Then and Now - Main Street, Imber (From Wiltshire Times)

Then and Now - Main Street, Imber

2:06pm Friday 25th March 2011 in Down Memory Lane By Trevor Porter

Only a few original buildings are left intact in the village of Imber, so our series ends this week.

Most of the thatched and whitewashed cottages are long gone, falling into disrepair after the Army took over the village n 1943 for troop training, forcing the villagers to move out with a promise they would return. They never were allowed home.

Opposite Bungey Lane, near Seagram Farm, a building still stands that is thought to be The Nags Head, a pub featured in the Tithe Apportionment Schedule of 1838.

No written evidence remains that this was ever an inn, although at some time in the distant past it must have got its name from an ale house.

The cluster of cottages facing onto the High Street known as France are long gone, and another area which has vanished without trace is Stocks Arch. Imber also had a Baptist Chapel, but its graveyard is all that remains.

Also gone is a jumble of cottages known as The Barracks which records show were at the hub of the village, when the roads which crisscross the Plain from Bratton, Warminster and Gore Cross near Lavington meet.

The village had many farms, including Imber Court Farm, Tinkers Farm, South Farm, Parsonage Farm, Browns Farm and Seagram Farm.

A stream used to run through the village following the line of the High Street with descriptions telling us of charming little bridges across the stream leading up to a cottage or farm.

The stream was known as Imber dock and in common with most streams on chalkland would be dry in summer months, appearing only in the winter. It now runs in an underground culvert.