Dunwich, England: The Medieval Town That Fell Into the Sea

Off the coast of Suffolk, eight churches lie under the sea. Dunwich was one of the great ports of medieval England, a town whose streets covered almost as much ground as the City of London. Even the Domesday Book of 1086 recorded farmland the sea had already carried away. A great storm in 1286 swept much of the settlement into the sea and choked its harbour with sand and shingle. Over the following centuries its churches, friaries and streets went over the cliff, one by one. The last medieval church, All Saints, was photographed as it fell, until its tower went in 1919 or 1922. In 2008 and 2013, University of Southampton researchers mapped the drowned town with sonar and an acoustic camera. This is Vanished Case 08, built from the Domesday Book, Southampton and English Heritage research, and Suffolk County records. Chapters: 0:00 Eight churches under the sea 0:34 A port with deep water: Felix and Dommoc 1:00 1086: the Domesday Book's warning 1:45 The great medieval port 2:39 The storm of 1286 3:32 Churches into the sea 4:04 The grey friars move inland 4:46 St Peter's goes over the cliff 5:21 A borough with no town 5:58 All Saints, the last church 7:02 The last grave 7:20 What lies below: the 2008 sonar survey 8:07 2013: six more ruins, 74 possible sites 9:07 What remains today 9:59 Next case: the Flannan Isles, three lighthouse keepers who vanished in 1900 Sources: University of Southampton press releases (Sept 22, 2008; May 9, 2013, with English Heritage); Domesday Book (Open Domesday, Dunwich entries); Suffolk County Council parish history of Dunwich; Victoria County History of Suffolk via British History Online (Greyfriars); Bede's Ecclesiastical History (Dommoc); Historic England; History of Parliament. Where sources disagree (Domesday burgess count, St Peter's loss date, All Saints' final fall, the Greyfriars move date, the Dommoc site), the video says so. All images are public domain or Creative Commons photos, paintings and maps, credited below. No AI-generated images are used. New vanished case every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to Quietmark History. #dunwich #suffolk #lostcity Credits: Creative Commons images via Wikimedia Commons (title | author | license): Dunwich Greyfriars, Suffolk UK | Shiffard | CC BY-SA 4.0 DunwichGreyfriarsGateway | JohnArmagh | CC BY-SA 4.0 St James church Dunwich Suffolk (3796859… | David from Colorado Springs, | CC BY 2.0 All Saints church Dunwich Suffolk (37912… | David from Colorado Springs, | CC BY 2.0 Dunwich, Suffolk | Midnightblueowl | CC BY-SA 3.0 Norwich Cathedral statue of Saint Felix | Fæ | CC BY-SA 3.0 I'd appreciate if you could mail me (Kol | CC BY-SA 4.0 | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... Greyfriars, Dunwich | c_e_s | CC BY 2.0 Chapel of St James' Hospital, Dunwich 01 | Dave.Dunford | CC BY-SA 4.0 Suffolk UK relief location map | Nilfanion, created using Ord | CC BY-SA 3.0 Dunwich Museum 2024-07-22 | Matt Brown | CC BY 2.0 Geograph Britain and Ireland photos via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0, by: Malcolm Neal, Simon Mortimer, Geographer, Michael Garlick, Mat Fascione, Peter Turner, David Smith, David P Howard, Bill Harrison, Adrian Cable, Ashley Dace, Neil Theasby, Richard Croft, Rob Noble, Des Blenkinsopp, Steve Daniels, Ian Rob, Roger Cornfoot, Cud05, David Hillas, Peter Facey, Colin Park, Adrian S Pye, John Winfield, Bikeboy. Public domain and CC0 images via Wikimedia Commons: Unknown author, Walter Daniel Batley, F. L. B. Griggs, George Stanfield Walters, Domesday Book, Ernest Prater, Percy Benzie Abery, Conrad Ziebland conradz, Andrews, William, Poliphilo, J. M. W. Turner. Search each title on Wikimedia Commons for the full license. Music: "Tension bed" synthesized in-house (no third-party audio) Sound effects: synthesized in-house (no third-party audio) Narration: Microsoft Edge TTS (en-US-AndrewMultilingualNeural)