SOUNDING SPACE #024 Morecambe
Lancashire, Nr. Midland Hotel
NOTES COMPILED BY Dr. Wolfgang Lovejoy and Dr.
Beatrice Lathenby with additional contributory notes by Siegfried Oberhaus.
INTRODUCTION
Morecambe is a coastal town (population circa
35,000) situated in Morecambe Bay, a vast and unique coastal landscape. Human occupation
in the area can be traced back thousands of years, from seafaring Romans, Vikings
and 18th century Pirates, to significant human settlements by Anglo
Saxons. This is evidenced not just in the archeological record, but through the
sonic eruption events which the NISG have discovered, frequently take place in
the area.
Sounding Space #024 is a significant eruption
event. It lies between the Art Deco Midland Hotel (built 1933), and to the RNLI
station for the ‘Hurley Flyer’ a lifesaving hovercraft, which is used to assist
people who experience trouble in the notoriously treacherous bay. There is more on the significant
role of water as a stimulus and primary engine of sonic eruption in Lathenby, B
(2016) Getting Wet for Sonic Geology –
Sub Aqua Investigations, Journal of Aural Investigation, 6:2, pp135-212) .
Morecambe and its environs has a rich and diverse
history, influenced by the extraordinary tidal force of the sea. Morecambe Bay
is constantly made and remade by tides, one of the reasons which we might posit
that the sounding space is so rich – the constant forces of weathering and
erosion release sounds at different points in the bay area. This eruption event
(#024) is a particularly forceful occurrence, and could be explained by the
sonic refraction effect of the ‘Stone Jetty’ pier near to the sounding space.
Who knows what sounds might also have been released under the concrete and
paving of the old Lido site, which sadly Ear Trumpet technology is unable to
penetrate.
So
far in our investigations, we have detected sonic phenomena, in the manner of
repeated echo-type, induction, and auricular events.
MORECAMBE: A SEASIDE RESORT
Morecambe has seen frequent change, reflecting perhaps
its constantly shifting landscape. Relatively recently (at least in geological
terms) it was an extremely popular seaside resort from the mid to late 1800s,
in part due to the easy access from the railway station and harbour. It once
boasted numerous fairgrounds, including the Winter Gardens, Blobby Land and the
famous Frontierland; the only American Wild West-inspired theme park in the
North West of England. Frontierland closed in 1999 and the site has remained
disused. The Polo Tower, a landmark for the park and Morecambe’s skyline, was
demolished 18 years later in 2017, the hiatus being due to an attached telecommunications
mast. Could the ‘Polo’ Tower have acted as some sort of giant focussing antenna
that channelled electromagnetic frequencies into the ground; its removal releasing
dormant resonances? This would be a similar phenomena to the one witnessed with
the spire of Salisbury Cathedral (SS#012), the spire acting as a lightning
conductor.
There was at one time, two piers, a lido, a theatre
and swimming baths, as well as performance venues and the stunning Winter
Gardens, parts of which are still open to audiences. There are prominent
seafront amusement arcades, a bowling alley, and an excellent second hand
bookshop.
The NISG team has ascertained that sound travels
through the porous clays and sands in the bay extremely efficiently, snatches
of music and radio signals have been discerned entwined with paleolithic noise.
Emanations in the environs of Morecambe have produced conversational,
melodic, ambient and proto-historic sonic phenomena through the underground
strata. This important biodiverse site offers the NISG an opportunity to record
and analyse modern human interaction with the landscape in an unparalleled
manner to previous investigations.
TIDAL LANDSCAPE
Morecambe Bay is the largest inter-tidal area in
Britain. It boasts one of the highest tidal ranges in the world – and the second
highest in Britain, after the Bristol Channel. When the sea recedes, it goes
out for miles, revealing vast sands, which are fertile beds for wildfowl and
wading birds. This is a dynamic landscape and the bay is constantly changing,
never the same, even from day to day.
Morecambe Bay is one of less than a dozen places in
Britain where there are tidal bores. However, the geology of this area is
anything but boring! The tidal bore
results from a combination of the high tidal range and the shape of the bay as
it narrows into the Kent Estuary at Arnside. The water enters the tapering
estuary and the rising waters become confined which results in a distinct wave
developing, which can be anything from a few centimetres to almost a metre high on full spring
tides. Predicted tides of 9.5m or more are needed before it is likely that a
full bore will rise and even then the bore is inconsistent. It is said that the
tide in Morecambe comes in at a rate of up to 40mph – faster than that of a
galloping horse, although if the NISG were to detect any sounds of horses, it
would be more likely percolated historic sound from the use of horse and carts
harvesting seafood from the sands.
As the tide ebbs, it opens a route for travel, safely
navigable only by experts. Fishermen follow these retreating tides, gathering
cockles and shrimps on foot and with tractors. Morecambe
Bay Potted Shrimps are a reknowned local delicacy.
On 5 February 2004, there was a major loss of life in
Morecambe Bay when Chinese immigrant shellfish harvesters were drowned. Many,
many people have tragically lost their lives in the bay and its dangerous tides
are hard to predict.
GEOLOGY
The bay is a unique geological feature, created by a
deeply faulted structure, into which four large esturies flow, forming the
sands. Walney Island is a barrier island formed by longshore drift reworking
bounder clays and glacial deposits laid down as the ice-sheets retreated from
the high lands of Cumbria.
Some of the rock in the area is particularly
interesting – for example in Trowbarrow Quarry, the bedding planes are vertical
and reveal excellent examples of trace fossils from the Carboniferous period and
there are several examples of ‘limestone pavements’ in the bay area. Pale fossil-rich sediments were
deposited in the warm sea that covered most of England around 350 million years
ago, which have become limestone – these provide a record of these ancient
seas. Glacial scouring during the last ice age removed many soils, resulting in
bare limestone scars and larger cliffs with considerable accumulations of
limestone scree. Is this why this area is such a rich sounding space?
The
margins of Morecambe Bay are formed by faulted outcrops
of Lower Carboniferous
Limestone. The dynamic landscape of the coastal fringe is dominated by the
intertidal foreshore with extensive areas of mudflat, sand flat and salt marsh
backed by low limestone cliffs, pebble beaches or manmade defences, such as
those we see in Morecambe itself.
NOTE:
It
is suggested that these geological fault-lines, and the shape of the bay
itself, acts to focus subterranean sonic phenomena in the manner of a vibrating
‘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.
ARCHEOLOGY
The long
history of human presence is evident in the landscape with Neolithic and
bronze-age burial mounds and stone circles, medieval field patterns, woodlands,
quarries, transport routes and Second World War airfields.
In the
surrounding landscape, there is evidence of Neolithic and bronze-age monuments,
including burial mounds and stone circles on the higher ground. These testify
to the development of agriculture and settlement here long before Morecambe was
even given its name.
Useful glossary of
phrases for Sonic Geologists and Citizen Scientists:
Sedimentary
response
|
Distinctive
mid-tonal effects, detected in sedimentary (alluvial) areas.
|
Sonic Porosity
|
Suitability of
geological conditions for seeding, percolation, imprinting and release of
sonic phenomena.
|
Imprinting
|
Post-percolatory
capture of sound within subterranean strata.
|
Conversational
|
Phenomena
pertaining to emissions of the human voice.
|
Melodic event
|
Phenomena
pertaining to emissions of music or harmony.
|
Ambient event
|
Phenomena
pertaining to emissions of natural sound.
|
Proto-historic
event
|
Phenomena
pertaining to echo-type replay of specific historic events.
|
Earth Trauma
|
Historic incident
in which the geology of a sounding space has been altered, allowing for the
emergence of sonic phenomena. (ie: Mining, earthquake, landslip)
|
Sonic sedimentation
|
Process by which
sonic phenomena are laid down in strata within sedimentary rock.
|