By the reign of Charles I of England, it formed a 7-acre island, 1 1⁄2 mi (2.4 km) from the mainland. From 1663, the land around it was gradually drained, until, by the mid-18th century, the channel separating it from the shore had entirely silted up, making it effectively part of the mainland. As the land arose from below the high-water mark, it was, the property of the Crown, although it was leased to Colonel Anthony Gilby for 165 years when the lease expired and the farmworkers of Sunk Island became direct tenants of the Crown.
It became a parish in its own right in 1831. Some cottages were built in the 1850s, the parish church in the 1870s and a fort at the start of the Great War. The most recent piece of reclaimed land was added in 1965. Although the parish covers a wide area, the village is considered by locals to be the area between the church and where you are standing now. The church is no longer a place of worship and acts as a heritage centre- well worth a visit.
The area is, of course, extremely low lying, although it is neither sunk or an island. Some parts of the parish are, however, actually lower than sea level.
Land Reclamation
The story of Sunk Island is not unique; land has been reclaimed from the sea in many parts of the world, most famously in Holland, but also as far afield as the Maldives, Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Many modern example were achieved by simply filling the sea with large amounts of rock or hardcore in a technique known as 'infilling', but the method used to reclaim Sunk Island was mainly drainage..
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