Resurrecting Imber: Exploring relics of a requisitioned village

On 1 November 1943, the villagers of Imber on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire gathered together in a school room and awaited an announcement on local military training with some trepidation. The news they were given, even if not unexpected by some, was extreme: all villagers would have to leave Imber by the 17 December that year – only 47 days away. The site was being requisitioned fully by the War Department, and their tenants in this village would have to leave, to sell their livestock and produce, to move any possessions, and to start life elsewhere. Although the settlement had been surrounded by military training areas for many years, this must have come as an almighty shock. Henceforth,