Forever Imber

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So, erm, Handsome SoundArtist *might* be going there this weekend (If we can sort out transport issues).

According to him it's this creepy abandonned village on Salisbury Plain that was commandeered by the British army and used as target practice for WWII. He says that the British peace movement basically started with a gang of locals trying to get the government to give it BACK. He's got loads of books about it - pictures of before and after, medieval village and bombed out shells of houses.

So this weekend is one of the rare weekends that it's apparently open to the public.

What do you all know about Imber, and what should I expect?

― kate, Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:08 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.hobnobpress.co.uk/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_1727/Little~Imber.jpg

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Never been, but sounds fascinating.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, that is one of the books that HSA has!

I hope we go... it looks cool!

― kate, Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:13 (twenty-two years ago)

There's another place like this, Tyneham, down on the MOD range on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, I forget what its called. Its creepy, it still has a 30s phone box with the old phone in. Completely set is aspic, almost. The area was used to practice for the Normandy landings and was never given back. The residents and their decendants are still fighting to get it back.

http://www.isleofpurbeck.com/tyneham_files/tynepoffice.jpg
http://www.isleofpurbeck.com/tyneham_files/tynerecott.jpg

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:19 (twenty-two years ago)

So is this something that the UK army just did on a regular basis? Really? I mean, that sounds so medieval!

"We've got a war coming! Off yer lands, serfs! Make way, peasants, or we shall bomb you!"

At least the US has the decency to practice their new weaponry on third world countries!

― kate, Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:29 (twenty-two years ago)

and on the south coast during world war two, they bombed the bejeesus out of Tyneham too!

― chris (chris), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:35 (twenty-two years ago)

this is what the people of Tyneham left as a note on their church door,

"Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly."

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I have this weird vision of the locals all clubbing together to try and take the village back from the MoD, armed with pitchforks and double-barrelled rifles and the like, and being mercilessly mown down like in some kind of 16th Century uprising.

Is it completely uninhabited? Not even a crazy old woman living in the house on her own? (Sorry, I'm getting all Wicker Man and gothtastic now).

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

keep an eye out for WMD.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:37 (twenty-two years ago)

More likely DU.

― Ed (dali), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:39 (twenty-two years ago)

So what did they tell the people they were going to be using it for? Just billeting troops or something? Jeez! No wonder they don't want to give it back, they'll see what a terrible mess they've got it into!

HSA is very interested in Imber because apparently his family is from that part of Wiltshire. I just like the idea of an abandonned village preserved as it was, well, except for bomb damage. I mean, that's practically an episode of Time Team begging to be made! "And here you can see the bloody grate gaping holes in the church walls where the stray bombs hit..."

But apparently it's open to the public on Easter so people can go and put wreathes on their relatives graves and things like that. They are doing "hands around the church" or some such old religious ceremony or such. Not entirely sure.

― kate, Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.mdani.demon.co.uk/images/giles2.jpg

Apparently the church is still open for a service once a year... as I doubt they have things like electricity in there, it's probably lit entirely by candlelight.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes! There is no electricity! But they have really old bells! And there are diagrammes on the walls about how to ring the bells... it's one of the oldest forms of written down music... or am I thinking of some other old church that Handsome SoundArtist was talking about? We were quite drunk and ranting on and on about archeology and sound and things... as HSA tends to do. :-) They had these things painted on the walls which told you which bell to hit when, and if you did it right, it would ring out these old medieval melodies.

― kate, Thursday, 17 April 2003 12:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, drive down there in the dark listening to Geogaddi, just to get you in the mood.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Thursday, 17 April 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Then put on yer Bauhaus records, hang around in the cemetery at midnight and just let your inner GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTH out.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 April 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

are guys going to slam dance in the church?

― Sonny Tremaine (Sonny), Thursday, 17 April 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

like those punk rockers in 'Demon'? Or is it a Straw Dogs situation - where Kate saves HSA from violent rape and certain apostasy?

― Sonny Tremaine (Sonny), Thursday, 17 April 2003 17:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Well?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Sunday, 20 April 2003 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

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