SITE NOTES
Compiled by Roger
Millington and Dr Stella Barrows
The Bournemouth
Pleasure Gardens (Lower Gardens) Sounding Space is situated towards the end of
the Bourne Chine in an area initially settled by Captain Tregonwell in the
early 1800s.
Bournemouth is at
the centre of a geological formation of inward facing hills at the
southern-most tip of what is known as the Winchester- East Meon
Anticline. The Anticline is one of a series of
parallel east-west trending tectonic folds in the Cretaceous
chalk. This results in a near-complete ring of inward-facing chalk
scarp slopes including Magdalen Hill to the north, Chilcomb Down,
Cheesefoot Head and Telegraph Hill to the east, Deacon Hill, Twyford Down and
St. Catherine's Hill to the south. NOTE: It is suggested that
this geological ring acts to focus subterranean sonic phenomena in the manner
of a ‘speaker cone’, allowing for detection of Deep Sound by
means of NISG Ear Trumpet technology, and that this should be the focus of NISG
investigations in the area.
The Bourne
Stream runs near the sounding space, and is named from the
Middle English Bourn or Burn meaning 'a small stream' has its mouth near
to the sea at the end of the parkland. Bournemouth is a relatively
new town, especially in comparison to its near neighbours of Poole and the
ancient town of Christchurch. If you had happened upon this site in 1800 you
will only have stumbled upon a few fishermen and a muddy stream. It
is in the main a Victorian settlement, with large building projects and
expansion continuing to this day.
There is evidence
of significant Neolithic and
Iron Age Activity in this part of Dorset (such as the 'double dykes' at
Hengistbury Head towards the other side of the Bournemouth Bay) and we posit
that alluvial deposits from the water may be a factor in the transmission of
proto historic sounds from these surrounding ‘Bournemouth Bay’ area
settlements.
Evidence of
Crystalline Induction:
Geological
connectivity between Bournemouth and the Isle of Wight suggests that we might
expect to detect Reflection Phenomena, as geological sound
‘bounces’ back across the Bay of Bournemouth via undersea Transmission
Layers. Investigations by NISG at Old Harry’s Rocks and
the Needles are seeking to determine whether these chalk stacks above ground
might act as supra-terranean transmitters, the first of their kind
to be documented in the UK since Marconi conducted his early radio broadcasts
in the area in January 1898.
Indeed, atmospheric and radio
wave imprinting within the surface geology of the area is expected to
be a significant influence on the background sound profile in the Bournemouth
Sounding Space. Marconi’s identification of strong Etheric Wave
Transmission in the area suggests the locale is particularly sensitive
to electromagnetic fluctuation.
NOTE: The key
question for our research here is the degree to which these radio
phenomena might percolate into the ground, particularly in the light
of recent discoveries as to the intensity of crystalline induction in
the region (Barrows, S, Percolation and Puddingstones: Journal of
Experimental Sonic Geography, 22.1: 97-146).
FURTHER NOTE: Care must
also be taken not to confuse genuine geological sonic phenomena with carousal
noise interference or from 'Disc Jockeys' or revellers who are engaged in dance
parties in so called 'night clubs' in Bournemouth's Town Centre. However, there
is some evidence of atmospheric pressure imprinting by plosive
phenomena, caused by decades of Friday Night Fireworks in
the area. Melodic phenomena have also been detected at the Bandstand in
Bournemouth Gardens, which is particularly exciting given
the natural affinity between brass bands and cutting edge Ear Trumpet
technology (Millington, R: Getting the Horn: the Discovery of Ear
Trumpet Technology and its Gift to Sonic Geology, forthcoming).
Talbot Village
and beyond: 1850-1862
A further
consideration is the Earth Trauma caused during the 1987
Hurricane, in which countless trees were torn from their roots, dislocating
surface geologies and exposing the ground in a manner conducive to seeding
and percolation of contemporary ambient phenomena. Talbot Woods and the
surrounding Victorian parklands of the Talbot and Wallisdown areas were
particularly affected by the Hurricane, as were the lower, mid and upper
gardens in central Bournemouth.
In a subsection
to their controversial but entertaining paper Dirty Ears: Listening to Sonic
Phenomena in the Topsoils of South West England (Journal of
Experimental Sonic Geology: 21.6, 28-47) Brunel, H. & Lathenby, B. have
further suggested that even ploughing and surface agriculture may disrupt the
ground enough for sound to be seeded.