CHRISTINE Powell chaired the meeting on October 6 in the absence of Marjy Facer. Reports by Ashton members included Doreen Parsons who had entered the Floral Art competition at the Harrogate Fair. It all sounded very daunting. Doreen explained how the whole event had been run on very strict lines, and that the entrants had mostly been NAFAS (national) arrangers. She showed some beautiful photos of the arrangements. We congratulated Doreen for taking on this challenge on behalf of Worcestershire. Marjy and Judith Hunter had visited the Fair with WFWI and very much enjoyed the whole event. Nearer to home, a visit to Sezincote House and Indian garden in September had been very enjoyable, and two members had attended a ‘hands –on’ morning at Powick “Link” nurseries, learning to take cuttings of favourite plants.

The speaker at the meeting was Rose Hewlett who gave a most interesting talk on a topic she is researching: “The Great Severn Estuary Flood”. Despite the obvious assumption that the talk was going to be about the severe floods of recent years, Rose took us back to the year 1606/7, and an almost forgotten disaster. This was the time of a catastrophic event in the Bristol Channel which reached all the way up to the tidal limit of the River Severn. Experts have still not decided whether a tsunami occurred, or whether it was due to a freak combination of high Spring tides, fierce storms and hurricane force winds, but an incredible flood of water rushed up the Severn estuary, causing terrible damage to land, grazing, cattle and people. Most floods on the Severn are due to water coming downstream from Wales, but this “tidal bore” had saltwater flowing out over fields and marshy land, up to fourteen miles inland at Glastonbury. It was said to have been ten days before the waters went down. There are flood marks in older churches which prove the height of the water.

The tidal surge started along the Welsh coast and was felt equally along the Devon shore. Rose showed maps of the length of the river as she talked, taking us up through the Gwent and Somerset levels, Cardiff on the west, Bristol on the east, as far as Gloucestershire and Frampton-on –Severn where she lives. Tributaries were inundated and the loss of life was very high, thought to be thousands of people. She emphasised that communication and rescue would have been very difficult in those days. Rose clearly enjoyed examining the evidence to be found in a small number of chronicles, pamphlets and woodcut illustrations of the time. Some of this needed to be sifted - it was called “God’s Warning”, a second Noah’s flood, as a punishment from God, although the common people felt it had more to do with the full moon and the spring tides.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, November 3. “Behind the Scenes with a TV and Film Caterer”. Meetings start at 7.30pm in Ashton Village Hall. All welcome.

JUDITH HUNTER