Today, being the last day of 2025, we decided to have a day out and headed to the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain. About an hour and a half’s drive from home, but well worth the trip.

All the residents of the village of Imber were evicted from their homes during ww2 in 1943 with just 47 days’ notice. The village and land formed part of the training grounds for American troops. Land was first purchased for military training on Salisbury Plain in late 1890s. Within 5 years, the total area in the hands of the War Department had risen to 43,000 acres. Permanent barracks were started at Tidworth in 1905. After the First World War, the War Department resumed buying land on Salisbury Plain. The Larkhill Royal School of Artillery was built in 1920. The village of Imber and its surrounding terrain were acquired between 1928 and 1932. The villagers became tenants of the War Department. After the evictions at the end of the war, it was never returned and remains, to this day, a training ground for urban warfare within the larger military training area of the Plain.

Today, the village is open for visits on a few days a year.

A walk around the village’s old homes and more modern killing houses.

The church of St Giles occupies the site of an earlier building dating from the mid-12th century. The nave was rebuilt towards the end of the 13th century, and around 1400,the addition of the north and south aisles, plus the tower and north porch. At this time, the nave roof was reconstructed. The chancel was rebuilt in 1849, at which time the north-east vestry was built.