IMBER VILLAGE.

HISTORY

Imber Village is an uninhabited village situated on Salisbury Plain. In 1943, the entire population of the village were evicted in order to cater for the American troops during the Second World War. The villagers were not permitted to return to their homes after the war and the Ministry of Defence remained in control of the village. The general public are given access to Imber Village for several days during the year.

On Sunday 1st January 2017, a small group of the Twilight Shadows Paranormal team ventured out into the dark, stormy night to visit the deserted village of Imber.

Even as we were driving down the long road towards Imber Village, I felt quite uncomfortable which is unusual for me. We eventually parked our cars and as we got out, we felt that this was a very eerie place. We decided to visit the Bell pub. It is said that the sound of laughter has been heard from this building, many years after it was last used as a public house. We all entered the building (which is now just a shell). We looked around downstairs for a while and during that time we heard a sound which sounded like a footstep from the floor above. So we decided to go up to that floor.

We thought that perhaps this may have been the landlord's living quarters. I 'called out' and asked if there were any spirits present and could they make a noise. Pete knocked and asked if there was a spirit who could knock back. We all heard a thudding sound. Pete knocked once more and we heard the sound again. Pete said that he thought it was the same sound as we had heard when we were downstairs.

We continued to 'call out' and we heard a noise coming from downstairs. Dave said that he thought that he could hear the sound of whispering. Pete said that he kept hearing the whispering also. We suddenly smelt as if there was wood burning within the building. We looked around but we already knew that there was not. I have since discovered that the smell of a log fire burning is said to be one of the ghostly phenomenon that occurs within the old Bell public house.

Tracey said that she heard a noise from above. We found a second set of stairs and went up them into an attic type room. I felt more comfortable on this floor. It wasn't as spooky as the other floors. Nettie 'called out' but all was quiet. Pete told us that he'd felt a bit light-headed earlier.

We all heard a sound which sounded like a voice and then an exhaled breath with us in the room. Tracey said that she heard the breath again right by her. Pete said that he could hear footsteps downstairs. Dave ran down to check but there was nothing. We asked if the footsteps could be heard in the same room as us. We heard something twice and then a voice but we couldn't make out any words.

After a while, Tracey said she heard something bump. Pete captured some light anomalies. As he was showing me the footage, I heard a gasp right beside me. There was also the sound of a gasp captured on Pete's footage. I heard footsteps behind me and Andrew said that he heard a dragging sound. Pete then heard footsteps.

Several of us had fitted our equipment with new batteries that evening and we noticed that they had drained, roughly at the same time. We went back to the ground floor and eventually decided to move to another building.

OLD COTTAGE

We all assembled into a cottage. It did not feel eerie like the pub had felt. We stayed here for a good while 'calling out' and listening but nothing strange happened here at all.

OLD BARN

We walked across to this building. It did not feel spooky inside this building either but we stayed for a considerable time to see if we could contact any spirits. Nothing of a paranormal nature occurred here either.

As the weather was deteriorating, we decided to end our investigation. Imber Village was a very scary location to investigate. There is so much history here. I would love to go back.

Written by: Maria Williams