The old chroniclers record many dread visitations of the relentless foe.  Thus in 1237 we read:  “The sea burst with high tides and tempests of winds, marsh countries near the sea were flooded, herds and flocks perished, and no small number of men were lost and drowned.  The sea rose continually for two days and one night.”  Again in 1251:  “On Christmas night there was a great thunder and lightning in Suffolk; the sea caused heavy floods.”  In much later times Defoe records:  “Aldeburgh has two streets, each near a mile long, but its breadth, which was more considerable formerly, is not proportionable, and the sea has of late years swallowed up one whole street.”  It has still standing close to the shore its quaint picturesque town hall, erected in the fifteenth century.  Southwold is now practically an island, bounded on the east by the sea, on the south-west by the Blyth River, on the north-west by Buss Creek.  It is only joined to the mainland by a narrow neck of shingle that divides Buss Creek from the sea.  I think that I should prefer to hold property in a more secure region.  You invest your savings in stock, and dividends decrease and your capital grows smaller, but you usually have something left.  But when your land and houses vanish entirely beneath the waves, the chapter is ended and you have no further remedy except to sue Father Neptune, who has rather a wide beat and may be difficult to find when he is wanted to be served with a summons.

[Illustration:  Norden’s Chart of the River Ore and Suffolk Coast]

But the Suffolk coast does not show all loss.  In the north much land has been gained in the region of Beccles, which was at one time close to the sea, and one of the finest spreads of shingle in England extends from Aideburgh to Bawdry.  This shingle has silted up many a Suffolk port, but it has proved a very effectual barrier against the inroads of the sea.  Norden’s map of the coast made in 1601[2] shows this wonderful mass of shingle, which has greatly increased since Norden’s day.  It has been growing in a southerly direction, until the Aide River had until recently an estuary ten miles in length.  But in 1907 the sea asserted itself, and “burst through the stony barrier, making a passage for the exit of the river one mile further north, and leaving a vast stretch of shingle and two deserted river-channels as a protection to the Marshes of Hollesley from further inroads of the sea."[3] Formerly the River Alde flowed direct to the sea just south of the town of Aldeburgh.  Perhaps some day it may be able to again force a passage near its ancient course or by Havergate Island.  This alteration in the course of rivers is very remarkable, and may be observed at Christ Church, Hants.

  [2] It is now in possession of Mr. Kenneth M. Clark, by whose
  permission the accompanying plan, reproduced from the Memorials
  of Old Suffolk, was made.

  [3] Memorials of Old Suffolk, edited by V.B.  Redstone, p. 226.