Searching for Yorkshire's 'lost Atlantis': The trading port that rivalled Hull before it was swallowed by the sea

Ravenser Odd was once the leading trading port on the Humber Estuary before it was wiped from the map.

The settlement was a rival to Hull for around 200 years before it was abandoned in the 14th century due to coastal erosion which reduced it from a part of the Spurn Head peninsula to a marooned island before finally swallowing it beneath the sea.

The town's remains have never been found due to disputes over its exact location and the continuing changes wrought by erosion - but now a group of University of Hull scientists are launching a new search.

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Ravenser Odd was founded in 1235 - its name harks back to its Norse origins - and built on a sandbank that later proved precarious. At its peak it had wharves, warehouses, a courthouse and a jail - and even two MPs. Around 100 merchant ships called there every year, and all had to pay their port duties.

Spurn Point todaySpurn Point today
Spurn Point today

Its harbour was protected by a seawall and it is the remains of this masonry that professor of sedimentology Dr Daniel Parsons and researcher Dr Steve Simmons believe are most likely to be discovered on the seabed.

A catastrophic storm in 1362 was the final nail in its coffin, though decline and depopulation were already in full swing by this point and the maritime trade began to develop at other ports along the Holderness coastline.

The university expedition began last autumn, when they searched an area around Spurn to no avail - but the intervention of local historian Phil Mathison and sailors who have noticed disturbances in the shallow waters around the peninsula have pointed towards an alternative location.

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Dr Parsons and Dr Simmons will depart from Grimsby Docks again in May on a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) hired from a former colleague who now runs a marine surveying business.

On board will be echo sounding technology and cameras capable of mapping the sea floor.

"We are going into shallow water so we don't want too large a boat. There have been many theories about exactly where the town was located, and there has been a lot of sediment movement in the area," explained Dr Simmonds.

"We have maps to work out where it might have been, but it's been very hard to pin down. We're hoping the walls and larger masonry may have survived.

"We now have the equipment and more modern technology."

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The Hull team's efforts have even piqued the interest of the BBC series Digging for Britain, whose producers are considering filming the exploration trips.

"There were about 30 villages along the coast lost to erosion over time, but many are a lot more well-known and we have more recent records for them. Ravenser Odd was substanstial in the 14th century, a sizeable place and a serious rival to Hull."

For Phil Mathison, who has written a book about Ravenser Odd, finally finding its resting place would be a dream come true after 27 years of hunting.

Mr Mathison, from Gilberdyke, found the missing piece of the jigsaw when he came across a document from 1892 for sale on Ebay detailing 'sub-marine' remains at Spurn.

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"People had assumed it was way out to sea, as the shape of the peninsula now is very different to how it was in the 13th century. This document showed a stone ledge to the east of Spurn which I believe could be the walls of a dock or quay.

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Point of no return?

"I went out in a boat in both 2013 and 2015 with an echo sounder and on both occasions located the ridge immediately, exactly where the document said it would be. But it needs a proper dive now to find out more.

"The ridge was most likely rock armour to protect the port, as it was under threat from erosion way before it was abandoned. The bulk of the town's buildings were on a shingle bank called The Old Den, to the west side of Spurn, and some brickwork from them has been found in the past. The town curved around like a fish hook and the wharves were at the other end."

It's difficult to overstate just how important Ravenser Odd was at this time. Shakespeare mentioned it eight times in his works, and it was of comparable stature to King's Lynn in Norfolk. It traded with the Hanseatic ports and its wealthiest families even had connections to royalty.

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"It was the most important port in Yorkshire, as Hull was only just on the rise. It had a chapel, two mills, a tannery, an annual fair and about 1,000 houses. The main fish catch was herring."

Mr Mathison believes a number of 'false trails' over the years have prevented the town from being found.

"People were unsure of the location, and it was thought to be impossible to find it. But the ridge makes perfect sense in that place.

"Local lifeboatmen have known about it, they've observed the ripple in the water and they know to watch out for it. It would be a dangerous dive, as it's only six metres below the surface and the currents are treacherous, with poor visibility. Now the university have brought the funding and sophisticated scanning equipment.

"It really was a prosperous and fascinating place. It had a stranglehold on the Humber trade, and there are stories of piracy of raiding ships to stop them getting to Grimsby."

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