24/09/2016

Site 4

Silence of Sentinels – Beaumont Fee & Park Street


This is a hesitant space best experienced from its centre amidst the grove of magnificent Sycamore and London Plane trees standing quietly watchful over the long buried dead and a multitude of buried Spring flower bulbs.
Trees have deep meaning for us humans - when they're planted without consideration for the spaces they create, they are as good as dead to us. The impressive trees here create a tangible space, they uphold an absence of loudness - buffering traffic noise, echoes from the surrounding buildings, pedestrians. By standing still you may become aware of the subtle sounds waiting to be noticed. Listen to the layers of sound, close by and out to the distance – there's silence in there.
You can wander here and go nowhere. Laid down forgotten headstones are heaved up by living tree roots. There's a sense of being inside - a leaf-strewn carpet under a high green canopy, dim shaded light. The trees' whispering leaves and massive dense trunks guard and enclose the space.
What birds do you hear today? At one time this was a spring-fed pool and a favourite place for noisy crows, giving the name to the once nearby St. Mary Crackpool Church.