Music inspired by Levin Down with Stuart Morris

Emma Chaplin
, 01 October 2025
Music inspired by Levin Down with Stuart Morris
Stuart Morris at Levin Down

Stuart Morris has created a lovely song inspired by Levin Down Nature Reserve, The Lark of Levin Down. We asked him more about it.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your music

I am a writer, tutor, sometime musician and I also lecture in screenwriting at the University of Chichester. When working with younger children, I notice how they have a natural affinity with nature, a skill we often overlook in later life. 

I have been trying to stay connected with that inner nature child, writing and playing songs inspired by nature and exploring her restorative power whilst hoping to highlight the damage we risk doing by our neglect. The Lark of Levin Down is the first such song that I have managed to record professionally (thanks to Paul Smyth and Lem Parker).

And your connection to Levin Down?

I have been visiting Levin Down since moving to the area over 30 years ago. Back in the day, when I was writing regularly for TV shows like The Bill and Peak Practice, I would take myself up there to clear my head. It’s taken me a while to work out precisely what moves me. Initially, it was the majestic views and birdsong – it always feels like a genuinely wild place, even though it is not that far from anywhere.

What makes Levin Down special?

Levin Down is a perfect metaphor for diversity and resilience. Tiny pockets of earth that have blown from who-knows-where bring their own mix of flora and fauna to amaze us. Fragile foreign flowers nestle in the lee of rugged native thorns. Magically, they all thrive together – protected by the harshness of the slopes, historically too steep to cultivate (‘Leave Alone Hill’ as was explained to me by local artist John Bain who did the artwork for the release).

What are your thoughts about the connection between music and nature?

Music is nature. It starts with banging two sticks together, or twangy on a string, blowing on a reed… Whatever style of music you are into, I think it helps reconnect with that inner nature child.

What are your favourite sounds in nature?

Lark song, obviously. The mew of a circling Kite or Buzzard calling her young – you know she’s there before you see her. The percussive squeak, crack, moan of leaf, twig or branch on bark in a wind-blown forest. Or on a still day, up on top, the electric skyline hum that seems the absence of sound yet isn’t silence. It’s the aural life energy that you feel in a moment. You have to keep going out there to recharge your nature batteries.

Download The Lark of Levin Down here

Leave a comment
Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1782550236.48290 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1782550236.52410.0412Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1782550236.52420.0001Server address: 216.73.216.31
1782550236.52420Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1782550236.52420Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris
    [s] => music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris
    [1] => music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris
)
1782550236.52450.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.52540.0009 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1782550236.52820.0028 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1782550236.52870.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1782550236.5310.0023 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22342444
1782550236.53160.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22342444
1782550236.53220.0006 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-06-27 08:50:00' AND saleTo>'2026-06-27 08:50:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1782550236.53340.0012 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 08:50:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1782550236.53630.0029 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782550236.53690.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=3787 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 08:50:00'
1782550236.53790.001 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1782550236.53870.0008 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1782550236.53950.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
1782550236.54020.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=126 LIMIT 1
1782550236.54070.0005 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=36 LIMIT 1
1782550236.54130.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782550236.54160.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1782550236.54250.001 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 08:50:00' AND postSlug='music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris'
1782550236.56410.0216Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782550236.56460.0004 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1782550236.56590.0014Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1782550236.56610.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1782550236.56710.001 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1782550236.57220.0051 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782550236.57480.0026 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.57540.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782550236.57720.0018Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1782550236.57720 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.57780.0005 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.5780.0003 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.57950.0014 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.580.0005 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.58040.0004 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1782550236.58230.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.5840.0017 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1782550236.58650.0025 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1782550236.5870.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782550236.58730.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782550236.5880.0007Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1782550236.58830.0003 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='music-inspired-by-levin-down-with-stuart-morris')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-06-27 08:50:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1782550236.59040.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1782550236.59090.0005 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782550236.59280.0019Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1782550236.59370.0009 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=3787 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1782550236.6560.0623 [0] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1782550236.65610.0002Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1782550236.65630.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1782550236.65710.0008 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1782550236.65780.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1782550236.65820.0005 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782550236.66070.0025 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.66130.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782550236.66440.0032 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782550236.66560.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782550236.67130.0057 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782550236.6730.0017 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782550236.67570.0027 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.67630.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782550236.67910.0028 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782550236.68220.0032 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1782550236.68490.0026 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1782550236.68820.0033 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782550236.69080.0027 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.69150.0006 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782550236.69380.0023 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782550236.6960.0023 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1782550236.69670.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1782550236.69710.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1782550236.6990.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1782550236.69970.0007 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1782550236.70160.002 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1782550236.7030.0014Request time: 0.2223
1782550236.7030Process time: 0.2222
1782550236.7030Memory: 1.6297