Exhibition about Imber
Thursday, 24 April, 2008

A new special display telling the story of Imber village on Salisbury Plain opens on 3 May at Wiltshire Heritage Museum.

Imber village was taken over by the military during World War II and now forms part of the Salisbury Plain Military Ranges. Mainly through the use of recently donated photographs from our own collection, Little Imber on the Downe, Seven Miles from any Towne, aims to tell visitors about this remote community, its people and how they lived. It also looks at how the residents reacted on being told they would have to vacate their properties in 1943 and what happened to them and the village after the war.

The new display will be officially launched at an open evening on Friday 2 May between 6 pm and 8 pm (official launch at 6.45pm by Rex Sawyer). To complement the exhibition local author Rex Sawyer will be giving a lecture about the village at the Museum on Saturday 10 May at 2.30pm. Tickets cost £4 and are available from the Museum Shop.

Lorna Haycock, the Museum’s Librarian, said of the exhibition ‘we received a wonderful donation of material about Imber from Rex Sawyer and Rosalind Hooper last year which has enabled us to put this exhibition together. We hope it will give visitors some idea of what life was like in remote communities before the War’.

Little Imber on the Downe, Seven Miles from any Towne will be on display in the Museum’s temporary exhibition gallery from 3 May to 31 August 2008. Usual Museum admission charges apply (FREE on Sundays).

For further information about the exhibition please contact Lorna Haycock, Sandell Librarian and Archivist, on 01380 727369 or e-mail l.haycock@wiltshireheritage.org.uk.

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