Thanks to collaborator Heather Green for this alert. What a brilliant find!
The height of the ‘bridge’ is an indicator of the extreme tidal range on this coast! The bridge ran from 1873 – 1922.
More information and images can be found here.
It is of some comfort to know that at least some people look at this site. Thanks to all.
Seahenge we discovered when sea and tidal forces removed sand from Holme beach in Norfolk, revealing remains of an ancient structure.
This text is from the website of the Norfolk Museum Collection
In the summer of 1998 the shifting sands of Holme beach on the north Norfolk coast revealed something extraordinary. Preserved in the sand were the remains of a unique timber circle dating back over 4000 years, to the Early Bronze Age. Although discovered on a modern beach, the circle was originally built on a saltmarsh, some way from the sea. The timbers were arranged in a circle 6.6m (21ft) in diameter, comprising 55 closely-fitted oak posts, each originally up to 3m (10ft) high. The site became known as ‘Seahenge’.”
The timbers were removed from the beach, preserved, and then put on permanent display in King’s Lynn Museum.
Source and other images here.
A BBC Radio 4 ‘Open Country’ programme about Seahenge is available here.
The programme describes the discovery, the challenges of the archaeology which had to be done between one high tide and the next, the age of the structure, its probable origins, and move to the museum.
This is great. It is on BBC Sounds player. I don’t know if it can be listened to everywhere in the world, or how long it will stay available. But it is there to listen to at the date of this post. And should stay so for a while. Please note the series was first aired in 2016.
Click on the image to go to the series website on BBC Sounds.
Instructions are in the very short film.
Article by Patrick Barham; Weds 28 Aug 2024
In writing a Lexicon (a kind of dictionary) of the Severn Estuary with the artist Heather Green, to be viewable soon-ish, we discovered this, via Kate Monson’s brilliant PhD on Canvey Island (Brighton University). A Dictionary of the Thames by Charles Dickens. It turns out it is not THE Charles Dickens, but his son. It is a pretty interesting book. There is, inevitably, a number of tide related discussions in it.
A free PDF of the book can be found here.
An article in the Guardian Newspaper
“a new study shows that nearly half of the world’s estuaries have been altered by humans, and 20% of this estuary loss has occurred in the past 35 years.”
Click image to see article.
Go to the full scientific report here
Tidal Timespace: Imprints & Palimpsests: International Print Exchange; curated by Heather Green; UK and US/Mexico; 2023 – 2024.
An international print exchange featuring twelve artists and two essayists from the UK, México, and the US. The collection features essays from Owain Jones and Katherine Larson, and prints by artists Ioulia Akhmadeeva, Inge Bruggeman, Sarah Bryant, Macy Chadwick, Rebbecca Chamlee, Lydia Halcrow, Tracy Hill, Kathryn Maxwell, Coral Revueltas, Wendy Rhodes, Barb Tetenbaum, and Mauricio Toussaint. Each responded to the title of Heather Green’s larger tides project, interpreting it in their own voice. Title, contents, bio, statements and colophon handprinted as interleaving, and essays are hand printed with photopolymer and hand marbling. Print size: 12″x18″, Edition size: 20. See the project website here. Cick on the images to see full size.
See more about the print exchange here.
“I love flat landscapes more than any other. In 2021 and 2022, I travelled around some of Britain’s flattest landscapes – Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Morecambe Bay, Orkney, Newcastle Moor – and I’m still not tired of them. Flat places continue to seduce me. Go to any beach when the tide is out, and you get a taste of their magnificence. You don’t need golden sands: mud will do perfectly. The point is to find that ruler-straight line of the horizon, cut with such confidence and swagger against the big sky. When I gaze at a flat space, a weight falls from me and energy rises up through my body. I feel utterly free in body and mind; I want to run and yell and cartwheel.” Noreen Masud 2024.
This is from this Guardian online article.
The book can be seen here.
See on Amazon here
Tidal Cultures 