A University of East London (UEL) academic has brought back to life the long-lost sounds of clattering mills - wind-powered wooden machines once used to protect cherry orchards in northern Germany - with recordings now set to join the British Library’s prestigious Very Rare and Lost Sounds collection this December.

The project, led by Dr Sönke Prigge, documents and recreates the distinctive rhythm of these curious contraptions, known locally as Klappermühlen. Acting as acoustic scarecrows, spinning on tall poles, they once clattered through summer days to frighten birds away from ripening cherries in the Altes Land region near Hamburg. By the late 1980s the machines had fallen silent, replaced by modern deterrents - and the sound of harvest time disappeared with them.

Determined to preserve this vanishing part of rural sound heritage, Dr Prigge, a BAFTA-award-winning composer and sound researcher, spent 10 years searching for surviving clattering mills. After finally locating the remnants of these rare devices, he repaired their moving parts and recorded their mechanical percussion, alongside a new composition inspired by the irregular pulse of the mills and the movement of wind through the orchards.

“The clattering mills were once the soundtrack of summer in Altes Land - mechanical wings spinning in the wind to protect the cherry harvest,” said Dr Sönke Prigge, who is a senior lecturer in Music Performance and Production at UEL. “They clattered all day from sunrise to sunset between June and August. I want people to be reminded of that sound - a rhythm that once defined the season and has now fallen silent, a sound many hadn’t even realised they’d lost.”

The recordings, together with contextual research and documentation, will be formally introduced to the British Library Sound Archive in November 2025 under its Very Rare and Lost Sounds category - a recognition reserved for audio heritage at risk of being forgotten.

The Clattering Mill project forms part of Dr Prigge’s wider exploration into how sound, memory and place intersect - examining how forgotten soundscapes can reconnect people with their cultural and environmental history. It also contributes to ongoing international efforts to document disappearing soundscapes - from industrial machinery to rural environments - before they fade from collective memory.