You Are Hear, Essex County Council

An exciting new project You Are Hear: Sound and a Sense of Place, has recently been unveiled by Essex County Council and we were lucky enough to play a part. Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and run by the Essex Sound and Video Archive, the project aims to capture and archive the sounds and video of life in Essex. It also allows access to the archive for people of the town to preserve and enjoy. As part of this project Essex County Council has installed a number of our audio benches in various locations around the county.

You Are Hear Listening Benches

We were contacted by Essex County Council to produce audio benches and kiosks for this project. They wanted to make sure that the audio content upon each would be easily accessible by the public and capable of working in all types of weather. We provided ten benches in total; eight of which would be permanently installed around Essex with two taken on tour to various locations.

Each of the benches has unique audio content for the public to find and listen to, making the project a fun way to learn about the town’s heritage. Our ‘traditional audio bench’ was chosen for the role due to its classic design, the council felt they would fit nicely with each intended installation site.

The clips for the benches have been taken from recordings in the Essex Sound and Video Archive.

Each bench covers a specific topic, for example the bench in Kelvedon discusses Packhorse Bridge, Kelvedon, and Feering. Another bench in Harwich highlights some of the important events that happened in the town’s past, most notably a devastating flood that occurred in 1953. A full list of the benches and where they will be installed can be found on the Essex Sounds website. The front panel was customised to suit the Council with logos and instructions – so far the benches have been a big hit with the public.