BBC Radio 4 Open Country: The Pill Hobblers

Should be listenable to on-line for some months – but maybe only in the UK

“For this week’s Open Country Helen Mark explores the fascinating world of the Pill Hobblers – the ‘boat men’ who for centuries have risked their lives to keep ships safe on the River Avon.

Some detailed descriptions of what happened –  and the tidal landscape itself. Link here

From the BBC website –  where the programme is available for a while

“BBC coverage of Hull City of Culture will be extensive across 2017. At its very start, the award-winning poet Sean O’Brien reflects upon why his native city, its waterscape and landscape, have inspired poets past and present.

The programme features a specially commissioned new poem from Sean – a three-part memory-piece, which is also a love-song for Hull, its surroundings and their metaphorical resonance:

……..The great void
Where the land loses track of itself,
And the water comes sidling past at the roadside

Awaiting the signal to flood, is a kind of belief
Where there is no belief, is the great consolation
Of knowing that nothing will follow but weather and tides,

Yet also that when the world ends
There must be a Humber pilot keeping watch
As the great ships are passing silently away

Through the estuary’s mouth and the saw-toothed marriage
Of river and sea, and out past the fort at Bull Island
And over the edge, and away………….

Sean also celebrates the work of poets who have made the city their home: Andrew Marvell, a line from whose 17th Century poem, To His Coy Mistress, gives this programme its title; Philip Larkin, Stevie Smith and others. He brings in an eclectic range of music, including his personal favourite, Dirty Water, by local band The Fabulous Ducks.

He hears from the Hull-based geographer Chris Skinner, and poet Sarah Stutt.

Starting with memories of digging holes in the garden of the house where he grew up, via flood-cellars, culverts and drains, the smaller river Hull and the great estuarine river Humber itself, this highly-textured programme culminates with Sean at the top of the disused lighthouse at Spurn Point, gazing out into the North Sea.”

This BBC Radio 4 programme Hull Before Culture  Thursday 5th Jan 2017 opened with these words

“I always think this about Hull – when the tide is in – you can feel that across the region – you can feel that, kind of, energy. But when the tide is out, it kind of drains the emotion of the people as well. It certainly does me.”

Spoken by programme present John Godber

This chimes very well with a number of literary accounts of the affective airs of high and low tides.

This was a  very large, impressive looking multifaceted festival celebrating the Thames Estuary and it landscapes and cultures. It has now ended but lots of great info and images and links are on the website. Link to Programme here.

Here is a map of the festival locations. The links are not live!!

Sea Empress Tide Edition

SEA EMPRESS is a publication produced in association with the ‘Sea Empress’ Project hosted by the Reading Room in Manorbier, Pembrokeshire. This is edition one of a series including Tide, Deep Time, Animism and Memory.

This is being organised by Water City Bristol and Bristol Lovs Tides?

A celebration of the tides in Bristol – set between a low and high tide at a great location. The Lamplighers Pub, Shirehampton.

We can’t quite claim to have invented this idea because it is mentioned here.

But it is a rare and noble variation of Pooh Sticks (which we thought of too) which we think should be developed.

We played it with people of Bristol as part of

We were throwing sticks of the famous Banana Bridge over the Avon New Cut, to get people to see just how fast the tide was flowing – and which way!! Ebbing?? Flooding??

Now a variation of tidal pooh sticks we want to develop is a longer version of the game. But we have still to test this. If one picks one’s moment – using, of course, a tide timetable, one could throw a stick into the river , watch it float with the tide under the bridge as usual, but do this soon before the turn of the tide, and then maybe in a while it will float back the other way!

The day went very well – thank to all the FrANC team, Water City Bristol Team and Hugh of My Future My Choice. Pics to follow