The Severn Bore Project
The Severn Bore is a tidal phenomena occurring on the River Severn in south west England and Wales. It is the second largest bore in the world, the largest being the Qiantang River in East China. The Severn Bore makes its way far inland from the turbulent currents of the Bristol Channel and the Atlantic Ocean beyond causing a powerful wave to push into the narrowing river channels. The surge continues upstream as far as the city of Gloucester and beyond. This happens when lunar activity affects the gravitational pull of the moon towards the earth which creates high tides.
These recordings were made just after 10AM on Monday March 31st 2025 from the west bank of the river near to Minsterworth in Gloucetsershire. A pair of hydrophones were placed below the surface while a stereo microphone recorded above the surface of the water.
Recordings © Chris Cundy & Pavel Nikolsky
These recordings were made just after 10AM on Monday March 31st 2025 from the west bank of the river near to Minsterworth in Gloucetsershire. A pair of hydrophones were placed below the surface while a stereo microphone recorded above the surface of the water.
Recordings © Chris Cundy & Pavel Nikolsky
Artists impression of the recording process showing our position on an over-hanging tree and the difference from low tide to sudden high tide when the bore struck.
Photo with thanks to Minsterworth Village Hall
I have lived in Gloucestershire for nearly thirty years and the River Severn sweeps across this landscape like a beautiful old creature laying down in the grass, an indelible reminder of how the lower reaches of this landscape were shaped by glacial activity and meltwater several hundreds of thousands of years ago. I have often heard about the bore but this was my first experience of actually visiting the river to see it happen. I was struck by just how transformative it was. When we first arrived the water level was very low and everything was eerily quiet, surrounded by deep cut muddy banks on all sides. We selected a tree that was over hanging the waters edge and decided to make camp here as we needed a good vantage point to record into the river with the hydrophone microphones. At this point it was still a challenge to reach under the surface of the water even with 5-meter length cables attached to a long aluminium pole which I had fashioned into a kind of makeshift fishing rod. When the bore finally arrived everything in the entire landscape seemed to change! The sudden rise of the water, its approaching wake and the swell, the incredible noise it brought with it, and the slew of debris that followed including whole tree trunks floating past at incredible speed. It was just awesome.
Finding our location
After parking the car along the A48 we made our way down to Church Lane just to the east of Minsterworth village and then down an easily accessible dirt track that went towards the river. After a bit of a scramble through the undergrowth the riverside path soon opened up alongside an old orchard field and a low bank. I was contemplating approaching the waters edge from one of the open mud banks, but on second thoughts this looked extremely unstable and dangerous so we stuck to dry land and headed for our trusty over hanging tree.
Team Bore: Chris Cundy, Pavel Nikolsky, Katya Alisevich-Nikolsky, Rog Clinton-Herman
Woodcut showing the great flood of 1607, from an 1884 ChapBook publication (Steve Rippon).
I've been reading about the great flood of 1607. Although this was clearly much more than just a typical bore event, it illustrates the sheer power and the unpredictability that the River Severn holds, and the natural forces that have shaped this landscape and its people for centuries. A True Report of Certain Overflowings was published by Edward White in the same year of the great flood, and in it the author writes: "If this affliction now inflicted upon our Country, is more severe than before, use it: tremble, be warned in advance, be repentant, in order to avoid a more severe punishment."
A warning of unspeakable destruction, of cosmic forces that determine oceanic tides far from land, has led some people to believe the great flood might have been caused by a lunar imbalance, unusually high spring tides, a sudden storm, or even a Tsunami.
Whatever happened on the morning of 20th January 1607, it was monumentally destructive, and it happened completely without warning, drowning thousands of people and animals and destroying villages, farms and homes in its wake. It's said that over a period of five hours two thousand people died and over two hundred square miles of land was destroyed by floods rushing up to five miles inland and engulfing everything in its path.
A number of accounts and inscriptions survive and the following originates from Burnham-on-Sea:
“A certain man and woman having taken a tree for their succour, espying nothing but death before their eyes, at last among other things which were carried along, they perceived a certain tubbe of great bignesse to come nearer and nearer unto them, until it rested upon that tree wherein they were, committed themselves, and were carried safe until they were cast upon the drie shore”.
August 2025
A warning of unspeakable destruction, of cosmic forces that determine oceanic tides far from land, has led some people to believe the great flood might have been caused by a lunar imbalance, unusually high spring tides, a sudden storm, or even a Tsunami.
Whatever happened on the morning of 20th January 1607, it was monumentally destructive, and it happened completely without warning, drowning thousands of people and animals and destroying villages, farms and homes in its wake. It's said that over a period of five hours two thousand people died and over two hundred square miles of land was destroyed by floods rushing up to five miles inland and engulfing everything in its path.
A number of accounts and inscriptions survive and the following originates from Burnham-on-Sea:
“A certain man and woman having taken a tree for their succour, espying nothing but death before their eyes, at last among other things which were carried along, they perceived a certain tubbe of great bignesse to come nearer and nearer unto them, until it rested upon that tree wherein they were, committed themselves, and were carried safe until they were cast upon the drie shore”.
August 2025