county were being considered as nuclear
dump sites, so that could have been an example of the power of prayer.
The 30th May 1889 event
resulted in doors opening,
doors shutting, plates falling
off dressers, the odd
ancient wall falling over
and rocking-chairs starting
to rock. The most severe
effects include church bells
starting to ring and
chimney pots falling down,
although a slight shaking is
all that seemed to have
been felt at Bere Regis, but
it would have been very
frightening.

A church in Essex after the 1984 earthquake John Pitfield, Projects Secretary

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