Post by son-of-tiny on May 16, 2008 22:14:07 GMT
Tyneham was a quiet Dorset village which lost several villagers who fought as soldiers in the Great War. The village war memorial records their sacrifice. "All men must die. It is only given to the few to die for their country".
However Tyneham itself made a greater sacrifice in 1943 when the village was closed down for D-Day preparations. It never re-opened. The villagers had expected to return at the end of the
war but by 1948 the War Department had decided to keep the land as an extension to army training areas and the tank gunnery range at Lulworth.
Today the hillside opposite is littered with range targets - knocked out vehicles - and the surrounding woodland contains unexploded shells and so many shell splinters that the trees cannot be cut down with a chain saw.
The atmosphere is strange, people pay £1 a day to park next to an idyllic beach at weekends and walk among the ruins. Weekdays the area is strictly off-limits as shells still fly over daily. The guns can be heard booming 10 miles away
In 1943 the War Department closed Tyneham village near Lulworth in Dorset for D-Day training preparations.
The villagers never returned as the War Department kept the village as a post-war training area and tank artillery range for nearby Lulworth and Bovington camps.
Today most of the buildings are gaunt and empty, like a war zone, but the Army does allow visitors to return to the village on a regular basis.
village and nearby Worbarrow Bay
www.isleofpurbeck.com/tyneham.html
Tyneham was once a pleasing and proud hamlet in a fertile valley at the foot of one of the highest hills in the Purbeck Range. An Elizabethan Mansion, a handful of grey cottages, a fine medieval church, and a school was home to a small rural community, near the coast at Worbarrow.
In 1943 the entire village was evacuated, and it now forms part of a 7,500 acre Army firing range. When the villagers left they pinned a note to the door of St. Mary's church which read:
'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.'
The Government went back on its promise to give the village back and in 1948 it was compulsorily purchased by the army. Shelling, neglect and vandalism have all but destroyed it. Despite the conversion of both the school and church into museums, and the thriving wildlife on the surrounding ranges, an air of sadness haunts the village and its roofless cottages.
No one will live in Tyneham again and it can only be visited when the guns are silent
A few weeks before it was evacuated the Post Office had installed a grand new telephone kiosk for the villagers, decorated in the then traditional cream concrete style with the familiar ornate cupola roof. It still remains, sealed, brightly repainted, and reminiscent of a Dr Who time capsule which has just arrived in a dead village.
For comments about the range walks or Tyneham
please contact the Range Secretary on 01929 404714
between 0900 - 1500 hours Monday - Friday
or write to
Range Control, The AFV Gunnery School,
Lulworth Camp, Nr Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QF
For general access information
please telephone 01929 404819
However Tyneham itself made a greater sacrifice in 1943 when the village was closed down for D-Day preparations. It never re-opened. The villagers had expected to return at the end of the
war but by 1948 the War Department had decided to keep the land as an extension to army training areas and the tank gunnery range at Lulworth.
Today the hillside opposite is littered with range targets - knocked out vehicles - and the surrounding woodland contains unexploded shells and so many shell splinters that the trees cannot be cut down with a chain saw.
The atmosphere is strange, people pay £1 a day to park next to an idyllic beach at weekends and walk among the ruins. Weekdays the area is strictly off-limits as shells still fly over daily. The guns can be heard booming 10 miles away
In 1943 the War Department closed Tyneham village near Lulworth in Dorset for D-Day training preparations.
The villagers never returned as the War Department kept the village as a post-war training area and tank artillery range for nearby Lulworth and Bovington camps.
Today most of the buildings are gaunt and empty, like a war zone, but the Army does allow visitors to return to the village on a regular basis.
village and nearby Worbarrow Bay
www.isleofpurbeck.com/tyneham.html
Tyneham was once a pleasing and proud hamlet in a fertile valley at the foot of one of the highest hills in the Purbeck Range. An Elizabethan Mansion, a handful of grey cottages, a fine medieval church, and a school was home to a small rural community, near the coast at Worbarrow.
In 1943 the entire village was evacuated, and it now forms part of a 7,500 acre Army firing range. When the villagers left they pinned a note to the door of St. Mary's church which read:
'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.'
The Government went back on its promise to give the village back and in 1948 it was compulsorily purchased by the army. Shelling, neglect and vandalism have all but destroyed it. Despite the conversion of both the school and church into museums, and the thriving wildlife on the surrounding ranges, an air of sadness haunts the village and its roofless cottages.
No one will live in Tyneham again and it can only be visited when the guns are silent
A few weeks before it was evacuated the Post Office had installed a grand new telephone kiosk for the villagers, decorated in the then traditional cream concrete style with the familiar ornate cupola roof. It still remains, sealed, brightly repainted, and reminiscent of a Dr Who time capsule which has just arrived in a dead village.
For comments about the range walks or Tyneham
please contact the Range Secretary on 01929 404714
between 0900 - 1500 hours Monday - Friday
or write to
Range Control, The AFV Gunnery School,
Lulworth Camp, Nr Wareham, Dorset BH20 5QF
For general access information
please telephone 01929 404819
