While travelling to the Sandringham Estate, on our u3a Cromer holiday, we stopped at Wells-next-the-Sea. I was intrigued to see a horse standing in the waters of the harbour. This turned out to be the Lifeboat Horse, a sculpture created by local artist Rachael Long in 2018 and made from steel bars and sections of old whisky barrels. It was originally a temporary feature of an Art Trail, but the community raised the money to keep it. (It is normally removed over the winter months for protection.) 

Rachel was inspired by an old photograph from the days when horses were used to pull the Wells lifeboat across the sands to where it could be launched. When they heard the alarm being raised to call out the lifeboat crew, the horses apparently knew to gallop towards the gate ready for harnessing. 

I loved the way the horse is positioned, reminiscent of an Anthony Gormley installation. Firmly secured to the seabed, it stands on a sandbank opposite the quay, but below the high-tide mark. When we arrived, we saw the horse standing in the water, whereas at high tide its legs disappear so it looks rather as if it’s swimming, and then again, if we’d been there at low tide, we’d have seen the horse in its entirety on the sand. The idea is that the Horse appears to be out at sea until reemerging on land, like the lifeboat itself.

For more images of The Lifeboat Horse please check out this Facebook link

Image used with kind permission of Gary Roberts

This provided just one enjoyable moment out of many, in a memorable u3a holiday. 

Article by Joan Geddes, September 2026, Ravenshead u3a member