Our Past History has a detailed article on sound mirrors, and another page covering the ruins of the mirror, pillboxes and other military remains at Warden’s Bay on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
Sound mirrors
Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror pictures
Eugene has sent me three nice photos of the Abbot’s Cliff sound mirror, on the white cliffs near Folkestone.
The Abbot’s Cliff mirror is at grid reference TR27083867, between Folkestone and Dover. It is very easy to find, simply follow the tarmac path along the cliff top, and you can’t really miss it (it is a great big block of concrete, after all!). It is a five to ten minute walk from the Folkestone – Dover road.
Redcar sound mirror – the motion picture
There is a short video about Redcar’s acoustic mirror on YouTube.
2007 guided walks to the Denge sound mirrors
Because they are on an island surrounded by the waters of a deep gravel pit, the sound mirrors at Denge are only accessible on guided walks (believe me, this is true, I’m not making it up!).
Dates of guided walks are listed on the Romney Marsh Countryside Project website. I’ve been twice, and the “Echoes from the Sky” walks, led by Dr Scarth, author of the now out-of-print book and world expert on acoustic mirrors, are well worth doing – and very popular. Getting there by public transport requires a bit of planning, but is possible. Alternatively, the walks start from a large car park.
Hythe mirror photos
Some Easter 2007 photos of the Hythe acoustic mirrors on An English Shooter’s Blog.
Acoustic mirror on YouTube
A clip of the Disinformation “Blackout” Sound Mirrors video by Barry Hale is available at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsR3qyJDk0c
“Echoes from the Sky” book sold out
While I’m doing an update, I’ll mention that the Hythe Civic Society has completely sold out of copies of Echoes from the Sky. There’s none left.
So please don’t e-mail them to ask about buying one!
More sound mirror art
An e-mail informs me of the following event.
10th Disinformation solo exhibition
“Fire in the Eye” + “The Origin of Painting” “The Analysis of Beauty” + “Blackout”
Saltburn Artists Projects
30 Marske Road
Saltburn TS12 1QG
20 Jan to 11 March 2007
www.saltburnartistsprojects.org.uk
http://rixc.lv/waves/en/txt08.html
The exhibition features “Blackout” – Barry Hale’s highly influential (and frequently copied) video of monolithic, concrete air-defence Sound Mirrors.
“Blackout” was made to accompany Sound Mirror imagery created by photographer Julian Hills in 1996 (for the packaging of the Disinformation “Antiphony” double remix CD, published in 1997). The “Blackout” video has been shown at The Royal College of Art (London),chirn Kunsthalle (Frankfurt), The Dom (Moscow), Galerie fur Zeitgennossische Kunst (Leipzig) and others, and exhibited at The Mac (Birmingham), CCCB (Barcelona), Quay Arts (Isle of Wight), Q Gallery (Derby), South Hill Park (Bracknell), The Waygood Gallery (Newcastle), The ICA (London), Event Gallery (London), Wrexham Arts Centre and The Latvian National Museum of Art.
Disinformation videos available on You Tube…
Hope you enjoy!
1. Disinformation “Artificial Lightning”* Live at The Hayward Gallery, London
www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5s8RURPJ-Y
(*aka “The Origin of Painting”)2. Disinformation “The Origin of Painting”
Live at Fabrica, Brighton
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vi-lB_2_qg3. Disinformation at NTT ICC Tokyo (extract)
Phase of Post Music concert series
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sLFx4T8R744. Disinformation “The Analysis of Beauty”
Premiered at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMtz9ciE9M05. Disinformation and Hari Kunzru (extract)
Interview for “The Lounge” on Sky TV
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L1o5zUWkOM6. Disinformation vs Strange Attractor “National Grid”
Live at New Corsica Studios, London + detailed text
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B13-09K-Ubc7. Disinformation “The Origin of Painting”
Live at Wrexham Arts Centre
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6Wvp7aALE
A sound mirror in Seaham?
Raymond Thompson of the Seaham Family History Group writes to say that “One of our elderly residents seems to recall a concrete structure (long gone) which he believes to have been a sound mirror situated on an elevated site in Seaham, County Durham about 2 miles from the coast.” On seeing a picture of the Sunderland Carley Hill Mirror he said it was the same design, and another Seaham resident “remembers it vividly”.
There isn’t a mirror in Seaham today, so presumably it has now been demolished, but does anyone know more? The north eastern mirors are all a bit of mystery, no-one seems to know anything about them. While I don’t really know the area, from a map I’d guess that Hartlepool and Seaham would be good locations for mirrors if some kind of chain had exisited incorporating the surviving mirrors at Boulby, Redcar and Sunderland.
Books mentioning the northeast and Joss Gap
Clive Kidd gets in touch to say that sound mirrors get several mentions in The Baby Killers – German Air Raids on Britain in the First World War by Thomas Fegan, (Leo Cooper, 2003 ISBN 0-85052-893-3). pp153-4 Boulby and Redcar, pp176-7 Sunderland and p116 Kilnsea, briefly outlining a system of quadrants for plotting.
EW Sockett in Tyne Tees Defended:1 in World War 1 1914-18 RNAS RFC RAAF (ISBN 0952 8217 02) gives maps and further details of three north-east coast mirrors and WW1 observer lines. Also gets a write up in in T/T Defended II 1914-1941 ISBN 0-952-8217-1-0. He also gives lots of references to other articles he has written on Tyne Tees Defences, mainly in the Yorkshire Antiquites Journal.
Prof R W F Burns gives them a small bit in his IEE Hist of Tech paper on the detection and loction of aircraft and refers to a paper in Kew PRO “report 87 Preliminary report on Joss Gap Station of the acoustical section SEE W S Tucker 22 Sep 1920 AVIA 23/84 PRO Kew. Also has a ref to “Location of a/c by sound Journal of the American physical Society Vol XiV N02 1919 PP166-7.