Archaeology & History

Violent storms destroyed 'Britain's Atlantis'

By T.K. Randall
February 21, 2016 ·  3 comments

Dunwich beach as it appears today. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 2.0 Ashley Dace Dunwich might be little more than a small coastal village of 120 people today, but back in the 11th century it was the tenth largest town in the whole of England with a population of thousands.

For years archaeologists have been piecing together what became of this seaside settlement and now new evidence discovered in the sediment off the coast of Suffolk has confirmed that Dunwich was ultimately destroyed by a series of violent storms that lasted for decades.

Now residing almost entirely below the waves, the town, which has since been referred to as "Britain's Atlantis", was originally hit back in 1286 and again in 1326 by destructive storms which began a steady decline as more and more of its infrastructure was ravaged by the elements.The town's residents eventually had to admit defeat when another huge storm hit in 1338.

"We use sound to create a video image of the seabed and the reason we do that is because when you dive at Dunwich it's pitch black," said Professor David Sear of the University of Southampton.

"We found the ruins of about four churches and we've also found ruins of what we think was a toll house. But we've also found shipwrecks for example, and there's some we've found with this Touching the Tide project, which no-one's known before."

Source: BBC News | Comments (3)

Tags: Dunwich