What had 205 people calling South Wales Police in just 15 minutes on a Saturday afternoon in 2018? I’ll give you a second… It was a 4.4 magnitude earthquake whose epicentre was just 9 miles from the centre of Swansea.

This week, discover Swansea's surprisingly dramatic seismic history - from the most recent tremor to the 1906 "big one" that rocked Mumbles lighthouse and had people jumping in terror from upstairs windows.

Catch you on Sunday! Andrew.

The Tremble - 2018

On February 17th, 2018, at 2:31pm on a quiet Saturday afternoon, the ground beneath Swansea decided to… have a little wobble. The 4.4 magnitude earthquake, with its epicentre in the Swansea Valley, was felt across Wales and as far away as Birmingham and Devon.

In Uplands Newsagents, Alison Morgan was working when she noticed something odd. "My colleague noticed it first and wine bottles in the shop were shaking and a tile fell off the ceiling," she told reporters.

Over at Swansea University's Bay Campus, they were hosting an open day when the walls started shaking. The entire campus had to be evacuated and one parent later described how her son was in the toilet at Bay Campus when the walls started shaking. Talk about awkward timing.

The earthquake was followed by two small aftershocks at 3:09pm and 4:27pm, though most people didn't notice these.

Luckily, there was no major damage or injury caused, and most of the reaction to the quake was in response to the over-reaction from the press.

But over a century earlier, it was a different story.

The Big One - 1906

On the morning of June 27th, 1906, Swansea experienced a magnitude 5.2 earthquake that had people rushing into the streets, jumping from upstairs windows in terror, and Mumbles Lighthouse rocking on its foundations.

The Cambrian Daily Leader reported the city being "thrown into panic" with "confusion in the schools, terror in the homes." In tales of the day, it reported:

• Mr. Palmer, County Court bailiff, was dressing in his bedroom when he got a "terrific shock" and was thrown headlong from the bedroom through the doorway.

• A barber in Wind Street rushed from his shop into the street "with one side of his face lathered, and blood flowing from the other!" His barber’s chair "went up like a jumping jack."

• At a fruit shop in Mumbles, oranges "suddenly began to bob up and down” with men rushing away shouting "Oh, heavens! This shop is coming down"

And in one of the most tragic consequences, eight-year-old Lucy Alice Saunders of Rhyddings Park Road in Brynmill was said to be so traumatised by the earthquake while at school that she fell ill and never recovered, dying shortly afterwards.

The timing of the tremor couldn't have been worse. The Swansea earthquake struck just 10 weeks after the devastating San Francisco earthquake that had dominated international headlines with over 3,000 deaths and apocalyptic scenes of destruction. With those horrific images still fresh in people's minds, it's no wonder Swansea residents panicked so dramatically when their own ground started shaking.

A Century of Wobbles

But the 2018 and 1906 earthquakes weren't Swansea's only seismic activity to hit the headlines.

Christmas 1863 brought not one, not two, but three separate earthquakes over three days. The Sunday morning tremor was the strongest, with one terrified resident from Gloucester Place in the town centre writing: "Such was the alarm of myself and family that we were about to rush out of the house for fear of its falling upon us."

The vibrations were so strong that "the bells were set ringing in many houses" and "some portions of chimneys were thrown down."

In 1926, the disruption from another earthquake was more modest - in one house, a mantelpiece was found to be "askew" and a basket had tumbled off a wardrobe, while residents reported being awakened by "the rattling of articles on their washstands."

Perhaps the most British earthquake reaction ever came in 1887, when a gentleman from Walter Road wrote to the local newspaper: "I suddenly felt the bed tremble... my wife asked me if I felt the bed shake, and wondering what it could be, remarked, 'Perhaps it is an earthquake.' I am now convinced that her surmise was a correct one."

Are We Due Another?

According to experts, we get dozens of tiny earthquakes in Wales every year - most so small you'd never notice. The big ones average about every 75 years, meaning we’re overdue for another.

The good news is that Welsh houses are built tough to handle our weather, which apparently gives them natural earthquake resistance. The main danger is still old chimneys - so maybe get yours checked before the next tremor has your washstand rattling ☺️

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