Tyneham II

A while back, I blogged about the abandoned Dorset village of Tyneham, aka 'the village that died for England.'

As I've said elsewhere, lost and abandoned places fascinate me - and others, too. Tyneham's no exception. I found a couple of pieces about the place on YouTube that variously moved or intrigued me, so I thought I'd share them.

First up, here's Remembering Tyneham, a short (four and a half minute) documentary about the village and including an interview with Arthur Grant, one of the last surviving villagers. A sweet old man; I ended up wanting to give him a hug after watching this, but as anyone will tell you, I'm a big softy.

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And here's some drone footage of the village - really stunning stuff. Haunting and beautiful.

 

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If anyone else has footage or info about Tyenham, feel free to get in touch and I'll share it on the blog.

Tyneham

Funny how things click together in my head. Like I said, lost communities fascinate me, and I was actually thinking of one earlier today when I heard about the death of Rachel Johnson, the last native St Kildan.

The village of Tyneham had stood on the Dorset coast, near Worbarrow Bay, for centuries when it and the surrounding land was commandeered by the War Office just before Christmas 1943, supposedly for the duration of the war. The last resident to leave pinned this message on the door of the 13th century church, St Mary's:

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.

After the war, despite the promise that it would be returned to its original inhabitants, the Army

placed a compulsory purchase order on Tyneham, and it has remained in use for military training since then.

Many of the houses are in ruins now, but what remains of 'the village that died for England' is open to visitors at weekends and during August.

A few years ago, I found this video on YouTube. Overlook the spelling and punctuation errors in the text; it's actually quite beautiful and haunting.

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St Kilda

Lost and abandoned communities fascinate me, and Britain's littered with them. Mediaeval villages depopulated by plague, destroyed by war or the whim of a feudal lord, mining communities deserted as the seams of lead or gold ran out, coastal settlements lost to the sea, islands finally abandoned when life there became too hard...

I just saw this news article: a woman called Rachel Johnson, nee Gillies, passed away today at the age of 92. Her death marks the end of an era.

The archipelago of St Kilda is one of the most remote of all the British Isles; nearly fifty miles west of Harris and Lewis, it's the most westerly of the Outer Hebrides. It was inhabited for nearly two thousand years, until the last of its inhabitants were evacuated on 29th August 1930.

Life there was hard and isolated, but the islands - now a nature reserve - remain some of the most

beautiful in the UK. They're also home to unique animal species like the Soay sheep, the St Kilda wren and the St Kilda fieldmouse. (There was also a St Kilda house mouse, which became extinct following the desertion of the islands.)

Rachel Gillies was eight years old when she was evacuated. With her death, the last of the native St Kildans has passed away.

The story of the islands is a rich and fascinating one, and you can learn more about them here. Here's a 1972 documentary about them to whet your appetite.

In the words of one former inhabitant, 'it was a far better place.'

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