Simon Marsden
The last remaining tombstone, All Saints Churchyard, Dunwich, Suffolk, England, c.1990
Vintage Gelatin Silver Print
41 x 31 cms
16 1/8 x 12 1/4 ins
16 1/8 x 12 1/4 ins
SM122
Literature
Simon Marsden, 'The Haunted Realm. Ghosts, witches and other strange tales.',1987, p.98-99
Inscribed with title and signature on the back. 'Dunwich, at one time the ancient capital of East Anglia, boasted 52 churches, a bishop's palace, a mayor's mansion and ancient bronze...
Inscribed with title and signature on the back.
'Dunwich, at one time the ancient capital of East Anglia, boasted 52 churches, a bishop's palace, a mayor's mansion and ancient bronze gates of an immense size. Now just a few houses for the remaining fishermen, a church, and the eerie ruins of a priory and a leper hospital are all that remain after 700 years of coastal erosion. During a great storm in 1328 the city was engulfed by the sea and old Dunwich now lies beneath the ever advancing waves. Legend tells that the toll of phantom church bells can still be heard from their watery grave.
Latter-day Dunwich is unique in that the living mix openly with the dead, for along the clifftops skeletons can be seen protruding from their graves as the sea advances on the old graveyards.
It is said that strange shrouded figures have been seen wandering on the clifftops and they are believed to be ghosts of Dunwich's former citizens returned from the sea. On the day I visited I climbed up to the cliffs and came across the one remaining tombstone still standing facing the ocean. As I was getting out my camera I was joined by an elderly man who told me that he had lived near Dunwich all his life, and that he could remember when the graveyard had been full of tombstones. Over the years he had watched it crumble and remembered how, when they were children, they would cycle along the cliffs and one day they played a practical joke on one of the girls by hiding a skull in her bicycle bag.
The old man then went on to tell me of the ghosts that haunt Dunwich. He said that at night mysterious lights had been seen at the ruins of Greyfriars Priory and the chanting of the monks was often heard near the magnificent gateway to the abbey. Strange deformed figures have been seen in the graveyard near the Leper Hospital and the ghost of a demented young man wanders in the wooded pathways near the priory searching for his missing bride who left him for another man.
As I began to make my way back to my car along the beach I took one final look back towards the clifftops to see if the old man was still there, or could he too, perhaps, have returned to the sea?'
Extract from Simon Marsden, 'The Haunted Realm. Ghosts, witches and other strange tales.',1987, p.98-99
'Dunwich, at one time the ancient capital of East Anglia, boasted 52 churches, a bishop's palace, a mayor's mansion and ancient bronze gates of an immense size. Now just a few houses for the remaining fishermen, a church, and the eerie ruins of a priory and a leper hospital are all that remain after 700 years of coastal erosion. During a great storm in 1328 the city was engulfed by the sea and old Dunwich now lies beneath the ever advancing waves. Legend tells that the toll of phantom church bells can still be heard from their watery grave.
Latter-day Dunwich is unique in that the living mix openly with the dead, for along the clifftops skeletons can be seen protruding from their graves as the sea advances on the old graveyards.
It is said that strange shrouded figures have been seen wandering on the clifftops and they are believed to be ghosts of Dunwich's former citizens returned from the sea. On the day I visited I climbed up to the cliffs and came across the one remaining tombstone still standing facing the ocean. As I was getting out my camera I was joined by an elderly man who told me that he had lived near Dunwich all his life, and that he could remember when the graveyard had been full of tombstones. Over the years he had watched it crumble and remembered how, when they were children, they would cycle along the cliffs and one day they played a practical joke on one of the girls by hiding a skull in her bicycle bag.
The old man then went on to tell me of the ghosts that haunt Dunwich. He said that at night mysterious lights had been seen at the ruins of Greyfriars Priory and the chanting of the monks was often heard near the magnificent gateway to the abbey. Strange deformed figures have been seen in the graveyard near the Leper Hospital and the ghost of a demented young man wanders in the wooded pathways near the priory searching for his missing bride who left him for another man.
As I began to make my way back to my car along the beach I took one final look back towards the clifftops to see if the old man was still there, or could he too, perhaps, have returned to the sea?'
Extract from Simon Marsden, 'The Haunted Realm. Ghosts, witches and other strange tales.',1987, p.98-99
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