A high wind in Chalkwell, 2016

I’ve tried to record the sound of the wind before. It didn’t really work, but I listened to “Plantation Fingringhoe” and “Picnic by The River Stour” and, with some tricks I’ve picked up, I thought I might try again, as we seem to be having a few breezy days.

If you come off Chalkwell Esplanade at the west end, you have to cross the railway using the footbridge which has a long slope taking it up to the height of the pavement on the other side of the tracks. That slope is overhung by a tree, so you’ll often hear the wind sighing through bare branches or rustling the leaves, well worth stopping to listen to.

The recording is in two parts again; I left it running waiting for the next train. First of all you hear the wind in the tree, then a couple coming up from the seafront after dog walking. The second part is a little knot of teenage boys who’d gone down to the beach and were coming back again. One of them has his ‘phone ring; they head up the slope; and the train that had arrived, unheard, pulls out. The track curves away from the shore here as it heads towards Westcliff-on-Sea. Blow wind blow.

Recorded just after midnight.

Image of Chalkwell Railway Station copyright Nigel Thompson and used under Creative Commons (Attribution-ShareAlike) licence. View the original here.