Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The North Sea's Sunken Lands: From Doggerland to the Holderness Coast and the Shores of Holland

The North Sea's Sunken Lands: From Doggerland to the Holderness Coast and the Shores of Holland

Smales, Anthony

Paperback

Series: The British Tapestry, Book 6

Great BritainBritish History

ISBN13: 9798251901481
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Mar 13 2026
Pages: 264
Weight: 0.79
Height: 0.55 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
The North Sea's Sunken Lands: From Doggerland to the Holderness Coast and the Shores of Holland

Beneath the grey waters of the North Sea lies a drowned world. Eight thousand years ago, what is now the Dogger Bank was dry land-a landscape of hills and rivers, of oak forests and hunting grounds, where Mesolithic people lived and died. Today, their bones and tools are hauled up in fishing nets.

This is a book about loss and memory. It tells the story of Doggerland, the lost heart of Europe, and of the catastrophic tsunami that drowned it. It follows the Holderness coast in East Yorkshire-the fastest-eroding coastline in Europe-where medieval ports like Ravenser Odd and Ravenspurn have vanished beneath the waves, and where some thirty villages have been consumed by the sea since the nineteenth century. It crosses to the Netherlands, to the drowned lands of Zeeland and the haunting salt marshes of Saeftinghe, where the bells of sunken churches are said to ring beneath the tides.

Here too are the shipwrecks-from Roman traders and Viking longships to the warships of Jutland and the forgotten workhorses of the coastal trade. The Fugger ship, discovered by accident during a modern salvage operation, reveals the birth of the Dutch Golden Age. The munitions graves of two world wars still lie on the seabed, a toxic legacy that will outlast us all.

But this is not only a book about what has been lost. It is about the people who lived with the sea: the fishermen who worked its grounds for generations, the lighthouse keepers who watched through the long nights, the lifeboat crews who launched into storms to save strangers. It is about the communities that still endure on this eroding shore, and the heritage organisations racing to document what remains before it vanishes forever.

Drawing on the latest archaeology, medieval chronicles, and the memories of coastal communities on both sides of the North Sea, The North Sea's Sunken Lands weaves together a story that spans ten thousand years. It is a story of catastrophe and resilience, of piracy and prayer, of ordinary lives and extraordinary ambitions-and of the sea that connects us all.

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