- The Time and Tide Bell is now at the Breakwater Beach.
On 6th June, 2023, a special bell was installed on the rocky corner of the Breakwater Beach, in Brixham. It is the culmination of 5 years planning and a country wide project to instal art forms – bells – along the British Coast line.
These tidal bells are amazing and were designed by Marcus Vergette.
In 2008, faced with the devastation of Foot and Mouth disease, farmer and artist , Maurice, was asked by his neighbour to provide a monument to the hardship and needless destruction of livestock at that time. He turned to his art and making a bell that would toll.
Marcus talked of how bells toll with messages of both good news and bad; wedding and funerals, the same . He side-lined his vision to the coast and how moving tides embrace the coastline and move away . Then came the incorporation of the tidal changes with his artistic bells.
It was this concept of changing tides that Marcus used to develop the time and tide bell project.
There was more to the project , however – Marcus used a computer programme to develop the bell acoustics – designing a unique bell shape that produces a melody of rich, lingering sounds from one strike of the hammer. Once the bell is sited, the incoming tide moves the hammer. As the tide rises, the bell strikes more frequently and with changing pitch.
The first bell was installed in Appledore in 2009. These unique pieces are now appearing on other coastlines across Britain. Currently there are 9 other bells, including one at Trinity Buoy Wharf in London.
A tidal bell is a modern artform. But the dynamics of chiming with the changing tides has brought out other ideas – symbolising the challenges faced by coastal communities and environments with climate change and also bringing people in these areas together.
So how come we have a bell in Brixham?
Siting of bells in new locations is often a spin off from someone seeing a bell elsewhere. Such was the dream of Pauline Neal, who took the idea of a bell for Brixham to the town and has overseen the project over the past 5 years.
The Bells themselves are gifted to a location. And their £20,000 cost is funded by grants, or often Vergette himself. The bells are cast in bronze by Brass Founders in Sheffield .
The big challenge is the installation which is purely down to the community to plan and deliver. It relies on good people. Marcus said these projects are a complex challenge – working with metal, wood and moving seawater.
Installing the Brixham Bell was a true community effort, using local engineer Roger, from RWS Engineering to make the steel supporting frame. Joiners used Dartmoor green oak for the wooden parts. Installation work was timed with the tides. The local Brixham Gig Club used their might to pull the heavy bell across the pebbly beach to her pitch.
And now the bell is installed, she chimes every time the tide comes in and goes out, with a soft , reverberating sound that lingers.
The installation of a bell has enhanced local life – changing the area where its put, how the community interacts around it and showing people what can be achieved.
But if nothing else, this really is a wonderful, dynamic piece of art.
When I visited today, I found the bell standing quietly on the beach at low tide. And many people had no idea of the story behind the wonderful sound she will produce at high tide.
The Brixham Bell really is something to marvel at and you should visit.