Dunwich - Churches and Other Notable Structures

Churches and Other Notable Structures

• Greyfriars: Franciscan priory situated in the south west of the city. This inland position has resulted in it being one of the few significant parts of ancient Dunwich still visible. It was founded on a site nearer the sea in 1277, moved to its current position in 1290 and survived to the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1538. The priory was originally enclosed by a stone wall much of which remains. The most impressive structures still standing are part of the refectory and the 14th century gateway which would have been the main entrance to the monastic buildings.

• St Bartholemew's and St Michael's were both chapels of ease that had been constructed by the end of the 11th century.
• St Leonard's: was a parish church that fell to the sea in the 14th century.
• St Nicholas: this was a cruciform building which lay to the south of the city. Lost to the sea soon after the Black Death.
• St Martin's: built before 1175, it was lost to the sea between 1335 and 1408.
• St Francis Chapel: standing beside the Dunwich River, the chapel was lost in the 16th century.
• St Katherine's Chapel: situated in the parish of St John, this was lost in the 16th century.
• Preceptory of the Knights Templar: the preceptory is thought to have been founded around 1189 and was a circular building not dissimilar to the famous Temple Church in London. When the sheriff of Suffolk and Norfolk took an inventory in 1308 he found the sum of £111 contained in three pouches - a vast sum. In 1322, on the orders of Edward II, all the Templars' land passed to the Knights Hospitallers. Following the dissolution of the Hospitallers in 1562 the Temple was demolished and the foundations washed away during the reign of Charles I.
• St Peter's: similar in length to the church at nearby Blythburgh, St Peter's was stripped of anything of value as the cliff edge drew nearer. The east gable fell in 1688 and the rest of the building followed in 1697. The parish register survives and is now in the British Library.
• Blackfriars: Dominican priory situated in the south east of the city. It was founded during the time of Henry III by Roger Holish. By 1385 preparations were made for the Dominicans to move to nearby Blythburgh as the sea front drew nearer, although these were certainly premature as the priory remained active and above sea level until at least the Dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, with the last building recorded as having fallen to the sea in 1717.

• All Saints' Church: last of Dunwich's ancient churches to be lost to the sea, All Saints' was abandoned in the 1750s after it was decided the parishioners could no longer afford the upkeep, although burials occurred in the churchyard until the 1820s. The cliff edge reached All Saints' in 1904 with the tower falling in 1922. One of the tower buttresses was salvaged, however and now stands in the current Victorian-era St James' Church. One of the last remaining gravestones, dedicated to John Brinkley Easey, fell over the cliff in the early 1990s. A single gravestone still remains (as of 2011) around 15 feet from the cliff edge in memory of Jacob Forster who died in the late 18th century.