Dunwich

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About Dunwich

Dunwich on the the Suffolk Coast, England is an area of outstanding natural beauty and deserves a group of its own.

Dunwich was the capital of East Anglia 1,500 years ago. The historian Arthur Mee suggests that the roman cavalry once patrolled this coast along "stone street" between Dunwich and Caistor St Edmund.

Dunwich had a prominent entry in the Domesday Book. By 1173 it was a place of such substance that Robert, Earl of Leicester, attempted to land 3,000 Flemish troops on its beaches in an attempt to depose Henry II and replace him with his son.

Dunwich is a place to reflect and imagine as its days of glory are very much in the past. It was a 13th Century port with at least six churches which lie at the bottom of the sea. Dunwich today is a small hamlet with around 100 people living here.

In 2008 a project to investigate what lies beneath the waves was begun by Professor David Sear, of the University of Southampton, and marine archaeologist Stuart Bacon. Hopefully this will begin to answer the questions about the size of Dunwich and just how many churches the city had in its hey day of the 13th century. You can find conflicting reports in books and internet to suggest anything between 6 and 50.

Dunwich has many legends including the one that on a quiet night you can still hear the sounds of the church bells as they ring out under the sea. Might me be more to do with having had a few pints at the Ship Inn in Dunwich.

The only church that still stands here today is St James which was built in 1830. Next to the church are the remains of the 800 year old ruined leper hospital.

These days the Flora Tea Rooms are often popular for their fish and chips and home made doughnuts.

Latest news in Dunwich is the arrival of 20 dartmoor ponies in Dunwich Forest on the 1st December 2008. The aim of the Suffolk Wildlife Trust is to to transfer the conifer plantation into a more open broadleaved woodland landscape from their ponies grazing. Sure to be another attraction to photograph as the woodlands are accesible of course to the public.

A good time to see the red deer ruttingon DUnwich Heath is during October best times being early morning or late afternoon

You are welcome to add anything connected with Dunwich Suffolk.

Places to visit and photograph include
Dunwich Heath,
Greyfriars Friary,
The Ship Inn,
St James's Church,
Dunwich Forest
Dingle Marshes
Wildlife home to rare wildlife including the Dartford Warbler and the ant-lion
Old Coastguard Cottages for food and a cup of tea.
National Trust Coastal Centre - great for childrens activities
Dunwich Museum
Flora Tea Rooms
Dunwich Rose - a lemon coloured rose


Links to sites connected with Dunwich

Streetmap.co.uk a map of Dunwich

www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=647643&y=270548&...

Visit- suffolkcoast.co.uk - this sites has information on walking in Dunwich, the history of Dunwich and Suffolk Sea Battles

www.visit-dunwich.co.uk/around_the_town.php

Walking in Dunwich - visit Michael Anderton's site for a 4 mile Dunwich walk.

www.btinternet.com/~anderton/eadtwalk/dunwich.htm

Francisfrith.com - this site is of real interest for anyone wanting to see some old photos and maps of Dunwich. Perhaps of more interest though is the content on memories of Dunwich.

www.francisfrith.com/search/england/suffolk/dunwich/

A history of Dunwich from Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich

Simons Suffolk Churches - great mine of information on churches throughout Suffolk and Norfolk. Here is an account of All Saints and the other lost churches of Dunwich.

www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/dunwichas.html

The National Trust Coastal Centre - for details of activities

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-dunwichheathandminsmerebeach

Dunwich Dynamo - Details of a London to Dunwich 120 mile annual cycling event. Next event 4/5 July 2009. Usually over 400 cyclists take part and ride through the night to arrive in Dunwich after about 10 hours!

www.southwarkcyclists.org.uk/social/dunwichfaqs08.shtml

Dunwich Dynamo - Flickr group for the cycle event in 2008

www.flickr.com/groups/854175@N22/

Urban 75 has some good photos of the attractions of Dunwich and a picture of All Saints Church before it fell into the sea.

www.urban75.org/photos/suffolk/dunwich-village.html

A geographical site with photos of Dunwich over the last 8 years

Fossil Collecting in Dunwich site

www.dunwich.ukfossils.co.uk/

www.stacey.peak-media.co.uk/DunwichHeath/DunwichHeathMay2...

A Suffolk tourst guide with photos and details of where to stay nr Dunwich

www.suffolktouristguide.com/Dunwich.asp

BBC Radio Suffolk - a useful site containing a number of videos of Dunwich by one of their presenters.

www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/content/articles/2007/09/07/dunwich...

Poems on Dunwich

Anthony Thwaite ... At Dunwich

Fifteen churches lie here
Under the North Sea;
Forty-five years ago
The last went down the cliff.
You can see, at low tide,
A mound of masonry
Chewed like a damp bun.

In the village now (if you call
Dunwich a village now,
With a handful of houses, one street,
And a shack for Tizer and tea)
You can ask an old man
To show you the stuff they've found
On the beach when there's been a storm:

Knife-blades, buckles and rings,
Enough coins to fill an old sock,
Badges that men wore
When they'd been on a pilgrimage.
Armfuls of broken pots.
People cut bread, paid cash,
Buttoned up against the cold.

Fifteen churches, and men
In thousands working at looms,
And wives brewing up stews
In great grey cooking pots.
I put out a hand and pull
A sherd from the cliff's jaws.
The sand trickles, then falls.

Nettles grow on the cliffs
In clumps as high as a house.
The houses have gone away.
Stand and look at the sea
Eating the land as it walks
Steadily treading the tops
Of fifteen churches' spires.

Ethel Wynne Candwell ... Dunwich

Here where the waves of the ages sunder
The shifting cliffs till they crash and fall,
Here where the tongues of the North Sea thunder
To the wind's wild laughter, the seabirds' call;
Here I would pause awhile and wonder
At the desolation covering all.

Yonder a crumbling street would borrow
The weeds of the sea for its winding sheet,
And ruined homes in their voiceless sorrow
Humble themselves at the cliff's red feet,
For time will cover them all tomorrow
With tides that hunger and waves that beat.

At the edge of the cliff in their fearless glory,
The flowers of a ravished garden bloom,
But only the winds can tell the story
Of the vanished feet that would hither roam,
Or the waves of the sea, grown old and hoary,
That buried them deep in sand and foam.

For the waves care little for rank or station,
And the winds are whimpering round the dead,
Whose souls cry out at the desecration
That flung their bones on the ocean's bed.
Oh! waste and silence and desolation,
And a passing thought for the years long fled!

For ever the wasteful sea will cumber
The shifting sands where its billows feed,
When I am wrapped in a dreamless slumber,
And the winds will call and I shall not heed,
When I am one of the ghostly number
Who knew the secret of wrack and weed.