Old Hall, East Bergholt - 12th April 2026 (excerpt)

Thanks to Old Hall’s Dave Hodgson for making possible the chance to have an event in the Chapel and to be able to make a recording in the grounds.
Three men tasked with chopping the firewood, the threat of rain was hollow, and the sun has come out, a man driving the tractor, a Massey Ferguson 675, the wind gentler than last week but still bit gusty, children playing on the trampoline, the man on the tractor setting it up to chop some wood, all hands on deck to make the firewood the right size for its various uses, jackdaws congregating in the big gnarly tree above the lumberjacks, blue and white flowering Nettles, Comfrey on a big patch under the holly tree, all four men chopping the wood working in dependently, man vs wood, blade vs bark, the wood of the axe shaft a traitor? Or forced in to labour against its own kind, no choice in the matter, wood the rarest material in the universe, and one of the most useful, one man visited by a woman and then they both leave and head towards the Hall, a man in a wooly hat walking past whilst looking at the lumberjacks, technique is more important than strength, tractor is stronger than tecnique, the man with glasses walks away from the pile, two remaining men carry on, a man with a pony tail walks past with a watering can, a cold breeze arrives with a large cloud, a Sparrow inspecting the wood pile left by the man with the glasses, a couple with shoulder bags walk past, a silver car drives past, similar to the recording made near Gandish Road a few gusts start to appear near to the end of the recording, an hour seems like an awkwardly long time whilst in someone else’s domain as somewhat of an imposition even with a welcome from one of the community, would Constable have been ignored by the public whenever he was working in the field? The tractor stops and the man operating takes his ear defenders off, now I can hear the sound of children playing and more details of the wind in the trees, you could say that because more os the recording is full up with tractor engine that the visit was poorly timed but I accept that my experience is what happens whenever I am wherever, but I let the recording run on a little bit extra to see if I can get a nice excerpt sans combustion engine, thankfully I had a wee before the recording, Dave is coming back and gives me a wave, the bag couple comeback up the lane.