Tyneham

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Tyneham is a ghost village in the Purbeck district of Dorset in southern England. The village was taken over by the Ministry of Defence during World War II as a firing and tank training range, and until 1975 was inaccesible. The village lies close to the coast in a popular tourist area, and following complaints about the situation in the 1970s the MOD began opening footpaths through the village on weekends and throughout August.

These photos were taken with a FujiFilm A310 around mid-day on 2nd April 2005, but I hope to return with the D50 on an August evening.

The nearest towns are Wareham, Poole and Weymouth and main roads the A351 and A352. Nearest station are Wool and Wareham on the South Coast Main Line (Waterloo-Weymouth), six or seven miles away. A small lane runs to a car park in the village. The village is on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and there are many other attractions near by. If you take the lane from the west (turn off the B3070 at East Lulworth onto the road with the gate and big sign saying it's only open on weekends) you'll climb the Purbeck Hills, a steep and high chalk ridge. The hillside is dotted with large canvas numbers and old abandoned machinery used for tank target practace. In places the road may be newly paved after being hit. At the top of Whiteway Hill is a lay-by with views to the north over the ranges and an old china-clay pit, and to the south into the Tyneham valley (top right).

The sheltered valley location and proximity to Warbarrow Bay have made the parish a desirable settlement location since at least as far back as the iron age. The village was recorded in the Domesday Book as Tigeham, meaning "goat enclosure".^[1] When the MOD (or rather the War Office as it was then) took over the village, and the surrounding 7,500 acres (30sq km) of heathland and downland, in December 1943 there was no indication that the village would remain in military hands after the war (one source states that they promised to return it, but I can't back that up^[2]), and the army found a note pinned to the door of the parish church:

"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."

Two hundred and fifty-two people from 102 homes were displaced, and in 1948 the MOD put a compulsory purchase order on the land making the takeover permanent. The buildings fell into disrepair (or were hit by shells) and in 1967 the Ministry of Works tore down the Elizabethan manor house. Beside the car park is Post Office Roaw, where many of the ruins have been propped up, the masonry secured and vegetation cleared for tourist access. Shortly before the evacuation the Post Office installed a telephone box in red metal and cream concrete style then fashionable. I'm not sure if any restoration work has been carried out, but the ornate box still stands (right).

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Beside Post Office Row two buildings have been maintained/restored, the old school house and the mediaeval parish church of Saint Mary, now museums. The organ and bells were removed from the church and taken to the nearby village of Steeple. The school house was busy when I was there and didn't actually look all that interesting. For some reason I didn't come back with any photos of the school house or interior of the church, but perhaps some other time. Venture along the tracks behind the church and there are a few houses that unlike Post Office Row have been left completely to nature. Shelling and tanks sound very destructive, but have a much lesser effect on wildlife than farming and construction. With very limited grazing (I did spot a couple of herds of cows -- one in the danger zone!) and no arable agriculture the ranges have turned into a nature reserve. A small stream runs past the car park, and through a series of ponds, but it was a bit too early in the Spring for good pond shots here.

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The 1935 one inch Ordnance Survey map shows the road to the village winding down to Worbarrow Bay. You'll find this gravel road at the far side of the car park, one of the "range walks" opened by the MOD in the 1970s in respose to campaigns against their occupation of the land. The demand for access to the valley was largely due to its situation beside Worbarrow Bay on the Jurassic Coast, now a World Heritage Site. The bay is one of several along the coast where the sea has broken through the defensive Portland limestone, and wave refraction has carved a crescent backed by white chalk cliffs.

References

1. ^  Mills, A.D., 1986. Dorset Place Names. Ensign, Southampton.
2. ^  "Tyneham", The Dorset Page. http://www.thedorsetpage.com/locations/Place/T210.htm Accessed 4 July 2006.