In succeeding ages, when the mouth of the Yare, from being obstructed by sand-banks, was reduced to the more contracted limits of a narrow channel; and when every communication between the ocean and the Waveney, had either totally ceased, or become an insignificant stream, it is evident, that the sea at that time receded from the extremities of the island, and made considerable encroachments on the intermediate parts of it. This is evident, not only from the above-mentioned circumstance respecting the village of Newton, but also from those which follow: for we find (Lowestoft town-book) that in the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII a block-house, which had been erected for the defence of the town, was then standing to the east of Lowestoft, about four furlongs distant from the present boundaries of the sea; so that the place where Lowestoft roads are now situated, was at that time firm land, interspersed with houses, and defended by a fortress; which continued until the 25th of Henry VIII when they were either taken down or destroyed by the encroachments of the sea. And it also appears, about the 30th of Queen Elizabeth, that the sea had made such great alterations in the roads, and in the sands and shores bordering upon Lowestoft, that the roads before the town, which, in the reign of Henry VIII were dry land, had not then less than three fathoms water at the lowest ebb. This was the state of the coast near Lowestoft in the reigns of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth, and since that time the sea has kept encroaching near the town; for about sixty or seventy years ago, upon every gale of wind at north-west, especially if it happened at a spring tide, the sea will oftentimes force its way over the beach with great violence, and with so large a body of water, as not only to overflow the Denes, the yards of the fish-houses, and approach even to the bottom of the gardens formed upon the declivity of the cliff, but would also endanger the foundations of the fish-houses themselves. We had a remarkable instance of these formidable irruptions of the sea, in the year 1712; when a fish-house, in the southern part of the town, was entirely washed away, and another fish-house and barn were so exceedingly damaged, as to make it necessary to have them taken down. And, again, in the year 1717, the sea, in one of those raging tides, forced its way over the isthmus which separates the peninsula from the adjacent country, with such irresistible fury, as to carry away Mutford Bridge, which cost the county £200 to repair the damages. But these irruptions have for some time ceased, and the apprehensions which they excited have, consequently, long since subsided: but so fluctuating in her operations is this inconstant element, that upon that part of the coast which lies opposite to Lowestoft, the sea has lately much receded, and is making proportionable encroachments on the parts which lie to the north of it.