The village of Imber in the heart of a huge military training area and firing range in the south of England was evacuated in 1943. The villagers never came back. CEDRIC PULFORD reports on his visit to the 'ghost village of the plain'
It is stranded in the middle of a high explosive 'impact area' in the UK's Salisbury Plain military training zone, but Imber church is a good example of the continuities of English life, of how villages never really die.
More than 60 years ago, at the height of the Second World War, Imber was evacuated when the area was turned over to the Allied military in the build-up to the Normandy Landings and the invasion of Europe. The villagers never came back, but the medieval church of St Giles remains a place of worship and the graveyard is still in use.
England has other abandoned villages – Tyneham in Dorset was also claimed by the military and Dunwich in Suffolk lies mostly under the sea – but few, if any, have the atmosphere of Imber .
Surviving villagers, or their sons and daughters, as well as the simply curious like to visit on the up to 50 days a year that the army allows access. The biggest event is at St Giles' for the annual saint's day service in September.
There is little else at Imber now, a ghost village tucked into a fold of the plain, which lies in southern central England. Most of the original houses have gone although those two former staples of village life, the pub and the manor house, are standing. Their emptiness amid the silence of the plain, on a day when the guns aren't firing, adds to the slightly surreal feel of the place.
'There are still many loyalties attached to Imber ,' said Richard Trahair, property secretary for the Church of England's Salisbury diocese, which has responsibility for St Giles' church. 'Over the years it has come to be seen as a romantic place.
'Some people feel the villagers were misled by the army about being able to return after the war, but I've never seen any document to prove that.'
Lieut Col Roger Fellowes, commandant of the UK military's Salisbury Plain training estate, acknowledges that even now there are feelings about the 1943 evacuation and its aftermath. 'Inevitably though, they aren't coming back,' he said of surviving villagers or their descendants.
Imber was never a substantial place. With a population of 440 at its peak in 1851, it had about 150 inhabitants in the 1930s. Between 1927 and 1932 the authorities bought up tracts of land in the area, and most villagers became tenants of the military.
The UK Ministry of Defence has built new houses at Imber , windowless and empty, to create a replica village for mock battles and target practice. But the church is strictly out of bounds. Mr Trahair praises the army for the way it has cared for the church.
'They've looked after it since the war and they've done a good job keeping it going,' he said.
The church has been one of many conservation interests for the military. The 38,000 hectares of the Salisbury Plain training estate include more than 2,400 archaeological sites and more than 500 protected monuments. The plain is home to numerous vulnerable wildlife species including Fairy Shrimp, a tiny crustacean that lives in pools of water.
Lieut Col Fellowes said the army took conservation seriously and to prove it, he produces a 'green pack' of cards given to troops coming for training. This is a standard pack of playing cards with illustrations bearing conservation messages. These include: 'Do not disturb nesting barn owls' (queen of hearts); 'Best UK site for bumble bees' (nine of hearts); 'do not knock or cut down trees' (10 of spades); 'palisades mark nationally important, legally protected sites' (five of clubs).
By 2001, however, the church had become a problem. With major expenditure ahead the Ministry of Defence indicated it could not continue its support. St Giles' is to be taken over by the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT). This body, financed mainly by the Church of England and the British government, cares for redundant churches.
'It's the best outcome for all who care about St Giles because it ensures the church's future indefinitely,' said Mr Trahair.
Ironically for a church stuck in a war zone, St Giles' turns out to have more 'hidden treasures', in Mr Trahair's words, than had been supposed. It has been uprated to the Grade 1 in the British government's conservation categories.
Exposed 15th century wall paintings include a Doom (showing Christ sitting in judgment) and chequered patterns in the arches of the nave. More paintings lie underneath later plaster. There are bell ringers' tables painted on the wall in 1692 while letters carved into the stone of the porch are understood to be the initials of four 17th century church wardens.
All these rarities will make Imber even more popular as a place to visit, although visitors to the church will probably have to wait three years while repairs are carried out.
It's a twist that would please the villagers of 1943. Imber and its church are set to live again as they haven't for years.
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