Descriptive Report,
59
sets or fifteen desks in a line with the W. wall and two sets or
six desks in a line with the E. wall on the other side of the
room. Beneath these desks, resting on ledges or shelves,
were about 130 slates, the whole of which clattered and
rattled violently during the latter part of the shock, but not
one was thrown out to the floor. This would seem to imply
that the direction of the wave or shock was in a direction S.
to N., which was certainly my feeling and experience as I
stood in the middle of the floor looking W.—a sudden up-
heaving of the floor and then a steady gentle swaying towards
the N. and back again. On the other hand, there is the mute
testimony of the clock, proving a measure of oscillation more
or less E. and W."
The structural damage done at Birch was very slight, only
a few tiles being shaken down. The church, with a spire 110
feet high, was uninjured.
Returning to the Mersea Road, chimneys are reported to
have been thrown down at Cockwort Farm, to the east of the
road, a little below the Cemetery, and also at Middlewick,
about three quarters of a mile S.E. of this last farm. At
Roman Hill a large chimney-stack was thrown down at the
house occupied by Mrs. Hughes. Turning off towards
Abberton the destruction became more general.
Abberton, about 31/2 miles due S. of Colchester.—Hardly a
chimney left standing in the village, every roof more or less
damaged, and walls cracked in many of the cottages. Here
and elsewhere throughout the area of structural damage, it
was observed that old brick-built houses had generally suffered
more severely than wooden structures.
At the Abberton " Lion Inn " the chimney-stacks fell
through the roof, a chest of drawers was overturned, and glass
in the bar was broken. At a cottage on the east side of the
road, standing approximately N. and S., the chimney-stack
at the N. end had a very conspicuous crack at the base slant-
ing towards the S. (as seen on the western side of the stack),
at au angle of about 60° with the horizon. Oblique cracks of
this kind at the base of chimney-stacks, and forming various
angles with the horizon, were very frequently observed
during our visit of inspection, and generally (in this district)
in cases where the houses stood approximately S. and N.,i.e.,