Bran Sands

Bran Sands

the violent wounds are even now being

landscaped as “tone”

becomes ubiquitous

From The Magic Door by Chris Torrance

Bran Etymology

From Middle English bran, branne, bren, from Old French bren, bran (“bran, filth”), from Gaulish brennos (“rotten”), from Proto-Celtic *bragnos (“rotten, foul”) (compare Welsh braen (“stench”), Irish bréan (“rancid”), Walloon brin (“excrement”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (compare Latin fragrāre (“to smell strongly”)

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bran#Etymology

Flotsam

In 1859 a great storm, which became known as the Royal Charter Storm, caused between fifty and sixty vessels to be wrecked within sight of the Tees Bay and Hartlepool. This tragic event was the catalyst for the construction of the South Gare. Work began in 1863 and was completed in 1888

Blast by Graham Vasey

Another one of Graham’s beautiful films. Filmed during a walk we took around the Bran Sands, using an ancient Ensign Auto-Kinecam camera and 16mm film hand processed in Ilford ID-11. The soundtrack was created by Greg Marshall

Back on the Gare

A week or so ago I took a walk across the Bran Sands with my friend Graham Vasey. Graham was filming the area and I was trying to capture some field recordings. Unfortunately it was blowing a gale, the wind making it almost impossible to capture the sounds of the sands.

The other day the weather was beautiful and the winds were light so I returned to the Gare to try and make some recordings. The Gare was busy with people coming and going, constant traffic noise replaced wind noise, a conspiracy between the natural and human worlds.