The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads is an audio walk (via headphones) that covers just over 3.5km (2 miles) and takes approximately 1 hour to complete at an average walking pace. It is guided by audio that will be sent to you in advance, which you will download and listen to through your phone, or similar device, and headphones.

There are time slots available between 12:00 and 16:00 every Friday, Saturday and Sunday throughout Estuary 2021 (22 May - 13 June). Please check tickets for specific times and dates.

Please book a ticket for each person taking the walk, as it is a better experience to do it individually and only one person will set off per time slot.

Please note, the walks will be cancelled in the event of severe weather conditions.

How it works

1. Book the date and time you would like to take the walk.
2. Download the audio, which will be emailed to you when you make your booking, onto your mobile phone or preferred device, and read the advise.
3. Arrive at The Hive, Hive Lane, Northfleet, Gravesend DA11 9DE a few minutes before your start time, with your phone or device and the downloaded audio.
4. Set off at your booked time - each walker will be separated by 10 minutes.
5. Follow the audio guide for the duration of the walk, which will end at St Botolph’s churchyard, The Hill, Northfleet, Gravesend DA11 9EU, approximately 1 hour after you set out.

You will need

• A fully charged phone, or listening device, with the downloaded audio file and a pair of headphones.
• We recommend you wear appropriate clothing, such as comfortable footwear, and check the weather forecast in advance. Remember to bring a waterproof jacket in case of rain or bad weather, or a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen in case of sunshine.
• We also suggest bringing a bottle of water or soft drink to carry with you.

Accessibility

Please note that there is one set of steps on the walk and at times the condition of the ground is rough and uneven. As such we would not recommend that the walk is suitable for any persons who use mobility aids or who might be unsteady on their feet. Please see here for alternative ways to experience the walk.

Travel and facilities

Public transport:

• From Northfleet Station the walk to The Hive takes 7 minutes.

• From Ebbsfleet International Station the walk to The Hive takes 18 minutes.
• From Gravesend Station the walk to The Hive takes 40 minutes, or a 10 minute journey via bus.

Parking:

• Free car parking outside St Botolph’s Church for maximum of 2 hours.

Toilets:

• There are public toilets at Ebbsfleet International Station and at the end of the walk at St Botolph’s church.

Food and refreshments:

• At the end of the walk there is a cafe and a pub.

Booking fee

The booking fee is going to the Northfleet Big Local community organisation.

About the work

The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads is a science fiction audio walk (via headphones), in and around Northfleet, Kent. A journey of strange inward and outward transformations.

As you move along a specific route within this landscape this accompanying ‘virtual reality’ soundtrack will guide your perceptions of new relationships between place, mind and body through its composition of vocal narration, instructions, music and sound effects.

Moving backwards and forwards through time The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads addresses our collective experience of the pandemic as having shifted our sense of reality; We have become more highly tuned! We now perceive our networks of relationships with more clarity! This is a rare moment ( sadly, it might pass ) that we have been given (as a gift!) to explore. We need to create this exercise, this meditation, in a unique place. The only place where it can evolve.: Here!

As we head out into the world The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads recalibrates us for this exploration. Exploring in the collective imaginary a ‘cement-ality’ evolved through shared experiences of the pandemic and channelled through the earth beneath this landscape, The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads attempts to create a utopian garden-city of new consciousness.

The work evolved over the last few months, in Northfleet’s phase of limbo, just before the diggers moved in to erase the last traces of its cement industry, mutating the identity of its community.

Each experience of the walk is different as the radical transformations of landscape escalate hour by hour. Many of the narrative’s visual references to features of the site, that existed only a week ago, are now buried under piles of rubble, as though the bulldozers are somehow demolishing the audio’s truths, turning them to fiction. The Return of the Fleet Spring Heads is a method of preserving the disappearing within the collective memory of its audience, who become the custodians of the soul of the Northfleet landscape.

Find out more at estuaryfestival.com

Credits

Adam Chodzko

Voice: Leanne Henlon (@LeanneHenlon)

Sound editing: Tim Barker (Radio Obscura)

Music: Steph Horak is a sound and video artist. She designs systems for voice and composition, and performs on the improvisation circuit. She produces experimental pop music under the name SheIsRevolting. She focuses on error, malfunction and bad programming to create polyrhythmic sonic washes against a backdrop of homemade videos. She is bad at releasing music but has a solo cassette on Fractal Meat Tapes, and a collaboration with Renick Bell on Conditional Records.

Thanks to: Northfleet Big Local (Mandi Knight and Julie Collins), Andrea Jackova: Romani Slovak Czech Community, and BA Fine Art students from Central Saint Martins (UAL): Tzu-Chin Chen, Jasmine Condon, Poppy French, Eleanor Gustard, Melisa Kaplanbasoglu, Ruby Lewis, Zuzia O'Donoghue, Nikita Snegirjov, Lunan Song, Viola Yang, and Nadia West.