Sue Cook and the team answer listeners' historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 'make' history.
Series 11
Programme 6
24ÌýMay 2005
1750 earthquake
Listener Guy Middleton wanted more information on the impact of earth tremors in London in 1750. Making History consulted the geographer Professor Philip Stott from the University of London.
This is how William Hone, writing 80 years later, described the tremors:
On the 8th of March, 1750, an earthquake shook London. The shock was at half past five in the morning. It awoke people from their sleep and frightened them out of their houses. A servant maid in Charterhouse-square, was thrown from her bed, and had her arm broken; bells in several steeples were struck by the chime hammers; great stones were thrown from the new spire of Westminster Abbey; dogs howled in uncommon tones; and fish jumped half a yard above the water. London had experienced a shock only a month before, namely, on the 8th of February 1750, between 12 and 1 o'clock in the day and at Westminster, the barristers were so alarmed that they imagined the hall was falling!
Most people (including academics) saw the tremors as the work of God; indeed, they inspired a famous sermon from Charles Wesley:
OF all the judgments which the righteous God inflicts on sinners here, the most dreadful and destructive is an earthquake. This he has lately brought on our part of the earth, and thereby alarmed our fears, and bid us "prepare to meet our God!" I am to show you that earthquakes are the works of the Lord, and He only bringeth this destruction upon the earth. Now, that God is himself the Author, and sin the moral cause, of earthquakes, (whatever the natural cause may be,) cannot be denied by any who believe the Scriptures.
Useful links
Further information about tremors in the UK, and about the huge Lisbon earthquake of 1755 can be found at the following sites:
(1756) (University of Essex)
Suggested reading
Deidre Dawson, 'In Search of the Real Pangloss: The Correspondence of Voltaire with the Duchess of Saxe Coburg', Yale French StudiesÌý (1986)
Alessa Johns, ed, Dreadful Visitations: Confronting Natural Catastrophes in the Age of EnlightenmentÌý (Routledge, 1999)
T.D. Kendrick, The Lisbon EarthquakeÌý (Methuen, 1956)
Samuel J. Miller, Portugal and Rome: An Aspect of Catholic EnlightenmentÌý (Università gregoriana, 1978)
Kenneth Maxwell, Pombal, Paradox of the EnlightenmentÌý (Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Darrin McMahon, Enemies of the EnlightenmentÌý (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
Catherine Northeast, The Parisian Jesuits and the EnlightenmentÌý (Voltaire Foundation, 1991)
Rhoda Rappaport, When Geologists were HistoriansÌý (Cornell University Press, 1997)
Jonathan Scott, PiranesiÌý (Wiley-Academy, 1975)
Haruldur Sigurdsson, Melting the Earth: The History of Ideas on Volcanic EruptionsÌý (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
Navvy towns
Making History listener Iris Hall was keen to find out more about the living conditions of the navvies who built Britain's canals, railways and roads. She was particularly interested in the shanty settlement that was erected for the navvies building the Woodhead tunnel in the Peak District in the middle of the 19th century.
Local expert Professor Brian Robinson and the Peak District National Park Archaeologist Bill Bevan took reporter Judy Merry to Woodhead, and then on to a site known as Tin Town which was built for the workers employed on the construction of the Derwent Reservoir at the beginning of the 20th century.
Useful links
Making History also consulted James Symonds from the .
Origins of British counties
Making History listener Brian Turner contacted the programme to find out more about the origins of British counties and how, in particular, their boundaries were arrived at.
Making History consulted Dr Alan Thacker, Executive Editor of the Victoria County History at the Institute for Historical Research, University of London.
Useful links
Local history hero
Margaret Young from Biggar in Scotland nominated Brian Lambie for his work in founding no less than seven museums in the town.
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý
Contact Making History
Send your comments and questions for future programmes to:
Making History
±«Óãtv Radio 4
PO Box 3096 Brighton
BN1 1PL
Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý