Ghosts of a lost village

6:00am Thursday 1st May 2008

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IMBER, the village seven miles from Devizes taken over by the Army in 1943 and never returned to its inhabitants, still rankles in the public mind after all this time.

An exhibition at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum chronicles life in the village before the Second World War and its subsequent decline, so that only one building, St Giles Church, now survives.

Much of the material in the exhibition comes from local historian Rex Sawyer, whose 2001 book, Little Imber on the Down, describes the tragedy that overtook the village.

Mr Sawyer says hackles still rise at the cavalier treatment of the villagers, who were given just a few weeks' notice to parcel up centuries of family life and try to find alternative accommodation in a country in the middle of the Second World War.

That war, and the defence of the realm, was the reason behind the village's sad demise. With preparations being made for a Second Front and the invasion of Europe, the need for training grounds was paramount.

It was the verbal promise that they could return to their homes when the emergency was over, never kept, that became a bitter pill they found hard to swallow.

Imber was a typical Wiltshire village. The only employment was agriculture and farming was very labour intensive before the First World War.

A community of 440 people in the mid-19th century supported two pubs and a number of shops.

By 1931 the recession in farming, the attraction of the towns and emigration had reduced numbers to 152. Landowners were compelled to sell their land to the War Office between 1928 and 1932 and by 1943 Imber's population had shrunk to 135.

Yet the people of Imber were completely unsuspecting when they attended a meeting in November 1943 to be told they had just 47 days to leave the village with all their possessions.

American troops of the 3rd Armoured Division needed a village for vital training in street fighting before the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Mr Sawyer captures the sense of loss well. He describes the reaction of the old blacksmith Albie Nash, who had shod horses in the village since 1888.

Mr Nash went missing the day after a meeting to give further details of the move.

His wife Martha found him in the forge, slumped over the anvil and crying like a child. He died a few weeks after the evacuation.

All efforts to have Imber returned to its inhabitants failed.

Even a high-profile campaign by Amesbury rural district councillor Austin Underwood, although it caught the national imagination, was ultimately unsuccessful.

Imber remains a ghost of a village.

Even on open days when access to St Giles Church is permitted, visitors will meet soldiers wearing camouflage and taking part in military manoeuvres.

The exhibition, Little Imber on the Downe, is on at the museum until August 31.