First-ever images reveal mysterious remains of town swallowed by sea 700 years ago, tell me about this news in (https://www.foxnews.com/travel/first-ever-images-reveal-mysterious-remains-town-swallowed-sea-700-years-ago)

This news covers the discovery and first-ever underwater images of the submerged remains of Shipden, a medieval English town located off the coast of Cromer in Norfolk that was claimed by the North Sea roughly 700 years ago during the 14th century.

Background on Shipden

Shipden was once a thriving settlement documented in the Domesday Book of 1086, featuring farms, manor estates, a harbor, and churches (notably St. Peter’s). Over the 14th century, aggressive coastal erosion and rising sea surges steadily ate away at the coastline, ultimately drowning the entire community and forcing the surviving population to relocate further inland, establishing what is now modern-day Cromer.

The Recent Discovery

• Underwater Surveys: Volunteer divers from the Anglian branch of the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), collaborating with local researchers from the Alfred Savin Project and the Cromer Museum, took advantage of exceptionally clear summer waters off Cromer Pier to explore the seabed.

• First-Ever Images and 3D Models: The team located and captured the first recorded photos and preliminary 3D scans of approximately 25 man-made structures on the seafloor.

• Intact Structures: The findings include flint stone masonry and the lower sections of stone caissons (foundations used for coastal engineering). Remarkably, some segments still stand 8 to 10 courses high with centuries-old mortar still holding together.

Challenging Local Legends

For generations, local folklore held that a dangerous underwater formation called “Church Rock”which a pleasure steamer struck in 1888 before being blown up with explosiveswas the sunken bell tower of St. Peter’s Church. The new dives suggest “Church Rock” was actually part of a sophisticated 14th-century line of stone and flint sea defenses built by desperate residents trying to hold back the encroaching North Sea, rather than the church itself, which likely stood further northwest.