Again I could have had many choices for T ... Tidal Flats (M), Tide Race (Q ), Tidal Pools (I and N), Tidal Zones (Z), Tentacles (U) ...
"Between the Tides" by Walter Langley
of the Newlyn School of Artists
... but we’ll start with T for Tides ... those phenomena of the seas, that are hard to explain ...
Julius Caesar first learnt of the tides when he came to Britain, where the tide may make a difference of 40 feet to the depth of water, whereas in the Mediterranean it is at most six inches: do you think he gaped?
The science: the gravitational forces of the moon, sun and earth combine to give two high and two low tides a day (in most parts of the UK).
Though smaller than the sun, the moon has a greater gravitational pull on the oceans because it is nearer the earth.
High tides occur about every 12 hours 25 minutes apart, and are 50 minutes later each day ... due to the moon taking 24 hours and 50 minutes to circle the earth.
Low Tide Lelant Saltings, St Ives Bay
The depth of the ocean and coastal configuration affects the tides – for example when it is high tide in Dover, Kent ... it is low tide at Falmouth, Cornwall.
Local, quite unusual tide patterns may occur. Both at Southampton, and on the other side of the Channel near Cherbourg, a prolonged or double high tide occurs with four, or even six, high tides a day. Poole and Weymouth in Dorset have four.
August 2013 Ryde, Isle of Wight tide table
Tide Tables are used for tidal prediction and show the daily times and heights of high water and low water, usually for a particular location: essential for day trippers, tourist offices, fishermen, lifeboat institutions ...
Eel baskets
Trades ... in the early days ... c/o Goldhanger, Blackwater estuary history andfurther reading available:
fishing and fishing with fish pits (traps/”kettles” (K));
Maldon Salt Co - est 1882
eels caught in baskets,
oysters, mussels, limpets, cockles,
foraging ... seakale, samphire, seaweeds ...
Sea Kale
Duck decoy ponds ...
Salt extraction – e.g. Maldon Crystal Salt ... which was also used in salt-glazed pottery ...
Barging Blocks, Blackwater River,
Essex - Cooks Yard
Ship Building and Repair yards ...
Barge transportation of goods – when sea transport was faster than across the countryside ... before proper roads and railways ...
Sailing Barge Thalatta -
launched 1906
... farm produce up to London; horse manure, seaweed for fertilizer, lime, coal and other cargoes on the return journey: called ‘London mixture’ ...
Kentish rag stone was brought up from Kent ... and used to build up the sea walls and helped in the reclamation of marshland.
Blackpool - tower and prom;
theatre and visitor centre,
big wheel, big dipper, lots of hotel rooms
T is for Tourism ... in all its guises ...
swimming and bathing from early times ...
Sailing for pleasure ...
Visitor centres
Dunes, sands and low water sea
Aquaria
Promenades and Piers ...
Sand and Sea through our toes ...
... and more as the public devise new activities along our shores ...
That is T for trembling tearaway tides, tortuous tide tables, troublesome tidal races ... T for terribly tough trades ... or T for our modern delights of tourism necessities ... from Aspects of British Coasts ...
PS! I need to add a post I wrote last year on an exhibition I saw on the trades in Cornwall, recorded by the Newlyn artists back at the beginning of the 1900s: Amongst Heroes: Artists in Working Cornwall
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories