‘A High Tide in Short Wellies’ at Coble Landing

Following on from his residency in Whitby, Ray Lonsdale, artist, fabricator and sculptor has his giant sculpture ‘A High Tide in Short Wellies’ permanately on display on Filey's Coble Landing, thanks to the generosity of a local Scarborough resident.

‘A High Tide in Short Wellies’, is a steel giant of a tall fisherman measuring 12 feet high. Ray has used steel to imitate the textures of the fisherman’s clothing, from his woollen hat down to his huge Wellington boots. The fisherman also clasps a fishing rod which stands higher than the figure himself. His bearded face is made from the hand-cut steel plates and makes a powerful statement about the decline of the fishing industry which is summarised by a poem at the sculpture’s base:

‘A high tide in short wellies’
That’s it for me, I’ll see you later.
Gonna wrap this catch in protective paper,
Gonna face the sea with a thousand mile stare
And wish that I was floating there
In its summertime.

Down on the pier I saw a man with a board
It read ‘the end is near, accept your lord.
Then underneath this some fisherman wrote.
‘I can see the end from the back of my boat‘
This is wintertime.

Ray also has 'Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers' firmly rooted on Royal Albert Drive, overlooking the North Bay of Scarborough and an exhibition in the Arts Bank at Saltburn-by the-Sea .

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Free entry

Open all the time

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