Just after 9am on April 22, 1884 the bells at St Mary’s Church in Prittlewell began playing the tune ‘Home Sweet Home’ seven times in a row, which was weird as nobody was in the belltower ringing them.

At the same time people across Southend and Leigh were thumped out of their beds onto the floor, the seafront esplanade at Westcliff raised by a foot in some places and chandeliers began to swing at the Bell Hotel in Leigh.

After a few seconds people began to twig as to what was happening as they went about their business on this so far, idle, Tuesday morning.

At first as the ground began to tremble many had thought a gun had exploded at Shoebury ranges. But it fast became clear, it was an earthquake.

The ‘Essex earthquake’ of 1884 often focuses on Colchester as north Essex was by far the worst hit. The quake, estimated to have measured 4.6 on the Richter Scale damaged more than 1,200 homes and churches including many in Colchester- and almost every single building in Wivenhoe and Abberton.

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It is believed that the 20 second earthquake resulted from movement along a fault in the ancient Palaeozoic rocks that underpin most of Essex It turned out to be the worst quake to have hit the UK in 400 years since the Dover Straits earthquake of 1580.

However, it hardly ever gets mentioned that Southend was also affected- although not by any means as badly as the northern parts of the county.

Although no severe damage was caused the disaster sent literal shockwaves through the area, heightened all the more because people became confused and didn’t know what was happening.

Shutters on shops in Nelson Street came off their hinges, a train leaped off the rails at Pitsea for a second ot two but managed to land back safely and at Leigh Rectory, which was being used as a school the breakfast table fell over and students’ desks elevated. At the Royal Hotel alarms began ringing, panicking guests and staff.

On Southend Pier the piermaster William Chignall and hero lifeboat man William Bradley, who would later become the piermaster, were thrown up in the air, switching places. The men ended up miraculously transposing after being lifted off their feet.

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As for the bells St Mary’s it would appear the automated machine which rang the bells got stuck so it kept belting out the same old tune of ‘Home Sweet Home’- though at least it wasn’t the Death Knell.

After the panic receded one commentator on the drama said that Southend had been severely affected by the quake and that “another second or two of vibrations would have turned cosmos into complete chaos.”

Within a few weeks of the earthquake a meeting was held at Shire Hall in Chelmsford to decide on a way forward to rebuilt following the disaster and the best way to help those worst affected- the poor.