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As part of the festival, the artist will also be hosting a talk with Dr Tom Johnson, associate professor of medieval history at Oriel College, Oxford, on Saturday.
Dr Johnson, who is originally from Ipswich, is currently working on a micro-history of Walberswick, Suffolk, called The Fishermen’s Church: Reckoning and Ruin in a Medieval Fishing Village.
“Walberswick is interesting because it actually is the place that probably benefits the most from Dunwich’s decline…. during that same period when Dunwich is falling into the sea, Walberswick is becoming this really thriving village,” he said.
The village of Dunwich was a victim of a huge storm in the 1200s, which washed away the monastery and parts of the village.
“One thing that struck me studying this is how little discussion there is of the identity of these places, which was bound up with the herring industry – a major employer of labour.
“Other parts of the UK have also undergone huge changes in that time; mining and steel and other heavy industry, and yet I don’t feel like [fishing is] really part of the national story in the way that those things are.
“So I think one simple thing is sort of just to kind of remember it and say you know this is a major part of English identity.”
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