Major General C.H. Miller wrote to the residents of Tyneham in Dorset on the 16th November 1943 to inform them that the military would take over the area on the 19th December. The extension of the tank gunnery ranges was to allow the use of live shells for the training of the Sherman tanks crews prior to D-Day.

A total of 3000 acres were requisitioned and to this day they remain part of the MoD Tank Ranges. Although the Church and the School House remain intact the rest of the houses have been reduced to their foundations or to hollow shells.

Tyneham is well worth a visit since you can walk around the remains of the village and then stroll down to Worbarrow Bay, with some amazing views of the coastline.

Tyneham School is much the way it was left in the 1940s. The children's names are still on the coat hooks and the desks and books are waiting for the next lesson.

John Gould used to live at Gardner's Cottage, its outer walls being shown below:-

He was serving with the Devonshire Regiment in India when his wife Muriel wrote to tell him that Tyneham had been evacuated.

Stone floors and fire places provide echoes of cottage life. I suspect a few people were asked to close the front door on a winters night! The door way looks so large in comparison to the size of the room. Its also difficult to imagine the height of the ceilings. The bottom of the upstairs fireplace seems a bit low.

Tyneham is in an idyllic location, nestled in a wooded valley 5 minutes from the coastline.

How idyllic it was, I am not sure. This is a quote from Rodney Legg's excellent book on Tyneham:-

Mrs Lilian Bond's Tyneham which enchanted many, with the closed world of estate living, struck others as a study in slavery. The system relied upon evictions when people were no longer regarded as useful, and its illusory tranquillity depended on a humiliating degree of compliance.

Apparently farmer Smith in the 1930s used to lock the gate to close the mile long path to Worbarrow Beach.

Sounds like the original killjoy!

Although the tank ranges are very active, the firing is very localised and large areas are used to graze cattle, sheep and deer.

See also the following web site:-

Tyneham