Basking in 30 degree heat borrowed from July, it's a still September day. This forest, set in the Hertfordshire countryside, is at its calmest. As it is so quiet, it may take a little time for your ears to adjust. It is late on a Monday morning, there's nobody else around to hear the woodland alive with the buzzing of insects and scattered bird calls of rooks, robins and wood pigeons.
This forest, first established in 1767, is bisected by a railway line linking Hertford North station with London. Regular passenger services reverberate the cavernous space beneath the trees as they slide through. There's a heavy freighter at 40 minutes pulling smooth wagons that scythe the steel rails, and at 63 minutes another, a single locomotive with squeaky suspension. The noise of the passing trains seems to accentuate the sense of space in this wood and to intensify the silence in between. It's a silence sparsely punctuated by flocks of jackdaws as they forage the surrounding fields, and at 54 minutes a buzzard, a drooping whistling call as it circles high above the tree canopy.
This recording highlights just what an unusually peaceful place this is. It is a rare spot in the south of England where there is no road noise. The airspace above has layers of slow rumbling, high altitude jet planes, then lower down their tuneful cousins the propeller planes, banking and wheeling over the landscape. These are in themselves calming sounds. This non-stop spatial audio recording, made from the trunk of a tree just next to the public footpath, runs for 73 minutes. Its length shares the extraordinary qualities of the Clinton-Baker Pinetum as a long-form listening experience. Lastly, because it is so easily missed, hear at 32 minutes far off over the fields the bell striking 12, this is St Mary's Church Bayford, built by William Robert Baker.
Listen to other episodes from this special place.
162 Waterfall gorge on Dartmoor (high definition spatial sound)
161 Fishing village harbour at night - part 2 (sleep safe)
160 Forest ravine
159 Pure Northumbrian air (don’t forget Lento’s best with headphones)
158 That edgeland feel along the Thames near Tilbury Docks (sleep safe)
157 Immersed in Bayford Woods (an ear-witness account)
156 Sheltered under night rain (sleep safe and high definition sound)
155 Out on Cooden Beach at night - part 1 (sleep safe)
154 An Exeter garden awakes
153 Freezing January rain under Britain’s highest pylon (sleep safe)
152 High above Folkestone beach
151 Dusky echoes in the Forest of Dean
150 Looking down on Coldingham Sands (January special 2 / 4)
149 Dawn birdsong from Derbyshire (a brighten up January special 1/4)
148 Suffolk Wood (part 13) - 8am to 9am
147 The barn high up the moor (sleep safe - atmospheric with headphones)
146 Fresh air along the Creel Path
145 Curling folding breaking waves (part 2 in hi-def sound)
144 Garden beside meadow in the Derbyshire hills
143 Lullaby waves by Nothe Sea Fort (sleep safe)
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