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Sounding Jarrow Slake

Tim Shaw records the sounds above the surface and below of Jarrow Slake, an expanse of tidal mudflats where the Don meets the Tyne, with fascinating social and natural histories.

Jarrow Slake is an expanse of tidal mudflats at the mouth of the Tyne with fascinating social and natural histories. The Venerable Bede lived and worked here; timber from Scandinavia was brought to mature in its ponds. In 1972 the Port of Tyne authority filled these in to allow factory development. Now cars built at Sunderland are stored at Jarrow Slake prior to export. Part is a post-industrial site, where land meets water and sky. It is desolate and little visited, and so there is a rich variety of wildlife, much beneath the water and in the mud, unseen and unheard.

For several years, the sound artist and composer Tim Shaw has been recording the sounds of Jarrow Slake, at high and low tide, at ground level and underwater. He captures the sounds of industry, of passing ships, the different birds, the wind and the water. And the astonishing musical noises of the tiny aquatic creatures.

Sounding Jarrow Slake is a Slow Radio piece composed of these remarkable sounds, punctuated by bare fragments of information about the history - social, industrial and natural - of this remarkable place.

Producers: Tim Shaw and Julian May

Available now

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 1 May 2022 23:30

Broadcasts

  • Sun 31 Oct 2021 23:30
  • Sun 1 May 2022 23:30

Sounds of the Earth

Sounds of the Earth

Listen to the natural world in its many guises.

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