The Thames in London running dry.....

[Weather-history]

Frost fairs held on the frozen Thames are well known but rarely is heard of the occasions when the Thames in London has been so low that people have been able to cross it safely on foot, an event that was much rarer in occurrence than the frost fairs. Here are a very few occasions from some sources of the Thames in London running very low.

1114: "This year was so great an ebb everywhere in one day as no man remembered before so that men went through the Thames both riding and walking east of London Bridge"

1114, April 4th: "River Thames in London so dry that children waded over between the bridges and the town. Under London Bridge only knee deep."

1114, October 10th: "The Thames on that day suffered a great want of water; for between the bridge and the Royal Tower and even under the bridge, the water of the river was so diminished, that not only horses, but also an innumerable crowd of men and boys walked through it, the water hardly reaching their knees."

1158: "An earthquake happened in many places through England and the River of Thames was dryed uppe, that at London men might walke over the same dryshod."

1281: "So great a drought than men passed over the river Thames dryshod between Westminster and Lambeth and over the Medway between Strood and Rochester."

1541: "A remarkable drought; almost all the small rivers dried up and the river Trent diminished to a straggling brook. The river Thames so low that the seawater even at ebb, extended beyond London Bridge."

1591: "The Thames was so dryed up, that a man might ride over it on horseback near London Bridge."

1592 September 5th: "One standing on the shore of the Thames could not see any water in it from London Brisge to Westminster"

1687 May 12th: "This day there was such a storm of wind as had seldom happened, being sort of a hurricane. It kept the flood out of the Thames so that people went on foot over several places above bridge."

1716 September 14th: "A very remarkable phenomenon occurred at London Bridge, when in consequence of the long drought, the stream of the river Thames was reduced so low and from the effect of a violent gale at WSW was blown so dry that many thousands of people passed it on foot both above and below the bridge through most of the arches. The channel in the middle of the river was scarcely ten yards wide and very shallow."

[Roo]

Thanks Mr D...interesting stuff: I believe there were many fords across the Thames in the Roman period.

Will try and find a ref and get back....

EDIT: Can't find the article I was thinking of...do know it's why OXford is called that though. Also I believe that was what allowed the Romans to cross easily in the 1st century...they hopped across the small channels towards the east....

Edited July 31, 2008 by Roo

[Mammatus]

Very interesting Mr_Data. Thanks.

TA

[johnholmes]

another interesting series of quotes there

anyone like to suggest when it might happen again? !

[0000]

Absolutely facinating.............presumably with the river management ie it's banks etc being reconstucted this would be unlikely to happen in the christmas pudding?

[Weather-history]

Anyone remember the film "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"? That showed a dried up Thames as what it may look like.

[Albireo380]

Not much chance of the River Clyde running dry, it is chucking it down here .... again.

Yet another warm, cloudy and rainy Summer ... I long for those hot, sunny Summers that West Central Scotland got in 1976 and several times more over the subsequent few years. Not had a "good, dry Summer" up here for Yonks.

Can I sell you some water? ..... Anyone?

Joking apart ... interesting quotes Mr Data.

[cyclonic happiness]

Anyone remember the film "The Day the Earth Caught Fire"? That showed a dried up Thames as what it may look like.

Oh god, yeah i remember seeing that film in the early eighties.

I often wondered where all the water went?

Surely if the earth got that hot, the water would evaporate and cause the most terrible storms, as i'm sure the wter vapour wouldn't be able to escape from the earths gravity, it would still be "on" the earth?

Any thoughts on this, i really have been wondering for years? :lol: