THE Carpenters may have sung about A Kind of Hush, but for residents of a North-East town it is more like a kind of hum.

People living in Churchill Road, Barnard Castle, say they are being plagued by an intermittent hum – the like of which tormented a Teesdale village last summer.

Heard mostly during the night, they are baffled as to where it is coming from.

At first, people thought the noise was coming from neighbouring properties leaving washing machines on overnight, but as word spread throughout the street, householders realised this was not the case.

Electricity engineers have carried out checks on an electric sub-station in the street, but found the noise was not coming from there, and now Durham County Council has been called in to investigate.

Last June, people living in Woodland, seven miles from Barnard Castle, reported hearing an unexplained hum, similar to an idling tractor engine.

Retired policeman Dave Fishwick, who has lived in Churchill Road, for more than 30 years, said he had been in contact with people in Woodland, but the noise in Barnard Castle appeared to be a different type of humming.

He said he first heard the noise several months ago.

“It is a low hum and gets higher, like a crescendo, then goes low again,” he said.

“If you can get to sleep without noticing it, then you will sleep through it. But if you wake up and it is there, it is a struggle to get back to sleep again.

“There is no pattern as to when you will hear it. When I asked the lad next door if he had heard it, he said he had, but thought it was coming from us.

“When our other neighbour mentioned it on Facebook, someone else from further up the street said she had heard it as well.”

Although Mr Fishwick says the noise is most noticeable in the upstairs bedrooms and during the night, his neighbour, Emma Cotterill, says she has heard it in every room in her house, and outside, at various times during the day.

She said: “We can’t tell where it is coming from. It sounds like a kind of force field in the air.”

Mr Fishwick added: “I think it is something we will never get to the bottom of, no one seems to be able to put their finger on it.”

A spokeswoman for Durham County Council said the authority will investigate any complaints about the noise.

􀁧 Have you heard the hum or do you know what’s causing it? Call 01388-602232.