Lost to the Sea: Norfolk & Suffolk relates the stories of how the human
communities along the coast of these counties maintained their struggle
with the sea. From very early Neolithic times, when global changes
created the Continental Shelf and raised the cliffs along Britain's
eastern shorelines, through Roman and medieval times, the first villages
and towns were gradually established, only to be faced with the problem
of the sea's incursions onto agricultural land. In the 1950s, Rowland
Parker's classic study of Dunwich, a key town of Suffolk engulfed, set
the scene for a long-standing interest in how the sea's challenge has
been met. There have been successes and failures, and Stephen Wade tells
the story of the seaside holiday towns and fishing communities that have
had to struggle for survival.
In this book, the reader will find stories of the people involved in
this titanic effort through the centuries. The narrative moves down the
coast from Hunstanton to Southwold, tracing the losses and the gains,
not only in measurements of land, but in the tough human experience of
that environmental history.