Grandmother has hardly slept in 10 years as mysterious mechanical sound makes her house vibrate
A grandmother who says she has hardly slept in ten years claims she is forced to wear industrial-grade ear defenders to bed because of a mysterious sound that makes her home vibrate.
A grandmother who says she has hardly slept in ten years claims she is forced to wear industrial-grade ear defenders to bed because of a mysterious sound that makes her home vibrate.
Dawn Curtis, 67, recalled the problems began in 2015 when she was disturbed throughout the night by a mechanical hum - what she assumed at the time was down to online gamers near her home on the edge of Liskeard, Cornwall.
But rather than a one-off annoyance, the disturbance developed into an on and off around the clock rumbling which she says has made her life a living hell and forced her to wear the industrial-grade defenders over two pairs of ear muffs.
The mysterious noise eventually meant Ms Curtis had to give up her job as a foster carer, as children who came over couldnt stand it and as council experts grew none the wiser as to what the sound could be after investigating.
After a decade spent wrangling with the local council, Ms Curtis says she is at her wits end and is begging for someone to help her.
Dawn Curtis, 67, outside her home on the edge of Liskeard, Cornwall
Ms Curtis says she is forced to wear industrial-grade ear muffs to bed over ear muffs
A view of the completely average-looking estate were Dawn Curtis lives
She said: My sleep is interrupted every single night. I have periods of maybe a couple of weeks where its tolerable at a low ebb and I can sleep through it sometimes with no ear protection.
On a bad night you get no sleep, its impossible to sleep, its not just the noise its the vibration which comes through the house. Youve just got this pounding at your eardrums.
A spokesman for Cornwall Council said they were sympathetic.
Ms Curtis said she had spoken to neighbours who had also heard the noise but were not as badly affected.
This comes as the grandmother had spent 23 years opening her home to children in need of respite or emergency accommodation.
Over the years she has helped more than 200 youngsters in need, but can no longer take any more in because of the intense noise and vibration.
Ms Curtis said even having friends visit was becoming a struggle with one complaining the vibrations were so severe they couldnt keep their feet on the floor.
Ms Curtis is at a loss at the stress of living with this hell
She says Its a horrible mechanical noise. Ill end up plugging my ears into white noise or some music.
She said: When its bad I am lucky to get one hours sleep. It leaves me feeling absolutely rubbish, dizzy and nauseous.
If everything suddenly stopped and if I could get a good nights sleep that would be better than winning the lottery.
The 24/7 noise has left Ms Curtis feeling miserable and she says her mental and physical health has suffered as a result.
She added: It has made me feel really cross that I have had my quality of life taken away from an outside source and I feel quite angry that I have had the years of my life wiped away because I was a holistic person before all this.
I was healthy thinking, always positive and outgoing, and its put a dampener on everything because of the stress of living with this hell.
She has spent ten years investigating the source of the elusive sound, from visiting her local MP to asking the council for help.
An environmental health officer placed a noise monitoring device in the home which Ms Curtis says detected an idling diesel generator and unusual frequencies.
However, almost ten years on from her initial complaint, she appears no closer to a solution, and is forced to sleep, when she is able, wearing ear defenders.
She said: To go to sleep I plug my ears in with foam earplugs but that makes the vibrations worse.
So, I put two pairs of earmuffs on and then I put my ear defenders on. Ill struggle with that for a couple of hours if it is cutting right through.
Its a horrible mechanical noise. Ill end up plugging my ears into white noise or some music. At its worst I dont get any sleep whatsoever so I just give in and go downstairs.
When something is pounding at your eardrums it is a form of torture, noise torture.
Ms Curtis said she believes the noise could be coming from a nearby generator, or is an environmental noise.
She has also considered the possibility there is a nearby cannabis farm with loud electric lights, but has found no evidence to support that theory.
The despairing grandmother lives on a completely average-looking estate with nothing out of the ordinary nearby.
In a 2017 email to Cornwall Council, she said: It is making sleep impossible without medication which now has been properly prescribed by my GP.
This is unacceptable as I prefer to avoid medication and live holistically, but I also need to sleep at night which has not been the case for almost three years.
After years of looking for a resolution in vain, she now says Nobody out there in authority gives a damn because they dont live with it.
The Cornwall Council spokesman said: Cornwall Council has investigated a complaint regarding a low-frequency noise affecting the residents property.
An officer has made visits to the property and sound monitoring equipment has been installed but the noise was not present during the officers visits.
The resident was offered a further visit outside of usual working hours when the noise was reported to be most audible. To date, the resident has not taken up this offer.
We have spoken to the resident and again offered to visit the property for further investigation.
