On the edge of detection
There is a stretch of 'desert' along the Kent coast called Dungeness, which was once the base for a primitive form of radar
WORDS: JOHN C SILCOX
PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD PARDON
The landscape ahead is bleak. Through the rain-soaked windscreen we can see dark clouds rolling across the sky, casting a grey shadow down on the flat and barren land. Apart from a few old fishing shacks and a couple of black lighthouses, the only thing that catches the eye is the looming industrial outline of a nuclear power station. This is a child’s idea of summer holiday hell, yet to an adult there’s something oddly mesmerising and beautiful about it all.
A quick look down at the sat-nav confirms that we have nearly reached our destination, the Dungeness National Nature Reserve in Kent – although we may as well have arrived at the end of the world. This place is often called Britain’s only desert, but think more post-apocalyptic wasteland than golden Saharan sand dunes.
Sitting on a headland that juts out into the English Channel, this 468-acre estate is one of the largest expanses of shingle in the world. For years it has been abandoned to the military, a nuclear power station, a handful of fishermen and nature. But despite appearances, Dungeness is home to an array of wildlife, with over 600 different types of plant. It is also one of the best places in Britain to find extremely rare varieties of moths, bees, beetles and spiders, some of which cannot be found anywhere else in the country.
Today we have come down from London in another rare beast: the all-new Audi Q7. But our primary interest isn’t the incredible biodiversity of this area. We’re here to find out more about sound mirrors: sci-fi acoustic structures used for ranging and detection before the invention of radar – a technology that now plays a key role in many of Audi’s innovative driver assistant systems.
Meeting our guide Owen Leyshon, we quickly realise that we could have done with some ranging and detection of our own, as we’ve driven straight past them in the bad weather, without noticing. Owen is the leader of the Romney Marsh Countryside Project, the charity that runs the estate – and he is an encyclopaedia of local knowledge.
‘You wouldn’t think so but the sound mirrors are easy to miss, even though one is more than 200ft long,’ he says. ‘Nowadays they are slowly being overrun by the overgrowth and despite our best preservation efforts the bushes are slowly taking back control of the area. Before long I wouldn’t be surprised if the sound mirrors were relegated to the confines of history books.’
We follow Owen along a dirt track and soon we’re staring up at three giant decaying concrete structures: two parabolic dishes and one enormous curved wall. Even today, these buildings are still incredibly impressive and tower above the landscape, standing nearly 30ft tall. However, their state of disrepair is evident: the harsh weather of the location has taken its toll on the stained mortar, and chunks have crumbled away.
‘In the 1930s these were at the forefront of technology,’ explains Owen. ‘Sound mirrors were an early military experiment in ranging and detection, and it was thought they would be the best way to give early warning of an air raid. Instead of using electric wave signals like radar does now, these sound mirrors were based on acoustics. Dungeness was the perfect spot for these to work as it was empty and nice and quiet. The military could run all the experiments they wanted without being disturbed.’
During the First World War, most European countries had successfully experimented with various listening devices to determine where enemy armaments were located. Scientists then decided to apply and develop this technology to tracking aircraft.
‘At one point, this acoustic detection was poised to be implemented all across the British empire,’ explains Owen. ‘But sudden advances in the development of radar put an end to further experimentation with the technique in the late 1930s. Since then, the Dungeness mirrors have been abandoned.’
However, far from being a wasted effort, there were long-lasting benefits of the acoustic mirror programme.
It gave Britain the methodology to use interconnected stations to pinpoint the position of an enemy in the sky, and the system developed for linking the stations and plotting aircraft movements was given to the early radar team, contributing to its success.
Fast forward 75 years and Audi is at the forefront of technology with the new Q7. Its flagship SUV boasts a number of innovative driver assist systems that use a combination of radar, cameras and satellite navigation to predict what is about to appear on the road ahead.
This technology made an enormous difference on our drive down to the coast from London, especially the adaptive cruise control, which takes account of type of road and conditions and adjusts speed accordingly, and the active lane assist, which adjusts the steering to stop the car from crossing the white lines.
Setting off from the mirrors, we decide to explore some more of the Dungeness estate, and drive down the only road leading to the urban ‘centre’, composed of a pub, a shop and a railway station. The weather has slightly improved, and the first tourists have arrived on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch miniature steam railway.
‘Dungeness is increasingly popular with visitors,’ says Owen. ‘They come to witness the unusual landscape we have here, and there are a lot of budding photographers. The abandoned hulks of wooden boats
dotted about the vast shingle beach are very picturesque and have proved to be a popular attraction. Quite a few films and video clips feature these rotting hulks. Quite a few people also come to pay homage to Derek Jarman, the film director, who lived here.’
Jarman was an influential film-maker and gay rights activist who lived in one of the fishermen’s shacks. He made many critically acclaimed films during the 1970s and 1980s, and also directed music videos for famous bands such as The Smiths, The Sex Pistols and The Pet Shop Boys. Since his death in 1994, his home has become a
shrine for fans wishing to pay their respects – and as we pass by the black cottage with its beautifully maintained garden, we see a fishing boat pull up to the shore and beach itself. Owen recommends we introduce ourselves, so we set off across the deep shingle, after putting the Q7 into off-road mode.
The quattro technology is more than a match for the treacherous terrain that Owen tells us claims many vehicles each year. At the boat we meet Joe Thomas, who is repairing the nets ahead of tomorrow’s outing, and his uncle David, who is landing a bumper catch of skate and dover sole. The Thomas family owns the Dungeness Fish Hut on the estate, and are now the only fishermen based in Dungeness.
‘When I started fishing in Dungeness, there used to be 14 trawlers here, but now there are only four,’ Joe tells us. ‘There is still plenty of fish, but European laws are very restrictive and lots have been put off. Life here is now very different – instead of this being a fishing community, the cottages are now being snapped up by rich city folk who want a holiday house with a view. At the moment quite a few of the long-term residents are worried because the estate is currently up for sale for £1.45 million. That’s cheaper than some flats in expensive areas like Chelsea.’
Despite the traditional aspects of a lot of his work, Joe also uses a surprising amount of technology on his boat. He eagerly tells us about the high-tech satellite navigation he has on-board.
‘We use up-to-date marine charts on our ships that map out the detailed ridges, banks and trenches of the bottom of the sea. Fishing boats have had satellite navigation for years – in fact, we were using this technology before cars.’
As we talk, the skies close in once again and the heavens open. We rapidly say goodbye, dive back into the Q7 and programme our own sat-nav to take us on our return journey. Even though we are off-road, Audi’s precise system picks up our location straight away and plots a route back to the capital. It might not show hidden reefs, rocks and shipwrecks, but it doesn’t need to. All we care about is the way home, towards a nice hot cup of tea.