'Lost' city of Dunwich mapped by Southampton University

[Imperial Dave]

http://www.livescience.com/29519-england-atlantis-dunwich-mapped.html?utm_source=notification

Another major 'find' I was blissfully unaware of but is very interesting and NOT for the Atlantis label!

[Erpingham]

Its an odd place to visit.  A small village with a couple of pubs and a bit of medieval stonework.  Yet once a major port. 

[Duncan Head]

Until destroyed by the Dunwich Horror?

[Imperial Dave]

I surely hope not Duncan! 

[Patrick Waterson]

Until destroyed by the Dunwich Horror?

By something much more permanent and arguably less Lovecraftian: the sea.

This did not stop it from sending MPs (two of them) to Parliament until the First Reform Act of 1832.

[Imperial Dave]

no doubt on expenses...... 

[Patrick Waterson]

It seems to have been a loose model for the constituency of Dunny-on-the-Wold in a certain TV series which included a future Time Team presenter.

[Tim]

Holly

In those days MPs did not get exes - they used their own money... Not saying 15th -19th century democracy was any better but it was a damn sight cheaper for the taxpayer...

[Swampster]

Until destroyed by the Dunwich Horror?

By something much more permanent and arguably less Lovecraftian: the sea.

This did not stop it from sending MPs (two of them) to Parliament until the First Reform Act of 1832.

But who, or nameless unutterable what, sent the sea, with its writhing dead yet not dead things deep in its darkest abyss.

Now I read this back, that sounds like a description of parliament too.

[Patrick Waterson]

Now I read this back, that sounds like a description of parliament too.

On a good day.

[Sharur]

Channel 4's Time Team did one of their programmes on Dunwich back in 2011, I think. You can still find it on YouTube if you want to.

For other aspects of the lost city, it's worth visiting the Dunwich.org website, which has photos, maps, and factual details on the historical and archaeological elements, while if you're feeling especially keen you can find a free PDF download of Thomas Gardner's tome "An Historical Account of Dunwich..." (the complete title goes on for a full page) from MDCCLIV (or 1854, if you prefer) via Google Books here (the full URL's only slightly shorter than the title...).

In respect to the Lovecraftian Dunwich, there are suspicions voiced online in places that anglophile Lovecraft may have been influenced by tales of the vanished coastal city in some of his tales, if probably not his Dunwich, which was set well inland. The Wikipedia Dunwich page also mentions a folkloric tale "The Dark Heart of Dunwich", an apparently old ghost story of sorts, although I haven't managed to find a copy of the tale online as yet, if so (Wikipedia gives no reference for it either).

[Imperial Dave]

brilliant link and info Alastair. I must have missed that Time Team episode although I kind of went off the boil with it in the later series.

[Erpingham]

brilliant link and info Alastair. I must have missed that Time Team episode although I kind of went off the boil with it in the later series.

It wasn't an earth shattering one.  IIRC it was looking at origins of the town ditch (which still exists on the lanward side and various excavations around the remaining abbey.  The trenches were still there, unbackfilled, when I visited a couple of years later.

[Imperial Dave]

It is when someone else has done the leg work and saved you the bother Alastair! ie the brilliance was that I didnt have to go and look it up myself