In the late 13th century, the town of Dunwich in Suffolk, UK, was as big as London, with about 10,000 residents. It was near the North Sea, not quite on the shore, but then the shore moved. Dunwich had eighteen stone churches, chapels, and monasteries. But that was before the sea storms of 1288 and 1328 began a calamitous progression of the sea, which drew closer and carved away the foundations of those ancient buildings. It took 600 years for the sea to eat away at the town, and in 1922, the last of the ruins fell into the ocean.
While England was powerless in stopping the undermining of Dunwich, many people documented its demise, although with varying accuracy. Residents moved inland one by one, although some held out for as long as possible. In an exercise in wishful thinking, some signed long-term leases and others donated inheritances to the doomed churches. Tax records show that in 1674, only 95 houses were occupied. When the last remnant of All Saints’ Church fell in 1922, it took the remains of its graveyard with it, as bones of the long dead were uncovered and swept out to sea along with the last vestige of Dunwich. Read about the city that fell off a cliff at the Public Domain Review. -via Damn Interesting
(Image credit: Joseph Mallord William Turner)
