I also read about the glow worms who used to live at Mangotsfield station, there are signs up on the lamp posts about turning the lights off on summer nights to let the glow worms find one another and mate. So this picture was emerging about the entwined worlds of different kinds of creatures and people who visit and even perhaps live in the station and along the edges of the cycle path. And an audio drama is a great way to explore this storied world.

The old Mangotsfield Station was built for travel. The theme of meetings and partings, arrivals and departures lends itself to thinking across species boundaries. It includes for example the movement and nesting habits of birds, and how breeding pairs reconnect after time spent apart. While modern humans use Satnav and timetables, birds navigate by the sun, the stars, and the earth’s magnetic field. Rooted species borrow the wind and the wings of other species, evolving fascinating strategies including mimicry and narcotics to tempt insects into helping them find a mate.

The theme of arrivals and departures also evokes the losses and gains of species that Avon has experienced due to climate change, habitat loss and other factors. Until recently, the old station was illuminated on summer nights by the magical greenish love-lights of glowworms.

So focused are adult glowworms on meeting a mate that they never eat. While this is a strategy humans cannot emulate, we can all empathise with the excitement of love that makes our appetites temporarily disappear.

In June I spent a week here, and met up with naturalists to learn more about the birds and insects, and discover more about the natural history of glow worms. But mostly I spoke to local people – some came especially to talk to me after seeing posters about Listening Station, others stopped here for a rest. A few were on holiday, and one group were on a Duke of Edinburgh expedition. But most people were regular visitors to the station, and it was part of their weekly habit of leisure activity or a pause on their commute. And I learned so much about what the station meant in different people’s lives, people of all ages and backgrounds. I learned about the history of the station and how important it was for the area in the past, but also what an immense benefit it provides as a place without cars or trains.

I am still at the beginning of crafting what I have recorded. I have another exploratory week here in August, and then I will edit the recordings of my conversations together with fictional elements and field sound recordings to create the site-specific audio drama. I have a few plot lines in mind but I can’t talk about those!