Newhaven Open: Sara Hibbert

At the Ouse estuary, the Lost Village of Tide Mills exists today as ruins. The flour mill was built in 1761 to harness the tidal power of the sea, and the village later became home to a hospital and stables, until the forced eviction of remaining residents in 1940. Currently a nature reserve, the landscape is home to unique and protected coastal vegetation, including Sea Kale, Sea Beet, and Yellow Horned Poppies, growing around and within the remaining ruins of the village foundations.

This series connects these historical and ecological narratives coexisting within the landscape. The making of this work acknowledges The Tide Mills Project, which has provided a valuable online resource in the research of the history and current status of the site.

Responding to the Feedback Loop theme of Photo Fringe 2026, this photographic series explores the derelict foundations of Tide Mills, the former village at the Ouse estuary in Newhaven, bringing its human history into dialogue with the coastal wildlife that has reclaimed the site. Black and white photographs of the ruins are paired with large-scale colour macro images of native plants and marine life, creating a visual conversation between different histories and timelines, where ecological and human narratives intertwine and coexist. The work reflects on Tide Mills’ transformation from an eighteenth-century sea-powered flour mill, through the forced eviction of its remaining residents in 1937 and its later use for WWII firearms practice, to its present life as a nature reserve. Drawing on the legacy of The Tide Mills Project, the series considers how memory, place and ecology feed back into one another, with magnified images, light-collage techniques and installation creating a visual loop between the site’s past, present and imagined future.