Rick Stonell's ancestors left the West Country in the early 17th Century. There is now a known reason why the Stonell family took this deciision.

In 1607, a devastating flood killed 2,000 people along the Bristol Channel coastline. Scientists are now examining a theory that this was caused by a Tsunami.

The flood could have been caused by a 30 foot wave funneled along the Bristol Channel at up to 100mph - anyone in the area would have had no warning. Seventeenth century pamphlets and parish records sate that, sea water crashed inland and flooded some 200 square miles across Somerset and South Wales. This would make it the biggest and most damaging flood in British history. In the Burnham area of Somerset, (where the Stonell family came from) 30 villages were flooded, with historical records stating that 28 people were killed at Huntspill and a further 26 at Brean.

Evidence of the Tsunami can still be seen in the location of boulders, the shape of cliffs and the distribution of silt along the Bristol Channel coast. All this may have been due to an underwater earthquake off the south west of Ireland. - an area which recorded a Richter 4.5 quake in 1980.

Tsunamis are rare in the UK, but not unrecorded. In 5000 BC, Scotland was hit by a tsunami after a landslip in what is now Norway created waves 70ft high. In 1755 an earthquake near Lisbon sent a series of tsunamis into the Atlantic, leading to the south western tip of Cornwall being hit by a 10ft high wave