Hear more about the acoustic research at our event on February 24th 2024
We are working with the University of Newcastle’s McCord Centre for Landscape to create an acoustic model of the Abbey based on a laser point cloud 3D image. We will use this to better understand the remarkable acoustics of the building and inform our decisions about how we use it in the future. The acoustic surveys took place in January and February 2023.
A 2017 Archaeological Assessment of the church refers to ‘a marvelous system of drainage devised by the monks’ which was suggested to have been mistaken for ‘acoustic pits beneath the choir stalls’ as at Walley Abbey. Testing this theory was part of the archaeological excavations, and measuring their impact on the acoustics was part of this research.
We have recently rediscovered an eighteenth century quote which describes the acoustic in the church before the timber ceiling was installed:
