An infamous hum has returned to Falmouth as a combination of large ships in port and easterly winds have seen residents kept awake in their beds at night.

People have taken to social media to complain about a "bellowing noise" believed to have been coming from the docks, with complaints from people as far away as Penryn, Mylor, and Ponsanooth, as well as closer to home at Swanvale, Goldenbank and the Beacon in Falmouth.

And people have been writing to the Packet asking about the noise as well, with Tim Julian complaining of the "24 hour industrial noise that is currently blighting Budock Water and Mongleath/Longfield," while Marc Laundon of Penmere spoke of a "row" throughout the night.

He said: "It sounded like some sort of generator? Maybe the railway doing something or a water pump over the valley on the building site? I'd love to know, and how they can justify disturbing thousands of people trying to sleep when they feel like it?"

Another Falmouth resident Mike Brett said the noise had been "unbearable" at the start of last week.

He said: "We have been putting up with it for years."

He said he had spoken to friends who "said how it's unbearable, and it keeps them up at night."

And he added: "Wind direction can change who's affected by it. It's easterly at the moment, it's bearing down across the town, you can't ignore it."

Mr Brett said he could hear the noise from his house on Wellington Terrace, at the other end of the town to the docks, while others could hear it twice the distance away at least.

And he shared the view of many people on Facebook by generators on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships currently in the harbour for work to be carried out. However, some of those commenters also felt that the noise was just part of living next to a working docks, and they would rather have a hum than the docks stand empty.

Richard Gates, Falmouth's town manager, said there had been no complaints come into his office, although some members of the public had been in contact online to find out what the noise was.

He said: "It can usually be a couple of things that can happen: easterly winds or more ships in the docks.

"Usually it's a mixture of all the ships together, the generators work against each other."

A&P Falmouth, which runs the docks, has yet to comment on the issue.