IT has been nearly 73 years since the residents of Dorset village Tyneham abandoned their homes during the Second World War.

Today we are sharing some little seen photos of 'the ghost village' taken by Arthur Grant, a photographer who was thought to be the last surviving evacuee from Tyneham when he died, aged 87, in 2010.

His family were given special permission to take his ashes to village, where a coat hook in the schoolroom still bore his name.

Alongside Arthur's poignant photos of Tyneham we have this recent photo taken by Simon Gregory showing 'the village that time forgot' in bloom.

Tyneham village and neighbouring hamlets were cleared in 1943 to enable Allied forces to train for the D-Day landings.

The last resident to leave, Helen Taylor, who is pictured here with a photograph of her house, posted a note on the church door, which read: “Please treat the church and houses with care.

“We have given up our homes, where many of us have lived for generations, to help win the war and to keep men free.

“We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly.”

However, the fabric of the village decayed as the weather and stray shells took their toll. Only the 13th century church was cared for.

The 255 villagers always thought one day they would be able to return home, but after the war Tyneham became the permanent property of the Ministry of Defence.

Photographs from the time suggested the troops did treat the village well but the villagers never got their wish to go home.

Despite the assurances given at the time of the evacuation, the village was compulsorily purchased after the war and continued to be used as part of the Lulworth ranges.

The fabric of the village decayed as the weather and stray shells took their toll. Only the 13th century church was cared for.

Local historian Rodney Legg launched a campaign on 1967 to have the village returned. Membership topped 2,000 and a petition was taken to Downing Street, to no avail.

In 1968, Tyneham House was destroyed. Mr Legg said years later that its loss had ‘an incredibly demoralising effect on the older people still wanting to return to Tyneham because they realised there was nothing to go back to’.

As the years went by, the Army began working with local groups to allow more access to the site.

On September 6 1975, the Echo was able to report: “The public walked free yesterday over 7,387 of Dorset’s most beautiful wild acres for the first time in 33 years.”

It went on: “But it is a limited freedom. There are no villagers back in the ghost village of Tyneham.”

There were new paths across the ranges, open 154 days a year including all of August.

Brigadier Roy Redgrave, commanding officer of the Royal Armoured Corps Gunnery School, had consulted with 70 amenity and naturalists’ organisations to determine which paths could be opened.

In December that year, the Echo reported the discovery of villagers’ ration books in an old corrugated shed at the back of Tyneham Post Office.

Jane Cato, the only woman warden on the Army range, took them home to clean them up. “They were under a pile of ash on the floor, with rat holes all around,” she said.

“There was surprisingly little of value in the village – most of the villagers must have taken everything they had with them when they left,” she added.

In October 1979, the village church saw its first service in 36 years. The rector of Corfe Castle led the worship and the lesson was read by Brigadier Mark Bond, whose family had owned the village’s 14th century manor house.

The village’s schoolroom was re-opened as the venue for an exhibition in April 1982. Margaret Bond, who had lived in the village from 1892 to 1935, unveiled a plaque there and revisited the tree she had planted in 1911 for the coronation of George V.

Fifty years after writing that memorable note on the door, Helen Taylor, then 92, said she bore no grudge against the army. “We went with goodwill, thinking we were doing our share to help with the war,” she said.

Today, the village is still part of the army’s Lulworth Ranges but members of the public are able to access it on most weekends and public holidays.

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e: joanna.davis

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