1850 – Severe Thunder Storm over Llangrove

At the end of July 1850, a huge thunder storm broke over the area around Llangrove, and one family had a very narrow escape.

John Pritchard and his family were inside their house, Tre-tawdy, Llangrove Common, and he was sitting next to the fire holding one of his young children.  A lightning bolt shot down the chimney, shattering the mantelpiece and going through the room past several children before disappearing out of the, fortunately open, door.

John’s wife who was walking across the room at the time felt a severe blow to her arm, and ended up with a livid scar such as one might receive from a whip.

A large flat iron was picked up from the fire place and whirled around John and his child without doing any injury, but the fender was broken and a brass candlestick was hurled (undamaged) three yards to the windowsill.

1863 – Earthquake felt at Llangrove

On 6th Occtober 1863, at 3.20 a.m., the whole of Herefordshire experienced an earthquake which was remarkably similar to a previous one which occurred on 9th November 1852.

They both happened in the early hours of the morning, and both were accompanied by thunderstorms and unseasonably warm weather.  However, unlike the earthquake of 1852, this one didn’t cause deaths or major destruction.

In Llangrove, residents were awoken by a terrific noise, and people felt their beds shaking – one woman sitting in her kitchen heard a tremendous rattling of the door and table, and others were so alarmed that they ran into the street to see what was going on.