Welsh Journals

TIDAL DIALS FOR THE BRISTOL CHANNEL by BILL LINNARD The tides of the Bristol Channel are nearly the greatest in the world, being second only to those in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia. These tides, with vertical differences of up to fifteen metres between high and low water, have always ruled life along the English and Welsh shores of the Channel, affecting fishing, ferries, pleasure craft, commercial shipping, holidaymakers and rescue services. Tide tables and tide indicators were obviously important for all kinds of people. Benjamin Greening, a Chepstow clockmaker in the middle of the nineteenth century, had a prominent sign in his shop window: 'Time and tide wait for no man'. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as longcase clocks became increasingly popular and useful items of domestic furniture, the local clockmakers on both sides of the Channel often chose to incorporate a tidal indicator on their better-quality moon-dial clocks to cater for demand and fashion. Some clocks were devised with one moving disk for the lunar cycle (1-29/2 days) and another for the tides (I-XII, I-XII, i.e. 24 hours). However, the more usual and Figure 1: Unrestored painted tidal dial of a clock by Thomas Jones of Newport c.1800, showing high water at Newport Bridge.