Feb-March, 2021, Thorpeness, UK: ten days of strong easterly winds churn the sea into a brown murky mess while the beach turns white. At low tide I notice coralline crag being unearthed by the storm’s energy so I start collecting the rocks from a kilometre stretch of shingle beach. I continue daily for two weeks then start to build in the intertidal storm zone. I’m inspired by Julie Brook’s ‘Fire Stacks’, also my work in Iceland, part of which has included building cairns with groups of volunteers.
Fossils from the Coralline Crag. From Chatwin (1954).
“Suffolk is the only place in the world where coralline crag exists (there is a seam stretching from Butley and coming to the surface beneath the sea at Thorpeness—which explains why so much is washed up on the beach). Crag is compacted fossilised seashells, but coralline crag is stronger because over thousands of years rainwater carrying calcium has percolated it which cements all the shells together”
