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Imber is a village on Salisbury Plain that embodies a rather shameful piece of recent English history. That part of the Plain is pretty bleak - it's not at all mountainous and not even very high up but somehow manages to be deeply inhospitable. The army have used lots of bits of the Plain for training for a long time. During the 1939-45 war some bright spark noticed that Imber was a long way from anywhere and smack in the middle of areas used for training, and thought it would be handy to get their hands on the village so they could use the whole area for heavy stuff with tanks, artillery etc. There is plenty about this on the web so I'll try to keep it short.
In 1943 the villagers were given about 6 weeks notice to evacuate their homes, without compensation or any offer of other accommodation, and they had to be out a couple of weeks before Christmas. Of course this was pretty traumatic but the government promised that they could return after the war, so in the spirit of the war effort off they went. The American army trained there. At the end of the war the Americans handed the land back to the UK and offered to repair the inevitable damage so that it could be returned to the villagers in a habitable state.
At this point some civil servant or army officer decided it would be nice to hang on to it. Despite numerous campaigns and appeals, the village and the land around it has remained in army hands ever since.
The whole area is normally closed to the public, but a few times a year the roads and village are opened to visitors. It was open at Easter and I visited with a friend. It was a cold, grey, windy (surprise!) day and the photo ops are limited because there aren't many places you can go, but I got a few. There are a few original buildings still standing, plus a bunch of basic shells of houses put up by the army for urban combat practice.
Here is the village sitting in its small valley in the Plain:
I think this used to be one of the pubs:
Some of the purpose-built houses, except that I think the red-brick one with the light green roof centre-left was the old school house:
The church had fallen into a very poor state. The army were not allowed to cause any damage to it, but it copped the odd stray shell and heavy artillery shaking the earth didn't do it much good. It used to be opened once a year for a service on St. Giles' Day, but had become quite dangerous. When I visited three years ago the churchyard was barricaded off and overgrown. Around then it was taken on by the Churches Conservation trust who have done a fine job of restoration. Here is a grab shot of the east window:
It would be nice to do a Nick T-F with a tripod and some HDR. Would have been a bit tricky at Easter, here is the view after turning 120 degrees to look westwards along the nave:
It felt as though everybody in Wiltshire was there!
The church and the graveyard (with a lot of perspective and distortion correction):
The incongruous oval window was added during the 19th century so that the squire had enough light to read his hymnbook in his private pew.
Teccie stuff - all handheld with E-5, long shot with 50-200 and EC-14, rest with Panaleica 14-150.
If you're interested, I've saved several other shots in my gallery on here.
Sorry for rambling. I guess if you've ploughed down this far you must have found it interesting!
Ciao ... John
In 1943 the villagers were given about 6 weeks notice to evacuate their homes, without compensation or any offer of other accommodation, and they had to be out a couple of weeks before Christmas. Of course this was pretty traumatic but the government promised that they could return after the war, so in the spirit of the war effort off they went. The American army trained there. At the end of the war the Americans handed the land back to the UK and offered to repair the inevitable damage so that it could be returned to the villagers in a habitable state.
At this point some civil servant or army officer decided it would be nice to hang on to it. Despite numerous campaigns and appeals, the village and the land around it has remained in army hands ever since.
The whole area is normally closed to the public, but a few times a year the roads and village are opened to visitors. It was open at Easter and I visited with a friend. It was a cold, grey, windy (surprise!) day and the photo ops are limited because there aren't many places you can go, but I got a few. There are a few original buildings still standing, plus a bunch of basic shells of houses put up by the army for urban combat practice.
Here is the village sitting in its small valley in the Plain:
I think this used to be one of the pubs:
Some of the purpose-built houses, except that I think the red-brick one with the light green roof centre-left was the old school house:
The church had fallen into a very poor state. The army were not allowed to cause any damage to it, but it copped the odd stray shell and heavy artillery shaking the earth didn't do it much good. It used to be opened once a year for a service on St. Giles' Day, but had become quite dangerous. When I visited three years ago the churchyard was barricaded off and overgrown. Around then it was taken on by the Churches Conservation trust who have done a fine job of restoration. Here is a grab shot of the east window:
It would be nice to do a Nick T-F with a tripod and some HDR. Would have been a bit tricky at Easter, here is the view after turning 120 degrees to look westwards along the nave:
It felt as though everybody in Wiltshire was there!
The church and the graveyard (with a lot of perspective and distortion correction):
The incongruous oval window was added during the 19th century so that the squire had enough light to read his hymnbook in his private pew.
Teccie stuff - all handheld with E-5, long shot with 50-200 and EC-14, rest with Panaleica 14-150.
If you're interested, I've saved several other shots in my gallery on here.
Sorry for rambling. I guess if you've ploughed down this far you must have found it interesting!
Ciao ... John
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