We have new T-Shirts! Designed by Liam and screen printed in Canterbury by @bluebirdpress http://t.co/yqSWAjcUEK pic.twitter.com/k2DJ8exmu7
— Syd Arthur (@sydarthurband) May 2, 2014
Author: Andrew Grantham
BBC on Spurn
The Kilnsea sound mirror got a mention on the BBC website:
… One legacy of the raids is the sound mirror, which still stands in a field just outside the village.
The large concave concrete dish acted as a primitive radar, amplifying engine sounds from distant Zeppelins so they could be heard by an operator, who would then send an air-raid warning inland by radio.
Source: World War One: Spurn Point’s military relics at sea’s mercy, 28 February 2014
(note that despite what the article says, the Spurn railway was standard gauge)
Syd Arthur’s Sound Mirror
The second album from Canterbury psych-rock quartet Syd Arthur is called Sound Mirror, and features the Abbot’s Cliff acoustic mirror on its cover.
“From the tantalizing ‘Garden Of Time’ to the prophetic ‘Sink Hole,’ ‘Sound Mirror’ expands and refines Syd Arthur’s already uncommon sonic multiverse into a brave new space where focus and concision is as essential as freewheeling abstraction and genre-shattering creativity”, apparently.
Sound Mirror will be released through Harvest Records on 2 June 2014.
Sunderland sound mirror restoration
As part of the Defended Land project, Beaumont Brown Architects is undertaking conservation work to repair and present the sound mirror at Fulwell in Sunderland. It is working with Sunderland City Council, English Heritage and Limestone Landscapes to restore the structure and provide information and access to it.
@andrew_grantham Excavation Fulwell Sound Mirror @SunderlandUK reveals dish & plinth for Zeppelin detector #WW1AtHome pic.twitter.com/5QIY7T6QMH
— David S Beaumont (@dsbbba) March 28, 2014
Beaumont Brown Architects hopes this “will help explain this forgotten but vital part in the defence of our shores and bring a greater understanding of the peril that the people who lived and worked there faced.”
The Mirror is one of the few surviving WWI early warning devices designed to provide alert of impending attacks from ships and Zeppelins on North East industrial complexes and the eastern seaboard from the Tyne to the Humber. They were often located in pairs to provide triangulation to achieve a better position of the attacker. The Fulwell mirror is orientated towards the sky and its purpose is primarily the detection of aerial attack. It is one of the Coastal Watcher type or Track Plotting Mirrors and similar in design to the Redcar and Boulby Mirrors though Boulby’s construction technique differs slightly.Source: Beaumont Brown Architects, 12th May 2013
@bbcnewcastle Just been interviewed by that nice Jo Lonsdale at Fulwell Sound Mirror. #wearingacoatforradio pic.twitter.com/osyx29A8OI
— David S Beaumont (@dsbbba) January 7, 2014
In January 2014 Beaumont Brown Architects were interviewed about the sound mirror by BBC Newcastle’s Jo Lonsdale, one of the producers of a new series World War One At Home which will look at how the Great War affected life at home.
Nicki Minaj at the Denge sound mirrors
I seem to have missed this when it first came out in November 2012. Nick Minaj shoots music video in Kent!, says Kent Film Office.
According to Wikipedia, “”Freedom” is a downtempo hip hop and R&B song that features a “sonically breezy” soundscape, complied with ambient riffs, pop-inspired synths, and soft pop choruses.”1
According to Director Colin Tilley:
Fun fact#2… the wall we are standing next too thats super curved was an old sound satellite they built back in the day that was supposed to receive messages from England to Paris…. kinda awesome. If you stand on one end and whisper the person on the other end can hear as if you are next to each other…2
I think there is a little bit of confusion there!
- Freedom (Nicki Minaj song), Wikipedia, accessed 24 February 2014 ↩
- Director Colin Tilley on Nicki Minaj “Freedom”, Steven Gottlieb, Video Static, 27 November 2012 ↩
Listening Stones
Listening Stones, St. Vrain Greenway, Longmont, Colorado
Granite river boulders, wood, flagstone. 1997.
This sculpture uses a parabolic sound mirror carved into boulders to dramatically magnify the sound of a nearby stream for listeners. It is inspired by satellite dishes, the seating in choir lofts where curved walls reflect sound and the antique hand-held sound magnifiers used in the days before hearing aids. The concept of sound reflection has been known for centuries, such as at the Whispering Wall in China. … Now, parabolic sound mirrors are found at children’s playgrounds and in dish microphones at sporting events. The creative aspects of this sculpture are threefold […more at Robert Tully Artworks]
Sound mirror radio drama
Early Warning
A thriller by Richard Monks
Taking refuge in a subterranean bunker under a ‘Sound Mirror’ Ella hears a horrific sound. Ella believes she is a witness to a brutal murder. But her evidence is dismissed as unreliable when the police learn that she is deaf. Ella’s fight to be heard forces her to take action, putting her own life in danger.
Source: BBC Radio 3
The Inkling on sound mirrors
Listen up: sound mirrors and the fear of flying by Patrick Sykes at The Inkling, 14 January 2013.
Probably the only thing The Prodigy, Tacita Dean, and military defence enthusiasts have in common, sound mirrors, or ‘listening ears,’ were huge concrete concavities designed to detect enemy aircraft during the First World War…
Bombing the Channel Ports
The Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror appears in the 1941 watercolour “Bombing the Channel Ports” by war artist Eric Ravilious (1903-1942).
Bombing the Channel Ports© IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1588)
Compare the painting with this May 2003 photo:
Thanks to Eddie Bromhead for letting me know about the painting.
Sound mirror for sale
Boulby Barns Farm is for sale, along with its sound mirror. Offers in the region of £695 000.
Within the paddock is a Grade II listed Listening Post dating from around 1916 and used to detect approaching enemy Zeppelins and other aircraft. This structure is believed to be one of only 3 remaining in the country.
Source: Smiths Gore/Rightmove
Presumably this refers to the similar mirrors at Sunderland and Selsey.
Thanks to John McMillan for alerting me.