It’s like something from a science-fiction novel: a low, sinister hum that never goes away and slowly drives a town crazy. Except that is the reality for the residents of Immingham, North East Lincolnshire.
They say they have been faced with the muted hum for several years, but efforts to locate it have all but failed.
North East Lincolnshire Council, responsible for the town, looked into the noise but says it has “drawn a blank”.
Now, they are cautioning Immingham locals that the hum may never be found in what would be a nightmare scenario for the town.
The noise is akin to torture, with many residents describing just how much it has affected their lives.
Chloe Eccles, who has lived in the town centre for six years, told the BBC she had floated the idea of packing up shop and finding somewhere else to live.
“As the years have gone on I’ve carried on hearing it and I thought I was crazy but other people can hear it too… especially in the last couple of months, it’s got really loud,” she said. “There’s nothing that blocks it out, it’s constant.”
Immingham is by nature an industrial town, with a large logistics hub that is busy 24/7, coupled with the UK’s largest port.
Some have suggested that it could be these things, as well as the oil refineries and underground cables, that may be producing ‘the hum’. But others say the culprit is strong winds or even a nearby solar farm.
“After initial contact with partners operating in the Immingham area, they’ve so far drawn a blank, although it could be coming from outside the borough,” a council spokesperson said.
While the council said it would continue to work with residents over the noise, it added: “Any queries about noise must constitute a statutory nuisance for formal action to be instigated.”
Other towns across the north of England have reported a similar low-level hum which has plagued residents.
People in Holmfield, near Halifax, previously said the noise had “tortured” them and damaged their health for two years.
A meeting at Calderdale Council in late 2022 heard that the authorities had exhausted all reasonable lines of inquiry.
Surveys were also carried out at the town’s nearby industrial units, though no definitive site was seen to be producing the noise.
Meanwhile, in Immingham, Rachael Shead, who has lived in the town for five years, said the sound was getting to her “a lot”.
The hum could, she said, be heard “over the telly, and the rain and the wind”.
She added: “It’s like a droning noise and goes on and on and on.”
Experts say that while such sounds can sometimes be attributed to geological processes beneath the ground, it is more ordinary for them to be the byproduct of industrial sources or traffic.
