Use the link below to read “The SEVERN & ITS BORE” booklet from 1967.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uAA8Hb3H3Q9fSiFWEViLKY-I4L5d248k/view?usp=sharing
In
my life I have only experienced a few natural phenomena that have affected me
emotionally reminding me of my primeval beginnings. Eclipses where the total
darkness in the middle of the day feels surreal. The frightening experience as
a child in a thunderstorm of a lightning bolt exploding just outside the
kitchen bathing me, my mom and my sister in the purest white light you could
imagine like a huge flash bulb had exploded. Then the wonderous experience of a
full moon rising when you are located on a hill top and it seems to occupy the
whole sky. Next to these experiencing the Severn Bore on the River Severn
counts as such a premeval emotional experience. In fact the Severn Bore offers for
me two very different experiences. Firstly, being less dramatic but just as
peculiar is witnessing a major wide river like the River Severn through
Gloucester City Centre suddenly flowing in the opposite direction for a few
hours. When you first witness it you have to take a second take particularly if
you are unaware a Severn Bore is in progress. Secondly, but far more dramatically
watching the Severn Bore wave thunder up the River Severn on a calm early
morning. Read this brief descriptive narrative on the Severn Bore.
“I
once took an American Work Colleague at 5.30 am in the morning to witness it at
Minsterworth knowing there was a Spring High Tide. We stood there in the
freezing cold having missed out on a hotel breakfast with the river so still
with no flow and a mirrored surface. He became increasingly frustrated in an
American way. When 5.30 am passed with no show he thought it was just another
English exaggerated tourist attraction. Then the roar when the 7 foot bore wave
rushed by but what catches people out is the river then continues to rise up to
20 feet over time flooding the banks forcing us to retreat. From a mirrored
surface to a raging torrent of water in a few seconds. To say he was impressed
is a bit of an understatement. It is the one geographical event that everybody
should witness at least once in their lifetime. It is surreal watching a force
of nature created by the magnetic force of the Moon on our seas display its
power through tidal movements leading to the Severn Bore.”
Whilst talking about impressing an American. The most impressive event I witnessed in America was watching the Space Shuttle Endeavour launch at NASA Kennedy Space Centre Cape Canaveral, Florida on Saturday the 12th September 1992. Viewed from Titusville the opposite side of the Indian River we were about 7 miles away and it stood only one inch tall on the horizon. When it launched the crackle of the rocket engines was deafening and the flames themselves eye piercingly bright. In fact nothing like a Severn Bore !!!!
Now
to the “The SEVERN & ITS BORE” booklet which is one of a Series of 25 Brief
Guides published by the Raleigh Press in 1967. I wish I owned some of the
others. It has been one of my treasured booklet possessions for many years.
Measuring only 5 inch (12.5 cm) by 7 inch (18.5 cm) it is a handy pocket size
that has always appealed to me. Written by F.R.Rowbotham with me unable to find
anything about him. My copy is a stapled booklet with a coloured thicker paper cover
whilst the rest of the book is printed black and white using I assume offset lithography.
Later versions were published by David & Charles Limited with hard covers and
a conventional binding. Second hand copies of the hardback are selling on the
internet although I have not seen any stapled copies like mine offered for sale.
(2024).
In
terms of the booklets content I particularly like the variety especially the
inclusion of my favourite historical category “Gazetteer” on Page 6 covering
Counties and Towns covering the length of the River Severn from Source to Sea.
Oddly enough I also like the fact that the page number 5 has been missed by the
typesetter. As a book publisher myself it’s the little errors like this that
interest me with after publication you kicking yourself at not spotting the
error earlier. Subjects like Fishing, Industrial Archaeology, Engineering, The
Wildfowl Trust and the Inns of the Severn make it such a readable booklet. At
48 pages it is wonderfully concise and can be read in less than 30 minutes. In
this age of Smartphones and Social Media posts that is the way we as humans now
want our information parcelled up and presented to us supporting our often fruitless fully scheduled and time dependent lives. What did happen to stillness and reflection?
I
always have concerns about the publishing of material as a PDF in terms of both
the Author and Publisher Copyrights. So as the writer, F.R. Rowbotham’s 1967
Copyright is acknowledged as he or this estate still own copyright over his written
words. But being over 25 years old now the Publisher Copyright of The Raleigh
Press has lapsed. In terms of its commercial value with the content now so
dated it would, in my opinion, have no sold for profit value. So as a Digital
Publisher of Old Historic Documents, on a strictly none for profit basis, it is
shared here strictly under a Creative Commons 4.0 Licence defined by a CC
BY-NC-SA 4.0 Deed. If any objection is communicated to me by any of the current
or previous Copyright Owners the content will be immediately removed from the
internet.
The
Severn Bore is covered in this link to Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_bore
No comments:
Post a Comment