The beginnings of a new section of recordings made along the Kent and Essex sides of the Thames estuary, capturing the sounds of industry, marshland, and towns from Dartford to Canvey Island and beyond.
LONDON'S EASTERNMOST BORDERS end at the River Darenth and a dotted line on the map snaking through the Wennington Marshes. The marshlands soon give way again to the towns of Grays and Dartford and the 450-foot-high span of the Dartford River Crossing.
The bridge's approaches have gathered a new landscape of neat business parks and distribution depots. Past Greenhithe the river sweeps up and around the small peninsula at Swanscombe. An inlet here is home to a collection of boats and tumbledown huts in which a few people seem to live. To the east lies Tilbury with its deep-water dock, and Gravesend with its old narrow streets in the town centre.
Top row, left to right: the Dartford River Crossing; early 1980s grafitti on a wall in Tilbury; Tilbury 'B' power station viewed from Gravesend. Bottom row: detail from Wennington Marshes; abandoned jetty at Swanscombe; electricity pylon at Swanscombe, one of the two tallest in Britain.
Number on map: 6
File name: Gravesend voices
Grid square: Greenhithe, Thurrock, Gravesend
Duration: 2:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 14 August 2010
Time of day: 1.15pm
Location: Pedestrianised section of New Road, Gravesend.
Description: Voices of adults and children recorded while walking along New Road, Gravesend's pedestrianised shopping thoroughfare.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Number on map: 5
File name: Tilbury ferry
Grid square: Greenhithe, Thurrock, Gravesend
Duration: 2:04
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 14 August 2010
Time of day: 2pm
Location: On the Tilbury–Gravsend ferry.
Description: Sounds of the ferry's wash recorded from the fo'c'sle, the ferry comes alongside the quay and the passengers get off. Voice of a man greeting a friend.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. 2 x Shure WL-183 mics and Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Number on map: 4
File name: Industrial estate with cicadas
Grid square: Greenhithe, Thurrock, Gravesend
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 8 August 2010
Time of day: 5pm
Location: Industrial estate on Wharf Road, Gravesend
Description: Chirping of cicadas and grasshoppers, distant sound of an electric saw.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP 4029 mid-side mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Number on map: 1
File name: Dartford clay pigeons
Grid square: Greenhithe, Thurrock, Tilbury, Gravesend
Duration: 1:00
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 18 October 2009
Time of day: Around 4pm
Location: On the south side of the Thames, overlooking the clay pigeon shooting range on the Dartford Marshes.
Description: Loud pops and cracks from guns being fired at the clay pigeon shooting range. Echoes can be heard bouncing back across the Thames from a row of houses facing the river in Purfleet in Essex.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio-Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Number on map: 3
File name: Abandoned pier Greenhithe
Grid square: Greenhithe, Thurrock, Tilbury, Gravesend
Duration: 1:05
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 20 June 2010
Time of day: 5pm
Location: Abandoned pier on the shore of the Swanscombe Marshes, near Greenhithe.
Description: Water sloshes around the concrete pillars beneath a disused pier as the tide comes in. Background traffic and industrial noise from Thurrock on the opposite side of the Thames.
Technical guff: Stereo. Audio Technica BP4025 mic and Fostex FR-2LE digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
Number on map: 2
File name: Bluewater
Grid square: Greenhithe Gravesend Tilbury
Duration: 0:50
Recorded by: IM Rawes
Recording date: 22 July 2009
Time of day: 2pm
Location: Bluewater shopping centre, Greenhithe, Kent
Description: Voices of shoppers inside Bluewater shopping centre, faint background music from a shop unit.
Technical guff: Head-worn stereo. Sonic Studios DSM-6S/EH mics and PA-3SX preamp, Edirol R09-HR digital recorder.
Additional notes: None.
