In all the excitement of Wedding Photos, Parties and more I completely forgot to blog about Imber. We rather randomly decided on a road trip not too far away to explore an uninhabited village on Salisbury Plain. For those that don’t know, Salisbury Plain is ‘owned’ by the Ministry of Defence and is where a lot of training, excercises and other secret things happen for the Army.
Imber had a settlement since 967AD and was evacuated in 1943 with the promise that one day, the villagers would be able to return. Some of them had been living on the settlement for generations of their families lives. None of them were ever allowed back.
Imber is now used as a training site for the Ministry of Defence and is dubbed the village that was evacuated for the ‘Greater Good.’ Villagers were given just forty seven days notice on November 1st 1943 in which they had to pack up their things, relocate their animals and move on. The area was needed as an excercise area for troops preparing for the D-Day landings.
Today, the Church is still in full working order and the MOD allow the public to regain access to the village only a handful of days each year. Many families of those who are buried in the graveyard are allowed to visit on these occasions only, to pay their respects to their deceased relatives.
The drive into Imber is a curious one, for a derelict village the roads are in fantastic condition, the Army maintaining them regularly. Signs greet you every few hundred yards, ‘Danger, do not leave the carriageway, unexploded military debris..’ warning you to stay on the narrow road into the village. I have to say though, the most strange thing I found about the whole thing was the barbed wire fence surrounding the church. Odd. You don’t see that very often!
Kathryn Dawson Photography 