Britain's Atlantis is forgotten village swallowed by the sea

Researchers began looking for the village when fishermen reported their nets catching on hidden objects

A once bustling port town, comparable to the vibrancy of London, now lies submerged beneath the waves of the North Sea off the coast of East England. This village is often referred to as Britain's Atlantis, a nod to the legendary city believed to be lost deep within the ocean.

Dunwich in Suffolk was once a thriving medieval port and the capital of East Anglia. However, years of storms and coastal erosion led to the entire town succumbing to the sea, forgotten beneath the water.

According to the BBC, from around the 1960s, fishermen reported their nets catching on hidden objects where the old town once stood. Intrigued by this, local marine archaeologist Stuart Bacon took to the hostile North Sea in search of evidence.

After numerous dives, he finally saw it on one particularly clear day in 1972 - the church's tower emerging from the dark sea. Fast forward to 2008, a team of scientists from the University of Southampton utilised new mapping technology to uncover two of the lost settlement's churches.

These churches lie less than ten metres underwater in a trench that runs parallel to the coastline. Comparisons with historical maps confirm that one is the ruin of St Peter's Church, lost to the sea in the 1690s, and the second is most likely St Nicolas' Church, swallowed by the sea in the mid-15th century.

Sonar devices have been used to map out the underwater streets and buildings of Dunwich's past, with the sunken town steeped in folklore.

Local tales suggest that during storms, the bells of lost churches can be heard ringing from beneath the waves, and a heartbroken woman is said to haunt the coastline after being abandoned by her lover.

The legend tells of a woman so distraught that she cut out her heart and threw it into the sea, but was unable to die, leaving her to wander the coastline of the forgotten village.

Her heart, which appears wooden, occasionally washes ashore and is said to bring great misfortune to anyone unfortunate enough to pick it up.

The researchers were able to distinguish the town's streets and boundaries using the mapping. Peter Murphy, English Heritage's coastal survey expert, expressed surprise at how much of Dunwich was visible when the discovery was made.

He said: "Everyone was surprised, though, by how much of the eroded town still survives under the sea and is identifiable."

"While we cannot stop the forces of nature, we can ensure what is significant is recorded and our knowledge and memory of a place doesn't get lost forever. Professor Sear and his team have developed techniques that will be valuable to understanding submerged and eroded terrestrial sites elsewhere."