Crosby is a coastal town in Sefton, Merseyside, North of Bootle, and South of Formby and Southport. It has a marine lake separated from the Irish Sea by a public footpath. Its 2.5 miles beach is part of Merseyside’s coastline between the Seaforth Dock and the Coastguard station at Burbo Bank Road.
These days, Crosby’s main claim to fame is the 100 cast iron figures – a permanent artwork by Sir Anthony Gormley. The figures are spread across more than 2 miles along the coast but also at various distances going out to sea. Each of the ‘Iron Men’ weighs 650 kilos. They are formed by many individual body-casts of the artist. Sometimes, members of the public dress the sculptures for various purposes. They are all positioned to gaze due West as they become covered by each tide.
I arrived on a morning in June 2019, as the high tide had just reached its maximum and I took the photo above from sand dunes above the beach. The image includes the decommissioned Seaforth Radar Tower at the end of the groyne. As the tide receded, I walked down to the beach and noticed the sailing ship, quite a way out into the estuary towards the Wirral Peninsula.
I saw an opportunity to get a reasonable close-up of the ship by walking further along the beach, where I was also able to include one of the Iron Men in the frame in a separate photo.
Sir Anthony Mark David Gormley, to give him his full title according to Wikipedia, is a British Sculptor born in 1950. His works are renowned internationally and many are listed on the website of the Royal Academy.
I did try to take a number of long-exposure shots of the sculptures, but the brisk wind was blowing sand that featured as a sandstorm in the images I tried to process.
As I left for the day, I took the photo above of the lighthouse at the Seaforth end of the beach.
writing and photography 