Imber Village

21st August 2016

After seeing on my Facebook news feed that Imber village was open to the public this weekend. I rather fancied an impromptu night time visit to the ghost village of Imber (Wiltshire, UK).

*Imber is an uninhabited village in part of the British Army's training grounds on the Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. It is situated in an isolated area of the Plain, about 2.5 miles west of the A360 road between Tilshead and West Lavington. The entire civilian population was evicted in 1943 to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. After the war, villagers were not allowed to return to their homes. The village, which is now part of the civil parish of Heytesbury, remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence despite several attempts by former residents to return. Non-military access is limited to several open days a year.

So, after checking the opening times and seeing the gates closed at 8am 22/08/2016, I was very keen to go and spend some time at the abandoned village. My husband Dave, my daughter Erica and her Fiancé Dan were also up for a ghostly trip. Our friend Pete was also keen to join us and said he would meet up us there.

A few ghost stories have been shared by military personnel who have personally experienced first-hand ghostly sightings while on army manoeuvres in the village.

We got there just after 8.30pm and it was still light enough to see without the use of torches. As we had arranged to meet our friend, we spent some time walking through the village to see if he had already arrived. Worryingly, he hadn’t so I checked my phone to see if he had tried to contact us and I hadn’t heard. This was when I realised that I had no mobile signal (which does make sense as it is a military zone) and that I couldn’t phone him to see if he was ok.

We decided to walk back from the church to the Old Bell pub. However, when we got there, there were some kids still messing around. We decided to retrace our steps and go and visit some of the other buildings that are still standing at the other side of the village.

With still not sign of our friend Pete, we decided to have a little explore of the place.

Seagrams Farm.

We headed over to a building that in its heyday was a farm. We explored both the upper and lower level. I felt an atmosphere on the upper floor and decided to sit there for a while. I couldn’t find anything to try and utilise for an experiment. As there were still people milling around the village, I didn’t want to start filming. We went down the steps and explored the room below. My daughter and I decided to head to the building just over to the left of us.

This building didn’t feel very spooky, in fact, it felt very calm. I felt very comfortable looking around, albeit in the dark.

Nags head cottages.

We went into this building and we all seemed to split up in different directions. I headed out to the back of the building then headed back inside the main building. I joined up with Erica and Dan on my way back in. We all heard a massive thud upstairs (which Myself, Erica and Dan assumed was Dave). With that, Dave came around the corner and asked if we had heard that loud bang upstairs. We confirmed that we had but admitted to Dave that we just assumed it was him. I also pointed out that there are other people still in the village so somebody might be hiding up there. We went to have a look but nobody appeared to be present. Dave and I went upstairs. Dave walked over to the far side of the room and the floor board made a loud thud sound. It was exactly what we had heard. However, in order for somebody to of come down from upstairs, they would have had to of gone passed us. This was quite spooky. We also noticed there was a medical smell in the building. Though, Dan thought it smelt like smoke.

We walked back along the road, passed the church and council house buildings and back towards the Bell Inn.

There were some girls investigating the buildings, however, as we nearly reached the pub building, the girls speed passed us in their mini. (I wonder what had spooked them so much that they took off in terror.)

Bell Inn.

We arrived at the Bell Inn and was relieved to discover that the kids who were there earlier had now left. The building is deceptively large with almost a warren like feel to it. I had a good time exploring the building and took a few photos. It was in the back room that my camera decided to malfunction. The flash was going off but the picture was blank. Checking that the lens cap was off (it was), I attempted to take a few pictures again. Thankfully, my camera decided to spring back into life. Feeling brave, I went upstairs and discovered that there was a spiral staircase that led to the attic. I headed up there and definitely felt I was not alone but I didn’t feel threatened. We all had a good look around of the property, both inside and out. Again, I felt that I didn’t really have anything with me that I could utilise to use in an experiment. I have made a mental note to bring along with us next time some more useful equipment.

We headed back towards our car. By now, it was very dark. I loved the slightly disturbing atmosphere but I didn’t feel threatened. Erica agreed with me. Dave and I noticed that there was an area of trees just passed Imber court that appeared to create an avenue. We went slightly inside the wooded area, however, Dave did not like the feel of the area and we went back out to the road where Dan and Erica were waiting. We were just walking passed where the council houses are when Dan suddenly exclaimed in surprise that he just saw a figure next to him. He genuinely seemed surprised. He went onto describe it as a man with braided hair who was wearing (what sounds like) old style military dress, such as in the civil war period. I was delighted for him, (and ever so slightly jealous). As we were walking back to our car, Dave thought he saw somebody duck out of view in the Nags Head cottage.

We eventually got back to our car and headed home. As we were driving passed the Nags Head Cottage, Dave thought he saw somebody at the window again. I hope to come back later on in the year for another night time visit to the amazing village of Imber.

FN: You may be wondering what happened to our friend Pete who was supposed to meet us at Imber. Just as we were approaching Warminster (on our way home), I regained my mobile signal. I then received 2 texts from Pete to say he was lost and that his satnav had taken him on a merry song and dance. I text back to apologise and explained I had absolutely no signal and that I wasn’t aware that he didn’t know where Imber village was. I have arranged for another trip to Imber with a larger number of our team and promised to make sure Pete knows how to get there. On the plus side, on his wild goose chase around the Wiltshire country side, he did drive along some very spooky little lanes, so all was not totally lost.