sounds, sensors, stones
At noon and 3pm a bell in rung in the Chalice Well Gardens, Glastonbury to invoke a minute’s silence for reflection. A wren breaks the silence, and the bell is sounded again at the end of the minute.
The bell was the old school bell, the school buildings were cleared in the 1970s which opened up the bottom of the gardens a lot.
The ritual of the Silent Minute was instigated in WW2 by Wellesley Tudor Pole, who was a key figure in the founding of the Chalice Well Trust.
OKMII binaural microphones
This is the sound of the flow inside the well-house at Chalice Well. Two springs rise in this area – the Chalice Well and gardens are home to the chalybeate Red Spring, rising from a deep underground source with little variation in flow or temperature over the years and seasons. Only a few tens of yards away is the White Spring, which rises from theg round closer to the surface. There is a definite tone to the flow – the well-head has a pentagonal chamber underneath it and the resonance of this makes a peaceful steady sound.
From a field recordist’s point of view life is made more difficult by the A361 carrying HGVs down Chilkwell Street, but the wellhead is far enough away and loud enough that this doesn’t impair the recording.
