UEL academic revives “lost sound” for public archive

Determined to preserve this vanishing part of rural sound heritage, Dr Prigge, a senior lecturer in Music Performance and Production at UEL, spent 10 years searching for surviving clattering mills. After finally locating the remnants of these rare devices, he repaired their moving parts and recorded their mechanical percussion, alongside a new composition inspired by the irregular pulse of the mills and the movement of wind through the orchards.

“The clattering mills were once the soundtrack of summer in Altes Land - mechanical wings spinning in the wind to protect the cherry harvest,” said BAFTA-award-winning composer Dr Prigge. “They clattered all day from sunrise to sunset between June and August. I want people to be reminded of that sound - a rhythm that once defined the season and has now fallen silent, a sound many hadn’t even realised they’d lost.”

The recordings, together with contextual research and documentation, will be formally introduced to the British Library Sound Archive under its Very Rare and Lost Sounds category - a recognition reserved for audio heritage at risk of being forgotten.

Additional research linked to the project has uncovered historical accounts describing how orchard growers once tuned their mills to produce different sonic patterns, creating a kind of rural symphony across the cherry fields. Villagers recalled being able to identify whose orchard was active purely by the rhythm of the mills drifting across the wind. Local children grew up with these sounds as markers of time and season, and for many the clatter of wood and wind was as evocative as birdsong.

Dr Prigge has also worked with cultural historians in Altes Land, gathering oral testimonies from residents whose families tended orchards for generations. Some described the mills as guardians of the harvest, others as playful musical machines that gave the region its character. These memories now sit alongside the audio recordings, ensuring that both the sound and the stories behind it are preserved.

The Clattering Mill project forms part of Dr Prigge’s wider exploration into how sound, memory and place intersect - examining how forgotten soundscapes can reconnect people with their cultural and environmental history. It also contributes to ongoing international efforts to document disappearing soundscapes - from industrial machinery to rural environments - before they fade from collective memory.

Reflecting on the work, Dr Prigge added,

This isn’t just about old machinery making noise - it’s about the emotional and cultural imprint of a sound that shaped a landscape and a community. When we listen back, we don’t just hear clicking wood and turning vanes, we hear history. We remember sunlight on fruit, wind in branches, and the hum of human life lived in close relationship with the land.”