‘Time And Tide Bell’ is unveiled ahead of launch

Biff Vernon, artistic director at Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell CIC, explained: “Marcus Vergette’s sculpture, The Time and Tide Bell, the most significant piece of new public art to be installed in Lincolnshire, will spark conversations about our relationship with the sea and the coastal environment, its history and the future as global heating causes sea level to rise.

“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 Lincolnshire Time and Tide Bell was installed last Tuesday (June 11) on the beach near Mablethorpe North End, and it was rung for the first time by the waves of the incoming tide at about midday on Wednesday.

One of the first to hear it ring was Colleen Field, a visitor from New Zealand who is touring the other Time and Tide Bells around the coastline.

Next week, a minibus full of friends from Devon called ‘The Clangers’ - who have visited each of the Bells around the country - will visit too.

The public launch party will take place on Friday (June 21), when high tide and sunset coincide at around 9.30pm.

Everybody is welcome to go along and take a picnic to the Bell from about 6pm, or meet us earlier in the afternoon at the North Sea Observatory at Chapel Point, and join the tour up the coast visiting nature reserves and the ‘Structures on the Edge’.