Ever wanted to go to a cemetery around midnight? For me that was always a hesitant Yes. Well, a “perhaps”. I’m not scared of anything in a cemetery, most of what is there is dead stuff anyway. Liverpool is home to a cemetery called the “Congregational Cemetery” as it was called in 1764, but burials were Carried out here since 1759.
Since I live fairly close by, I decided to give this a go last week. Armed with my camera and my Zoom H2, I wanted to find out the atmosphere of an old cemetery at night.
The experience was interesting to say the least. The center of the place has a water feature, sounding nice and soothing by daytime, but if you want to do some sound recording, it makes a racket you don’t want to hear at all. So I moved towards the oldest part of the grounds, far enough away from everything and any noise source. Also, this is the oldest cemetery in town, no longer in use for burials, fresh ones, at least. It’s also called the Old Burial Ground.
I placed the H2 on a stone and sat a few meters away to keep even the noise from my clothing and breathing at bay.
The recording went like a dream. Far away dogs barking, a few cars (the ubiquitous plague of cars without mufflers…). Until I came upon a surprise.
Listen to the recording for yourself. I did amplify it quite a bit so that the interesting parts can also be heard.
The shock of hearing this made me even record some expressions I usually do not want “on file”. Just hearing that faint “help me” was enough to have me scamper out of there in a hurry. Later I read on a description in the cemetery that “for every marked grave, ten others may not be. Their marker could have been made of wood or poor quality stone, long since disappeared”. I may have been walking on anyone’s grave without even knowing it…
This was an appropriate scare for the Halloween period, but I don’t think I’ll be going back there anytime soon…
Until next time…