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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Imber open , a nice day


chaz

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not sure to post here, but took a short ride over to Imber today.

plenty of people walking around and the church is open, sunny and warm , worth a visit for the views.

open again tomorrow and June jubilee weekend

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in case the mods are wondering about a WW1 connection, there were 28 men from the village that fought and 3 died . Those that came back to their families and survived the war were evicted from their houses in 1943 with no help . they must have wondered what they fought for.

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Australians stationed on the Plain during the Great War travelled to Imber saying they were descendants of men who had robbed Matthew Dean of that village in 1839. Dean had then chased the men, being joined by three other men; one of the robbers fell dead, the other three were captured and sentenced to transportation to Tasmania for fifteen years.

Forty soldiers and six batmen were housed in the attic of Imber Court, with a major and five other officers in more comfortable accommodation. Concerts were held in the Court's great barn, with Gladys Dean, the lady of the house, singing and playing the piano. Everyone was encouraged to take part, doing a turn or signing a patriotic song. The army improved the road through the village, but the track from Heytesbury came under regular fire. Shells damaged some houses, and the intensity of the training meant that at times the villagers were virtual prisoners, being allowed out only three times a week to Warminster. The vicar, Charles Watling, wrote of the effects of living near the Chapperton Down ranges: "We daily, and often nightly, suffered from the effects of concussion, our walls buckled, our glass cracked, so that we present to the world a shell shocked village … our population has dwindled, one shop remains and instead of our continuing to be a self-supporting community we have become dependent upon neighbouring villages for our thrice weekly supply of food."

In 1920 a war memorial in the shape of a wooden cross was erected in memory of the three men from Imber who had died on active service, and also to mark other villagers who had served in the war and survived.

The Gorse and the Briar by Patrick A and Christopher C McEvoy (George Harrap, 1938) describes Imber in the 1930s and refers to the work of War Department officials in the village and suggests that a plan to use the village for "experimental shelling" came to nothing only because the Church of England would not allow the War Office to "remove or damage the bodies" in the churchyard. The McEvoy brothers camped out in a deserted farm near the village and also found themselves in the middle of a shell-strewn field among relics of the Great War.

 

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  • 1 year later...

I was at Imber yesterday, August 28. At midday it was quite busy (rather too much so for my selfish tastes), with about eighty cars parked and many cyclists, mostly recreational. Excellently organised by volunteers, with no-go areas taped off and information boars displayed.

Then previous weekend the "bus day" was too popular, perhaps due to an article in The Sun beforehand. Access was limited to vintage buses carrying passengers from nearby villages, where there were long queues. A friend of mine who is a bus enthusiast drove over from Newbury and didn't get a ride.

I spoke to a leading light among the volunteers who said they would be reviewing the situation with the military.

It  was c1962 that I first visited the village with my parents. The Baptist Chapel was still standing and other original  buildings in better shape than today (and accessible to risk-takers).

The national interest at the time in the future of the village sparked off my enthusiasm for "military Wiltshire", which in later years focussed on the 1897-1920 period, hence my many years in the GWF.

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