Location: Village Green, Woodcote, Oxfordshire, UK
Date: 21st May 2020
Time: 09:01– 09:16
Weather: Sunny, light cloud with a moderate breeze
Temperature: 18oC
Average Sound Level: 49.0dBSPL (LAeq)
The roads enclosing two sides of the village green are mapped by the friction-sound of rubber, aggregate and asphalt. The cyclic explosions of older diesel engines escape from clapped-out trucks. Loose metal rattles on trailers, vans and a cement mixer lorry. The persistent pulse of a reversing alarm. The distant clatter of weighty building materials tumbling on to concrete, separating, tacking through buildings to my ears, creating a stuttered delay. The low grumbling roar of a vintage motorcycle dominates the soundscape temporarily, other sounds dwarfed by its draw on my attention. Beneath the distinguishable sound streams of synthetic materials moved by oil, lies that hum of movement, faint and indistinct, the omnipresent rumble of commutes, community and commerce from the A4074. It is a sound so familiar and forgettable, that you would mistake it for the tumbling rotation of the earth itself.