Art for Sale

Time and Tide Bell

for Lincolnshire

The tides chime the time of high water lines

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How to Find the Bell - Map

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COTIDAL

The tide is a wave that connects us

COTIDAL is an ambitious new creative artwork by Tania Kovats, commissioned by the Time and Tide Bell Organisation in which everybody can participate and to which everybody can contribute.

Read all about this new project HERE.

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A Poem

We are delighted to bring you a new work from Wes Finch, our Poet to the Bell.

Listen to Wes Finch, Poet to the Bell, reading here

Update 28/04/2021: The ringing mechanism has now been repaired and improved. The Bell is now ringing better than ever. Go and have a listen!

A Nuclear Dump for the Bell?

Our neighbours, the gas terminal, closed in 2019 not long after the Bell was installed, and the site has been mostly cleared. If you walk inland from the Bell across the dunes to the highest part you can look down across the site. In July 2021 talk began of using this vacant plot for a deep Geological Disposal Facility (GDF) to permanently bury high level nuclear waste. The chambers in which the waste is put would be directly underneath the Bell, several hundred metres down. There is, naturally, much discussion about this proposal and if you would like to join in, please go to the Facebook Group 'No Nuke Dump in Lincolnshire'.

The Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell was installed on the beach and first rung by the waves around midday on June the 12th 2019

On the evening of the 21st June, the longest day, when high tide and sunset coincided at about half past nine we had a party on the beach.

Finding the Bell

Nearest road and car-parking is at North End, Mablethorpe by the Ferryboat Inn and Seal Sanctuary. Bus routes 51 and 59 from Lincoln and Skegness stop here. Take the path next to the pub to cross the dunes. On the beach turn left, northwards. The Time and Tide Bell will be in sight, about 10 minutes' brisk walk up the beach, longer if you dawdle. The Bell can also be reached from the Crook Bank car-park, approached from Theddlethorpe. It's an interesting walk across the dunes.

The 12 figure OS Grid Reference for the Bell is 549796 387909

If you use What Three Words search for: question.scrapping.shrimps

The Bell rings for an hour or two either side of high tide. To check the time of high tide click here. That gives the times for Bull Sands Fort, in the Humber mouth. Add about a quarter hour for the time at the Bell, and don't forget to add an hour for summer time.

There is a Geocache associated with the Bell. Enjoy the search!

21st June 2019

Marcus Vergette's sculpture, The Time and Tide Bell, the most significant piece of new public art to be installed in Lincolnshire, sparks conversations about our relationship with the sea and the coastal environment, its history and the future as global heating causes sea level to rise.

The Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell was installed on Tuesday the 11th of June 2019 on the beach near Mablethorpe North End. It was rung for the first time by the waves of the incoming tide at about midday on Wednesday.

In the worst June weather anyone can remember, with gale force winds and driving rain, we worked from dawn to dusk (with an enforced break at midday when the tide turned out to be a metre higher than predicted). Many thanks to Mike Hastings and his team of Dutch engineers from Van Oord, who took time off from their sea defence work to help us and to Brian Connell and his crew from Goundsun, who provided the helical piling to screw the Bell to the sand. Without their cheerful enthusiasm and determination to succeed in atrocious conditions we would never have managed the job.

The bell itself, actually two bells, one inverted, standing on the other, was cast at Brass Foundrers Sheffield, the oak for the frame was supplied by Nelson Butler & Son of Horncastle and the stainless steel parts of the frame were manufactured by Alco Engineering of Torrington, Devon.

One of the first to hear it ring was Colleen Field, a visitor from New Zealand who was touring the other Time and Tide Bells around our coastline. She was thrilled to meet the sculptor, Marcus Vergette, creator of the Bells, who was making final adjustments to the Bell's ringing mechanism. Next week we will be meeting 'The Clangers', a minibus full of friends from Devon who have already visited each of the Bells, at Appledore, Aberdyfi, Cemaes Bay on Anglesey, Morecambe, Great Bernera in the Outer Hebrides and Trinity Buoy Wharf on the Thames in London. A total of 15 such bells are planned. Perhaps 'bagging' all the Time and Tide Bells will become a new thing.

The Public Launch Party was on the evening of the longest day, Friday 21st June, when high tide and sunset coincided at around 9.30pm. This was a public community event with about 150 people turning up. The Town Crier, David Summers, began the evening by crying out his proclamation 'The Bell' (see below). The Bell started ringing as the tide came in and a few hardy souls went for a swim in the still chilly waters, as we waited the for the Sun to set in perfect weather in the north-west on this, the longest day. Earlier in the afternoon, our visitors travelling from Devon and London met at the North Sea Observatory, and were taken on a tour up the coast, visiting nature reserves and the 'Structures on the Edge'.

Billboard TV filmed the launch event. Watch their short (5 mins) video here

The Bell

The Bell will toll, not by my hand
But powered by the sea
As proudly it stands on the sand
It calls to you and me.

It tells each one to be aware
Of what we owe our Earth
And how each one must take good care
And realise its worth

So every time this Bell doth ring
When prompted by the tide
To every mind or thought should bring
To all who here abide

This fragile Earth is our domain
And we must treat it well
So bear this message stark and plain
Each time you hear this Bell

Open your eyes and look around
And contemplate your place
Within this fabulous surround
Our home, our human race.

David Summers, Mablethorpe Town Crier
21st June 2019

This stretch of coastline has a long history of people who have learned to cope with constant change. Land is gained and land is lost, the fulcrum on which the North Sea pivots into the English Channel, in continual migration, forming and reforming its shape, more like an organism than a pile of stones. As the rest of the world begins to consider the dilemma of sea level rise, here, and along this coast, these communities have had to deal with its consequences for centuries. The Time and Tide Bell is a static object, that has the effect of shifting the time scale to help us appreciate that everything is in a process of transition.

We are a Community Arts Group* bringing Marcus Vergette's sculpture to the Lincolnshire Coast, one part of a permanent installation of Time and Tide Bells around Britain's coast, rung by the sea at high tide. We aim to spark conversations about the coastline's past, present and future with a programme of art exhibitions and events, addressing global heating, the climate crisis and other environmental issues.

Marcus Vergette leaves the Bell after making the final adjustment to the ringing mechanism.

A bell has been installed by the community here, at the high tide mark of the sea, the sea that separates and connects us. It is to be the catalyst for engagement with our environment, our history, our future.

Diary Dates

Faces of Climate

Open daily 10am to 4pm Wednesday 8th April to Sunday 19th April 2020 Admission Free

An art exhibition at the North Sea Observatory, Chapel Point, Lincolnshire PE24 5XA Open daily 10am to 4pm Wednesday 8th April to Sunday 19th April 2020 Admission Free read more

This project seeks to record, in portraits, the important people of our times, the climate scientists and activists who are providing the information and inspiration required for us all to act on the climate emergency.

If you would like to join the project by creating a portrait of the person of your choice please send us an e-mail.

Doggerland

Autumn 2020e

This project seeks to explore Doggerland through time, from its past, 10,000 years ago as the home to our Mesolithic ancestors and 10,000 years into the future when all the ice has melted under global heating and the Greater North Sea has flooded lowland England and the North European Plain.

If you would like to join the project in whatever way, please send us an e-mail.

Poet to the Bell

A Poem:

To Saltfeet Marsh, by Jane Air

Watch Jane Air reading the poem from the dunes behind the Bell

All the Daylight They Worked - by Wes Finch

The money needed to make the Bell (it has been cast at Brass Founders of Sheffield) has alredy been raised but we need a bit more to construct the frame, get it installed on the beach and then launch a series of arts events.

Artists: if you think you might have works that fit the conceptual basis of the Time and Tide Bell, exploring our relationship with the sea, past, present and future, please get in touch to discuss proposals.

To make all this possible you can donate money to Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell CIC: Sort Code 08-92-99 Account Number 65856419 Thank you. :)

If you would like to get involved in the project in any way, and we really could do with some more help, please don't hesitate to get in touch: e-mail us here.

Watch and listen to the Appledore Time and Tell Bell ringing on YouTube

Watch and listen to the Cemaes Time and Tell Bell ringing on YouTube

See the Appledore Time and Tell Bell being installed and an interview with the artist on YouTube

The Bosta Beach, Great Bernera Time and Tell Bell (on a windy day). YouTube

Britain's seventh Time and Tide Bell comes to Lincolnshire's coast north of Mablethorpe. This is an art project bringing a major public work by sculptor Marcus Vergette to our community. It will continue with a programme of art exhibitions, other events and publications over the years to come.

This national project involves permanent installations of Time and Tide Bells near the high tide mark at a number of diverse sites around the country, from urban centres to open stretches of coastline. The rising water at high tide drives the clapper to strike the bell. Played by the movement of the waves, the bell creates a varying, gentle, musical pattern. As the level of the tide changes and as the bell becomes submerged in the rising water, so the periods of bell strikes and pitch of the notes will vary.

Six Bells have already been installed: at Appledore, Devon; on Bosta Beach, Gt. Bernera, Outer Hebrides; at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London; at Aberdyfi, Wales; at Cemaes on Anglesey, and at Morcambe in Lancashire. Our Lincolnshire Bell is the sixth. The integrity of the Time and Tide Bell project nationally is in the choice of the sites and how they connect. The Time and Tide Bell is to create, celebrate, and reinforce connections between different parts of the country, between the land and the sea, between ourselves, our history, and our environment. Each of the sites brings something particular and unique to the whole group.

Location: North End Mablethorpe OS Grid Ref. TF497877 On the beach north of where the path from the Ferryboat Inn emerges, within the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes National Nature Reserve. The Bell will be sited at the mean high water mark so will be on dry land much of the time, only in water deep enough to ring the bell at high tide around the spring tides every fortnight. The top of bell will be submerged only in the extreme tidal surge conditions experienced in 1953 and December 2013. The Bell will only be visible and audible from nearby on the beach.

The location is significant within the context and concept of the overall Time and Tide Bells project. This part of the Lincolnshire coast is easily accessible yet conveys a feeling of remoteness. It has a rich past, geologically with the shifting coastline, and socially as people interacted with the changing environment over time. It will be the first Bell on the east coast but has connections with the Aberdyfi Bell in particular, on a similar latitude and in a similar context of sea level change, evidenced by submerged forests and dune development. Longitudinally Mablethorpe is almost due north of the Bell at Trinity Buoy Wharf but the London Docklands environment could hardly be more contrasting.

Efforts will be made to engage with as wide a public as possible, exploring and creating a conversation about the issues that the Bell's conceptual basis raises. This is a community-led art project with real social significance.

Construction: The Bell is of cast from marine bronze at Brass Founders of Sheffield. It will develop a greenish patina but will not degrade in seawater. A frame, constructed from pieces of oak connected by pieces of stainless, suspends the Bell at a height where the movement of water at high tide operates a paddle at the bottom connected to the clapper that rings the Bell. The frame is anchored to the ground by a ring of helical piles that are screwed into the beach sand. The whole structure stands just over two metres above the beach surface. The modular construction of oak beams connected by stainless steel enables community involvement. On the day of frame construction much of the work, being of a human scale, can be done by the community with nothing more than a large spanner to tighten the bolts that fix the beams to their housings.

The Time and Tide Bells are designed to be permanent, the materials lasting at least a great many decades, if not centuries. The bronze of the Bell could last forever, becoming part of geological strata thosuands of year hence. The timber components with a shorter lifespan can be removed and replaced one at a time in situ. The site at Mablethorpe is unlike the previously used sites in that there is no solid rock upon which to build. There is a realistic possibility of shifting sands that has to be included in design and planning and future policy on sea defence maintenance could change. The modular design allows for the possibility that the Bell may need to be moved at some future time.

Engagement: The Time and Tide Bell is much more than a public sculpture to be looked at passively. It is set to be a catalyst for conversation, engagement, and support for multiple projects connected with our history, our future, and our relationship with the sea.

Awareness of the Lincolnshire coast's changing character through history will be promoted, engaging with local history societies and community groups. Information will be presented concerning the local geology and biology through the Pleistocene and Holocene, considering post-Glacial sea level changes and climate. Archaeology and recent history brings human involvement in the area into consideration. Thinking of the future, including the management of coastal defences and flood risk, in an environment where global warming is set to increase sea level, is a significant part of the Time and Tide Bell's conceptual basis.

Promoting Biodiversity: Sited on the southern edge of the Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe Dunes National Nature Reserve, the Bell draws attention to our littoral position between two contrasting environments of land and sea. The Bell's location marks the approximate change from an accretionary beach environment to the north to an erosional environment to the south. A large proportion, perhaps half of all species, of Lincolnshire's wildlife lives off-shore, unseen and largely unknown, beneath the waves. The Bell seeks to enhance our relationship with it, considering the implication of global warming for sea level and marine life. Working with the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, to promote the Living Seas as a vehicle for raising awareness of the rich biodiversity of the off-shore environment, and its protection from the multiple threats of over-exploitation and climate change.

The Time and Tide Bell Project was a finalist for the Climate Change Awards 2011, Best Artistic Response to Climate Change. Their comment:
"Devon artist Marcus Vergette is ringing out a poignant warning on climate change with a permanent installation of 12 giant bells at high tide points around the UK. Rung by the waves, Vergette's seven foot-high bronze bells will strike more often as climate change raises sea levels, and their pitch changes as they become submerged. The first was installed in Appledore, Devon in 2009 with others now in the Outer Hebrides and London. The project connects the traditional use of bells for celebration and loss with modern environmental concerns. It also links communities around the country, with each creating a poetic inscription of their bell's significance."

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer, House of Lords, wrote: "This is an inspired project. The link between ourselves and the elements is in danger of being lost in our 21st century life. The importance of that link, given climate change, is more important than it ever has been and such a beautiful reminder of the importance of tides and sea levels is truly inspirational"

The project is supported by the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which will maintain the national Time and Tide Bell archive.

Download a document describing in detail the project to install a Tide an Time Bell on the Lincolnshire coast north of Mablethorpe: Download pdf..

Photo credits: Marcus Vergette and Jim Wileman

Bringing the sixth Time and Tide Bell to Lincolnshire's coast is an art project by sculptor Marcus Vergette that draws attention to our littoral position between two contrasting environments of land and sea. The off-shore habitat has been neglected in the past but the Bell seeks to enhance our relationship with it, considering the implication of global warming for sea level and marine life.

The Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell CIC* is a community arts group. We plan to place a Bell on the beach to the north of North End Mablethorpe, just within Natural England's Saltfleetby-Thedlethorpe National Nature Reserve. We will be staging a programme of art exhibitions and other events, related to the ideas behind the Time and Tide Bell, over the coming months and years. Download details of the project here.

The Time and Tide Bell Project was a finalist for the Climate Change Awards 2011, Best Artistic Response to climate Change.

"Devon artist Marcus Vergette is ringing out a poignant warning on climate change with a permanent installation of 12 giant bells at high tide points around the UK. Rung by the waves, Vergette's seven foot-high bronze bells will strike more often as climate change raises sea levels, and their pitch changes as they become submerged. The first was installed in Appledore, Devon in 2009 with others now in the Outer Hebrides and London. The project connects the traditional use of bells for celebration and loss with modern environmental concerns. It also links communities around the country, with each creating a poetic inscription of their bell's significance."

The following pictures are of the newest Bell, at Camaes on Anglesey.

If you would like to help support this project in any way, or just tell us you like the idea, please get in touch.

You can join our facebook group here.

To contact The Friends of the Time and Tide Bell for Lincolnshire, Send Mail

The simplest way to donate to the project is just to send a cheque made payable to 'Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell CIC',
or via electronic bank transfer to Sort Code: 08-92-99 Account Number: 65856419

Download the June 2019 Newsletter

Download the April 2019 Newsletter