Time & Tide

About Time & Tide Bells

This video to capture some of the qualities of the Time and Tide Bell project and conveys much of what the project is about
Time and Tide Bells were created by sculptor and musician Marcus Vergette. His design is unique both for the harmonic structure of the bells, and that they are rung by the tidal energy of the sea. Marcus conceived the bells in the context of sea level rise to contemplate our relationship to the sea, that gives and takes, as it wraps around the coast of Britain twice a day. Bells tell stories, it is the same bell that rings a wedding as a funeral.

One of the unique features of this project is the period over which it has been sustained. Marcus started research on the design of the bell, to create a shape that would be rich in harmonics, in 2008.

The first installation was in Appledore, Devon in the next year, and they followed every year or two for the next decade. As the project grew and evolved, its richness became ever clearer; above all, its potential to act as the focus, the crucible or springboard, for further creative activity, be it artistic, educational, and more.

The Bells have a unique position as public artworks. They are not commissions; no individual, developer, local authority or other institution has paid the artist to make them for particular locations. Although a number of copies have been and will continue to be made, they are not in the conventional sense an ‘edition’, let alone are they numbered. They offer very limited recognition for the artist; they are not vehicles for an ego.

What they are is a gift to the host community, and owned, in every sense, by them. A gift both literal and metaphorical; to date the funding structure has covered the cost of their casting ‘centrally’; and completely free rein has been given to communities in the form of their mounting, their naming, and the inscriptions they bear. All installations have come about because by one means or another – often by visiting an existing bell – potential hosts have embarked on the very substantial labour of getting a bell installed.

Funding for early bells came in part from the Arts Council, but very largely from private funds raised by Marcus. In 2018 a grant was provided from the National Lottery Community Fund.

Marcus Vergette's concept

Marcus Vergette, creator of the Time and Tide bells, is a sculptor. During the Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001 he and his wife were quarantined for six months on their remote Devon farm. When their isolation came to an end, he was summoned by a neighbour to the parish church.
The bells were ringing to celebrate. He watched the bells bringing all his rural community together. ‘I saw that bell and I just thought: here it is, it's obvious. A communication device. One that goes through time. And lakes on multiple meanings: it's the same bell that rings for weddings or a funeral. Or to sound a warning.’
The idea of a tidal bell, and the complexity of the sound as the tide ran in and out resonated with his ideas of the give and take of climate change. Discussing it with Sandy Brown in Appledore, she said, ‘let's go for it.’ That first bell was a success. Next, he contacted a friend on the isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, ‘to top and tail the country’. They immediately started talking about ‘our bell’. They're so self- sufficient, it just happened.’

Bell People

Dai Williams was a teacher in Luton until he moved to Aberdyfi in 1974 to work with the Outward Bound Trust and volunteer with the RNLI and the local Mountain Rescue team. The idea for the bell was brought to Aberdyfi's local council by Peter Murdoch, now sadly deceased, who had met Marcus at the installation of the first bell at Appiedore. The idea of a bell for Aberdyfi immediately appealed to Marcus: ancient legend tells of a drowned kingdom beneath Cardigan Bay close to the town. At times its bells are said to sound beneath the water. At others the stumps of trees are revealed at low tide. Dave pushed the project forward. Siting the bell under the pier it becomes submerged and then revealed by the tide. It’s in the centre of summer action: people are crabbing, swimming, and paddle-boarding all around it. It's next to the beach and the Life Boat Station. Dai is very proud of it. ‘People have got used to it,’ he says, ‘and visitors love the story behind it.”
Sandy Brown is an award-winning ceramicist, painter and sculpture whose work is held in collections around the world — and the creator of the blue and white sign which marks the site of the tidal bell at Appledore, the first to be installed, on 27 May 2009. She met Marcus in 2008 when he came to the Appledore Visual Arts Festival, now sadly defunct, with his earliest idea of making tidal bells. ‘That's a great idea,’ she said, ‘let's go for it.’ Marcus gave the bell to Appledore and the funding they raised enabled him to get started on the whole programme. Sandy's enthusiasm did not stop there. She worked with Marcus to make a clay version of the bells.
On 19th June 2010 three cousins, Neil, Callum and lain Macaulay, former fisherman and now ‘anything to do with boats’ craned the tidal bell up and lowered it down onto its steel base on the rocks at Bosta Beach “in one go — a first for ail the bells.” As they did so, the tide ran out, leaving their boat aground for three hours, so they went in search of ‘a wee dram’. They took possession of a parked car that belonged to someone they knew. Within a mile it ran out of petrol. By the time they had filled the tank, purchased their whisky and returned, their friend had reported the car stolen, and the police stood waiting. They got away with it.
Erie Reynolds is founding director of Urban Space Management. Since 1998 he has been running Trinity Buoy Wharf, home to London's only lighthouse, where the River Lea joins the Thames. Eric loves the bell. He says it is wholly appropriate that this bell, which sounds as the tides begin to rise and fall, should find a home among the historic buildings that housed Trinity House, where navigational equipment, such as lights, buoys, and lightships once were manufactured. Among them now are shipping containers, converted to house artists studios, workshops, studios, rehearsal and gallery spaces, a small museum dedicated to Michael Faraday, scientific advisor to Trinity House, and a growing collection of river craft.
Helen Grove-White brought the bell to Cemaes, in north Anglesey. An artist focused on climate change. she first learnt about the bells while researching a lecture on Land Art. Meeting Marcus at Dartmoor Arts Week in Devon, and later at the inauguration of the fourth bell in Aberdyfi they hatched a plan to explore north Anglesey for a new site. Tiny Cemaes, situated between a nuclear power station and the legendary spot where St Patrick came ashore to bring Christianity to Britain seemed ideal for a bell. Helen fired the community's imagination with idea that remote Cemaes might be part of a bigger project, linked to other communities around the British coastline. Wylfa nuclear engineers agreed to install it. In April 2014 the bell became a reality.
Sian Johnson — former consultant on major leisure projects for Deloittes -- and Pete Moser, a musician with a lifetime in community theatre, arts and education, combined their talents to deliver the tidal bell to Morecambe Bay in 2019, Shortly after forming the Morecambe Arts Colony with local artists in 2011, Pete met Marcus Vergette at a Newcastle and Gateshead conference on eco concerns and the arts (organised by Peter Gingold). Returning to Morecambe he convened a meeting. ‘Are you interested in having a bell?’ Sian, the Morecambe Arts Group treasurer, had the project management experience to navigate mountains of planning and marine permissions to deliver the bell. Their timing was fortunate. Major sea defences were under construction --the contractors, VolkerStevin not only built the site. but became a major donor.
Libby Scarfe was born and raised in Harwich. She leads marine based outdoor education sessions and can mostly be found exploring the beaches of Harwich and Dovercourt with local school children. Libby says she fell into an intemet rabbit hole to discover the Time and Tide Bell project and considered the potential of a bell for Harwich. Above all she values its acceptance into the community and the basis for other projects. Our bell' has become a cherished feature of the waterfront with locals responding to its ring knowing that it's time for a swim or that they'll have to wait before exploring the beach.
Rob Payne worked in the music industry and Liz Dixon is a graphic designer. They became involved with the project after attending a community meeting. Rob says that it was in the pub, after a couple of pints, that he agreed to help with the bell. They are delighted that it has found a home in the community. Liz says that she loves it because it is a positive thing. As coastal communities like Happisburgh face their challenges, the bell is a change for the better.
Pauline Neal, a former nurse from south Lincolnshire, has lived in Brixham for thirty years. She first heard of tidal bells on Twitter. ‘I've always been curious,’ she says. ‘! like things that are arty and quirky.’ She contacted Marcus, found they came from the same part of Lincolnshire, began a terrier-like campaign to bring a bell to Brixham. At a presentation to the local Chamber of Commerce, she recruited Chris Bryson, a surveyor. Chris had the skills to get planning permission and the technical know-how to get the bell built and up and running, it took them seven years. The base was made locally by a local marine engineer, who built it into the edge of the surrounding rock face on a number of levels. As a result of the resonance coming from the rocks, the bell often sounds louder out at sea. Chis hopes the bell will encourage local schools to discuss the issues of rising tides and global warming. As for Pauline “I just love its sound, the fact that nature is making it happen.”
Biff Vemon's first inkling of the bell project for Mablethorpe came at the Louth Festival of Bees, with art and music celebrating the connections between bees and wildflowers, arts and science, in 2013. 'I have a friend who might be interested in this bit of coastline,' one of the exhibitors told him. Biff, a former science teacher and a keen painter, had always been interested in the arts. He got a group of people together to apply for planning permission and raise funds. The bell, which is mounted on helical pile foundations, was installed on a June day of continuous rain driven by gale force winds off the sea. Days later, the installation was celebrated at high-tide at a party at sunset on the solstice, 21 June 2019. Now it sits just off The King Charles Ill England Coast Path — a popular destination for local people to ride their horses or walk their dogs.
Richard Parks, then Chair of the Friends of Per Beach, first heard about the bells when Marcus was searching for a location for one in this region of Cornwall. Not only was Par Beach backed by the only sand dunes in Cornwall which are actually growing, but the community retains a link with the historic China clay Industry, through the local Imerys processing plant. After the Parish Council successfully applied, Parks, whose working life was spent in sales and marketing for the travel industry, picked up the ball to lead on nearly four years of fund-raising while Phil Gadd, a retired police officer, set to work to get the necessary Marine Management Organisation licences, and other the permissions needed from the council to the Duchy of Cornwall, on whose foreshore the bell sits. For Parks, the bell is first, an incredible piece of engineering. It's a creative, artistic take on what is happening to the world, with sea levels rising. Back in the day,' he adds, 'the whole of Par village was an estuary. Probably in another 100 years it will be an estuary again. Nature will take over.'
Peter Gingold has had a very varied career, in business, overseas aid, consultancy, and more. He became Chief Executive of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra in 2001, and led the artistic side of Liverpool's successful bid to become European Capital of Culture in 2008. Since then he has focused on climate change, particularly working with art and artists. Shortly after he met Marcus Vergette he started to work with him to fund and develop the Tidal Bell project. If the project were a movie, he would be the producer, spending much time talking to and working with the many people who are linked to each bell, finding new locations, working on the other projects that have surrounded the bells - and more. Peter has thought a lot about the bells. He says that if you listen to them really carefully you can hear the sound of the sea level rising.