TREASURE FROM THE SEA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 998, 30 May 1911, Page 4

TREASURE FROM THE SEA.

Au extraordinarily high tide on April 4th wrought strange havoc on the Suffolk coast and brought to light new tieasure. At Thorpness, Aldeburgh, a million tons of sand were washed away, and bungalows on the coast which two days previously were 100 . yards away Irom the sea aie now within a few feet ot high-water mark. But the most curious fact was that hundreds of coins of gold, silver and bronze, and dating back in many cases to early Saxon times, were brought to light, also antique bronze rings and ornaments and an old bag clasp of bronze with a silver inscription, believed, on hasty inspection, to be of the age ot King John. This coast Is of the greatest antiquarian interest. Standing on it, according to local legend, the wayfarer at twilight can hear the bells of the submerged churches of Dunwich in the sea. Of this place, once a populous seaport, little or nothing now remains. It is most like to Reculver, in Kent; as lonely and as rich in historic memories. Here centuries ago were stationed Roman troops ; here was a saxon city of great importance, Dummoceastre, and here about 630 A.D. Sigeberht, King of East Anglia, built himself a palace and erected a cathedral, which was consecrated by the Archbishop Houorius. It will be of singular interest if any of Sigeberht’s coins are among this find, as early East Anglian coins are very rare. There were fifteen bishops of Dunwich before the see disappeared. At one time the city boasted six churches, in addition to convents, hospitals and other public buildings.

Step by step the sea encroached and swallowed it up. Under Henry 11. its ships voyaged as far as Iceland, In the reign of Edward 111. the old port was swept away with 400 houses. One by one five of its churches were undermined by the waves, and to-day only one remains, a melancholy ruin, with a fragment of a monastery and the scanty remains of a leper hospital. Ships, harbour, city, all have gone ; even the very ruins have perished with the above exceptions. But on the shore still grows the “Dunwich rose,” which by tradition was first brought to East Anglia by the monks fourteen hundred years ago.