Natural Heritage
Soundwood London and Leeds
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Community Appreciation of Woodland Sound & Ecology
Funded by
A community project in partnership with University of Manchester and Leeds Conservatoire that engages sound artists, activists, musicians and storytellers in environmental acoustics through an appreciation of the impact of sound pollution on local wildlife and through an appreciation of the musicality of trees
Guardians Tree Rescue Hub at Dulwich Wood, October 2023
The Woods are Vocal, with no single refrain
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Photos and text by Cat McEvoy
This project involved a series of workshops, walks and concerts organised by Guardians Worldwide. the events were held in Dulwich Woods, Sydenham Hill Woods and Meanwood Valley in London and Leeds, between March and September 2023.
The project including environmental sound recording, woodland and riverside acoustics appreciation, appreciation of different qualities of woodland susurration (i.e. sound of wind in leaves) and the making of a radio program for Resonance FM on the environmental acoustics of Meanwood in Yorkshire.
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Hands in the Earth
Cat McEvoy
26th April 2023
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​In the heart of London's southern embrace
where tales of old wood find their place
guardians rise with hands so true
to tend the green, the ancient hue.
From Deptford shore to Selhurst Light​​
Once roamed the wild hunt's flight​​
And while in fragments a spirit prevails
In Norwood's whispers, in Gypsy Hill's trails
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With tilling hands and hearts of gold
They nurture woods, stories untold
in Dulwich's embrace they find their way
Amidst the trees where shadows play.
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So let is gather in circle and song
In the name of woods where we belong
for in our stewardship our spirit gleams
Guardian of the North Wood in our dreams.
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Echoes of The Great North Wood
Silver birch are the pathfinders, the first to colonise bare ground. They tend to live for about eighty years and when they die, their bodies are so rich they break down very quickly, leaving behind adark, fertile soil. So when the jay comes,drops the acorn, the oaks have somewhere to grow. From these small, graceful trees come great oak forests: how they alchemise rot and decay to give way to new worlds.
Text and images by Cat McEvoy
Recording the Voice of the River
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Students of Leeds Conservatoire engages in a sound recording workshop led by Guardians Worldwide at the Meanwood Valley in Leeds Yorkshire. The aim of the workshop was to record the various stages of the Meanwood Beck, from its birth in the hilly outskirts of Leeds, to the industrial centre at Sheepscar. Students used different ambient and hydrophonic microphones to record the changing acoustic environment of this historic river in Leeds.
