I went to a boarding school in West Sussex situated just outside Horsham and surrounded by fields and woods. After our A-levels, the weather was beautiful and my friends on my year had lots of time to find things to do. One night at about 1 in the morning I left my boarding house via a disused tunnel that runs underneath many of the school buildings, and I went to one of the other houses, which was near the edge of the grounds. We sat around for a while, and then sneaked out of the school underneath the eerie orange lamps and out of the West gate.
We walked down the road, over a small railway bridge and along the side of a field, then we started walking across the field by the light of the moon. The field had been ploughed recently and we stumbled along. I didn't really know where we going but some of us did. At the end of the field we stumbled blindly through a short path in a copse and then walked up a hill. Now we were at the highest point in the area, and could see the land behind us. I don't think we could see any of the school because it was in darkness. We walked along the top of the field towards a small hill / large mound, which was apparently our destination...
The mound was surrounded by a tall fence with a locked gate, and some brick structure protruded from one side of the earth. A hole had been found near the gate, so we went through and up to the top of the mound. The top of the mound was concrete, and there was a stone slab at one end. A couple of us pushed the slab aside to reveal a ladder disappearing into darkness.
I learnt that two other friends had been up here the night before and gone inside, so we decided to as well. The ladder was a bit wobbly, but it seemed safe so we went down. When we'd gone down about the height of a house we reached the floor, which was concrete with puddles on it. We'd discovered a man-made brick cavern underneath the mound, with two sets of pillars running its length and one long pipe at about head height travelled along one of the sets of pillars. Initially I thought the pillars were the wall, and was amazed when I saw the cavern was in fact much larger. The cavern was a water reservoir, from which the school (at the bottom of the hill) used to be fed water. Now it was empty and unused.
The most amazing thing about the reservoir was its acoustics. Any ample noise would echo immediately off the walls and all the frequencies of the sound would mix together into one chord. Clapping, stomping, splashing and talking produces amazing sounds. There were three singers present, and they sung chords together. The sounds of their voices would all mingle together into one long sustained chord that filled the whole room. They experimented with different chords, and produced one that was so pure and inspiring that we named it the heavenly chord. It sounded as if we were in heaven and a thousand angels all around sang those four beautiful notes, but between them the notes combined to make all the corresponding notes up and down the octaves. Sometime I intend to return and hear that sound again, and although I'll never capture its beauty, I'll record it and place it here for you to hear.
We didn't come back out until 5 in the morning, when we looked up and the sky could be seen through the entrance. At the top the world slowly got lighter. We smoked a joint and welcomed the new morning, before walking back down into school again to sleep.
The next night we returned to our new secret den with candles purloined from the school chapel, and in the morning left a large candle on the pipe. By 6 the next evening, the whole place had warmed up incredibly, and when we took up a rug a couple of nights later, the place was comfortable to stay in overnight. So we would sit in a circle with candles in the middle, listening to the distorted music out of portable speakers, smoking pot and talking. We made the place our own little home, where we'd chill out away from the school, adults and society in general, rejoicing in ourselves and each other.
I would like to thank the people I was with that made the time so special: Colin, Jade, Russel, Neb, Abi, Matt and everyone else.
Well, I tried to express the magical feeling of the reservoir in words to share it with you. I would appreciate any comments you have of this story, so why not mail me?