Tyneham

Infobox UK place
official_name=Tyneham
country=England
region=South West England
population=0 (2001 Census)
os_grid_reference=SY885805
latitude=50.623956
longitude= -2.161887
post_town=
postcode_area=
postcode_district=
dial_code=
constituency_westminster= South Dorset
shire_district= Purbeck
shire_county=Dorset

Tyneham is a ghost village in south Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. It remains a civil parish. The village is situated near Worbarrow Bay on the Jurassic Coast, and there have been fishing communities associated with the parish since the Iron Age. The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book as "Tigeham", meaning "goat enclosure". It is part of the Lulworth Estate.

The village, and 7,500 acres (30 km²) of surrounding heathland and chalk downland around the Purbeck Hills, were commandeered just before Christmas 1943 by the then War Office (now Ministry of Defence) for use as firing ranges for training troops. Approximately 200 people were displaced, leaving a notice on the church door:

This measure was supposed to be temporary for the duration of World War II, but in 1948 the army placed a compulsory purchase order on the land and it has remained in use for military training ever since. Though littered with scrap used as targets, and subject to regular shelling, the land has become a haven for wildlife as it has been free from farming and development. In 1975, after complaints from tourists and locals, the M.O.D. began opening the village and footpaths across the ranges at weekends and throughout August. Many of the village buildings have fallen into disrepair or have been damaged by shelling, and in 1967 the then Ministry of Works pulled down the Elizabethan manor house, though the church remains intact. The church and school house have since been preserved as museums.In the 1980s the village was used for the filming of "Comrades", which tells the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. The church had a fibreglass tower and large additional gravestones added and the village's Post Office Row was fronted with fibreglass cottages.

Gallery

ee also

* Imber, in Wiltshire on the Salisbury Plain, is another village which was taken over for military purposes
* The Stanford Battle Area, in Norfolk, which contains six villages also taken over for military purposes

External links

* [http://www.weymouth-dorset.co.uk/tyneham.html Tyneham Local History]
* http://www.isleofpurbeck.com/tyneham.html
* http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/Place/T210.htm
* [http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/photos/showgallery/cat/569.php Photographs of Tyneham]
* [http://testsys.mantissa.net/~admin18/321/dorset/atyneham.html Panoramic Tour]
* [http://www.wyrdlight.com/tyneham/index.htm Around Tyneham in 25 Images]
* [http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/85/tyneham_village_of_the_vanished.html Fortean Times: Village of the Vanished]
* [http://www.pbase.com/marc_paull/tyneham Tyneham: The village that Dorset lost] (a 17-image gallery)

References