events archive

Nurture - Paddle
Hilbre.
Possibly the only place on Merseyside where you can experience real isolation in the 21st Century, cut off from the mainland until the tide allows you back again. That is unless you include, lifeboats, the internet and calling for support by mobile phone

Hilbre has always had a viable community solving the problem of survival in different ways, some of which are clearer to us than others. One apparent benefit is that the islands could have been chosen as defensible for many reasons.

The island has also had a changing relationship with the mainland as sand banks and sea lakes have come and gone and erosion of the sandstone outcrop takes place. We saw the remnants of field walls on the remarkably small middle eye. Pigs, chickens and horses were kept here and also sheep brought across for grazing, fruit and vegetables have always been present. The walls of course would be used to keep out the wind as much as to keep stock in on such an exposed site.
These days voles are the only vertebrate present today, so far as we know there has never been any sign of rabbits, foxes or badgers. The sea however has always offered a wealth of produce; fish, shellfish, sea weed and sea birds and their eggs.

Currently the island is a nature reserve of outstanding importance and so we see a very different sort of support system, one that is about maintaining other species than our own. It does however sustain some human life; the island has been home to the warden and his wife for ten years now. Water is collected as rainwater, sewage is composted and electricity is from solar cells and wind turbines. He has his own vegetable garden and various wild plants introduced as food crops from different periods of people living on the island, now frequently regarded as invasive weeds.

Our tide enforced stay gave us a feeling for a nature led pace but without the practical needs to produce and conserve, ours was different to the long term experience of living on the island. It did raise possibilities for the small scale survival of people in much more exposed and difficult situations then we understand in our urban streets. The warden is very happy to commit to living successfully long term on the island.

Comments
I had never thought being stranded could be so constructive.
It was wonderful just sitting watching things change
We used to come to West Kirby for holidays but I have never been to Hilbre before
The seals seem to be talking to you
A woman used to sit by the water and sing to the seals I am sure they sang back
Coming here I can imagine things differently
Its very different to how we usually look at water seeing the tide come in like this.
I feel much further from land than Ive walked. It seems to have stretched.
Ive been here a few times and never thought Id enjoy staying over the tide but now I could probably stay a week!

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