A13 near Bowers Gifford, 2016

Another recording responding to the public observations that traffic is a dominant sound throughout Essex.

This time I made made my way to a place where I’d wanted to record for some time: Church Road in Bowers Gifford, which has been chopped in half since the upgraded A13 was rerouted off of the London Road (in the 1970s?). A new way to access Church Road was put in next to The Gun public house and also serves Pitsea Cemetery and Crematorium.

When the A13 was recently widened and connected directly to the A130 to avoid Sadler’s Farm roundabout, the subway was extended and revamped and is now smooth concrete with very little graffiti. But as I walked through it I could see evidence that cars had been raced down there and also the remnants of a burnt out car (well, what else are subways for?).

No scallywags were there today though, so I positioned myself where the new road surface met the old. Even though I was slightly further from the road than previous traffic recordings, you can still hear the cars and trucks travelling along.

You can watch a film about building the A13 diversion around Basildon at the Essex Sound and Video Archive (VA 27/17/1/1).