Ancient forest found under sea

A shocked diver has found an incredible 10,000-year-old pre-historic forest under the North Sea and experts believe it could have once stretched as far as Europe.

Diver Dawn Watson, 45, discovered the remarkable 'lost forest' when she was diving just 300 metres off the coast of Cley next the Sea, Norfolk.

She found complete oak trees with branches measuring eight metres long under the sea and experts believe they have been hidden off the coast of Norfolk since the Ice Age.

The forest is believed to have become exposed following the stormy weather last winter.

Watson, who runs the Marine Conservation Society's survey project, Seasearch in East Anglia, said she was 'absolutely thrilled' with the find.

“I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first. The sea was quite rough by the shore so I decided to dive slightly further out and after swimming over 300 metres of sand I found a long blackened ridge.

“When I looked more closely I realised it was wood and when I swam further along I started finding whole tree trunks with branches on top, which looked like they had been felled.

“It was amazing to find and to think the trees had been lying there completely undiscovered for thousands of years. You certainly don't expect to go out for a quick dive and find a forest.”

Watson, who has been diving in the North Sea for about 16 years, said the trees are thought to have formed part of a huge forest, measuring thousands of acres.

But it is believed the forest was drowned when the ice caps melted and the sea level rose 120 metres.

The fallen trees are now lying on the ground where they have formed a natural reef, which is teaming with colourful fish, plants and wildlife.

The forest bed is at the start of the chalk reef, which forms the proposed Cromer Shoal Marine Conservation Zone just to the East.

It is also near the Norfolk Wildlife Trust's Cley Marshes reserve, which is famous for birdlife.