Dunwich is a very small village on the East Anglian coast which has had a long and stormy history. Due to the coastal erosion and numerous severe storms, most of the original town of Dunwich now lies beneath the North Sea.

At one time it was actually a great city and, in the time of Henry II, its centre covered over a square mile. Dunwich had many chapels, churches, hospitals and splendid buildings including a King's Palace as well as a harbour full of merchant shipping. It bore no resemblance to the village of a few houses and a pub that remains today.

One legend about Dunwich is well known, especially by local fishermen who go to sea to fish in small boats. It is said that if, during stormy weather, you stand on the bleak stretch of beach where the city center once stood, you can hear the bells of the churches ringing underwater. Sailors and fishermen will not put to sea when the bells are heard as it is a sure sign of a coming storm. The curious thing is that the peal of the phantom bells could be recognised because one of the bells was missing - just as it was noted when the last church was lost!

The woods close by Dunwich seem to have a strange atmosphere. They can be so silent and still that, as you walk through the trees, you can imagine they are waiting for something to happen.

At the end of the 1800s the brother of the Lord of the Manor of Sotterly Hall fell in love with a young maid employed at Grey Friars, a great house near Dunwich. She fell in love with him too. Due to the fact that he was the son of the Lord of the Manor and she was only a servant girl, his family forbade him to ever see her again. So great was his love for her that he fell ill and soon afterwards he died - of a broken heart - as the legends still say today. Look at the picture of the woods behind Dunwich which I took in the autumn and it is easy to feel the grief of that youngs man's unrequited love.