It is extremely interesting that one of the earliest names connected
with the new port is Peter-atte-see. In the Middle Ages, just such a
distinction is what we would expect to be added to the baptismal name of
a man who had taken up his abode on a lonely patch of land produced by
the action of the sea. It is therefore more than probable that this
Peter was either the founder or the son of the founder of Ravenserodd.
Later generations altered the name to De la Mare, and it was Martin de
la Mare who at first opposed, but afterwards assisted, Edward IV. when
he landed at Ravenser Spurn, 1471.
But long before that historic event, earlier even than Henry IV.’s
landing on the same spot in 1399, the sea had reclaimed its own. In a
short time not only Ravenserodd, but also Ald Ravenser and Sunthorp had
been washed away.
The story of this disaster, which appears to have happened between 1340
and 1350, is told by the monkish compiler of the Chronicles of Meaux.
Translated from the original Latin the account is headed:
‘_Concerning the consumption of the town of Ravensere Odd and
concerning the effort towards the diminution of the tax of the
church of Esyngton._
‘But in those days, the whole town of Ravensere Odd, ... was
totally annihilated by the floods of the Humber and the inundations
of the great sea; ... and when that town of Ravensere Odd, in which
we had half an acre of land built upon, and also the chapel of that
town, pertaining to the said church of Esyngton, were exposed to
demolition during the few preceding years, those floods and
inundations of the sea, within a year before the destruction of
that town, increasing in their accustomed way without limit
fifteen fold, announcing the swallowing up of the said town, and
sometimes exceeding beyond measure the height of the town, and
surrounding it like a wall on every side, threatened the final
destruction of that town. And so, with this terrible vision of
waters seen on every side, the enclosed persons, with the reliques,
crosses, and other ecclesiastical ornaments, which remained
secretly in their possession and accompanied by the viaticum of the
body of Christ in the hands of the priest, flocking together,
mournfully imploring grace, warded off at that time their
destruction. And afterwards, daily removing thence with their
possession, they left that town totally without defence, to be
shortly swallowed up, which, with a short intervening period of
time by those merciless tempestuous floods, was irreparably
destroyed.’
The traders and inhabitants generally moved to Kingston-upon-Hull and
other towns, as the sea forced them to seek safer quarters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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