Lost Villages

There were villages once stretching out into the North Sea where the waves now rumble and roll. They had wonderful names such as Auburn: Hartburn, Northorpe, Monkswell, Monkwike, Waxholme, Dimlington, Turmarr, Orwithfleete, Tharlesthorpe, Owthorne, Hoton, Sunthorpe, old Kilnsea, Ravenser and Ravenser Odd.

All are now gone; destroyed by the sea.

The retreating cliff edge slumps down onto the beach like a tired old man, for that is what it is, a two million year old relic that is now too feeble to stand. Its clays and buttery soils were once laid down by mighty glaciers, now they offer no obstacle to the high tides that can beat them down.

We travelled down a road that suddenly ended abruptly and had red signs to warn of danger. Once this road had taken carts on to the next village and the fields beyond. Now the new end of the road was cracked, broken and in disarray slumping down to the hungry beach below. The houses that flanked the road had a dilapidated look standing silently on death row awaiting their time of execution.

There are tales of the lost villages; of bones being washed from the old graveyards, and of towns, once haunted by pirates, being swept away by the sea.

It was a strangely disturbing place and it was hard not to resist the instinct to flee.