Visiting Tyneham

Today is a dull, rainy day but yesterday was gorgeous and sunny. When hubby asked me where I’d like to go for a trip out, I didn’t hesitate. I wanted to go to Tyneham Village, Then I had to make sure that it was open this weekend, and that dogs are welcomed there. Yes was the answer to both questions so off we went.

Pics by Jim Champion

Why did I want to see Tyneham? No-one lives there now, but until 1943 it was home to a number of Dorset families. In that year during World War II, at very short notice, they were all ordered to leave and the village and surrounding area was commandeered for troops preparing for Operation Overlord, the D Day landings in Normandy, France. They left believing they would be able to return after the war, but unlike those from the Slapton area in Devon which was similarly evacuated, they were never allowed to do so. (I know about Slapton as it is near where I was brought up. I believe there were other villages also evacuated in wartime, but Tyneham is the only one where families never had the option to return to their homes.)

The village now lies in the Lulworth tank firing ranges which are still owned by the UK’s Ministry of Defence. All the former dwellings were left to the ravages of nature but some passionate campaigners managed to maintain public access to the Tyneham’s nearby beach at Worbarrow Bay. At first this was only on public holidays and while you could drive to the village and park your car, the derelict buildings were off limits. 

But the campaigning continued and in 1979 a service was held in Tyneham’s Church of St Mary – the first for 36 years.

Now many of the buildings have been reclaimed from the undergrowth and there is a large car park between the village itself and Tyneham Farm. Although most of the cottages are just ruins, you can enter them and read signs about their former inhabitants. The old schoolhouse is laid out with poignant exhibits and a sign in the church includes the final entry in the school diary; “Closed the school today”.

There are also permitted walks on the range when it’s safe and the area is open, and from Tyneham there is a cart track to the beach and a woodland walk so Jade was happy and accommodated. The range walks are marked by the yellow postsyou can see in the photo, and you have to keep between them.

The area is very beautiful. On the way home we stopped at a high viewpoint with rolling green hills to the sea on one side and a distant vista of Poole harbour on the other. I can’t believe we’ve been living here for over 3 years and not found that before. We'll be back.

Taking the Bus

This bus pic is by

Les Chatfield from Brighton, England

Something's badly wrong at Entrecard right now. None of the drops I made on Sunday registered, nor the ones I've just done. Fortunately the time was not wasted because I do my EC drops while I do Adgitize clicks. I sent EC a message this morning about their scanner not recognising the widget on my pages. I wonder how many of those they've received. The one good thing is that if you click on an EC widget, you still get to the site so at least we can all still get some benefit that way.

Yesterday I was oblivious of all this as I did nothing online except check my emails and send a couple. I took the rest of the day off and had a bus ride to Dorchester with my hubby, using our free senior passes. The bus takes about three times as long as a car trip, but it goes around lots of little Dorset villages that we know of but haven't yet been to, and we enjoyed seeing them from our vantage point at the front of the top deck. I took note of the fact that the Martyr Museum at Tolpuddle was very close to Athelhampton House & Garden, two places that are on my list to visit sometime soon.

In Dorchester, we strolled a round and checked out the shops, then met up with friends for lunch in the Kings Arms, the splendid looking hotel in the middle of the high street. It was built in the early 18^th century but has recently had a bit of a face lift. The food was good and the company great, and when we paid the bill, the manager came over to thank us for our custom and invite us to use the car park when we come again. As long as we buy a cup of coffee, we are welcome to leave the car there for a few hours. That made us feel welcome and comfy, and it was a really good marketing ploy. There's plenty of competition for meals in the town, and many of them would be cheaper, though not better value, I reckon.

Anyway we finally and reluctantly moved out of the cosy bar area, which had two log fires burning, and back into the cold of the street, and we went our separate ways. But we were in for a cold and anxious time, because our bus didn't turn up. It was the last one which would take us all the way home, as well as the schoolchildren from the surrounding villages, so it was a bit of a mystery. When it was nearly half an hour overdue, hubby phoned the bus company, to be told that they'd had a breakdown but put on another bus which was due to arrive any time. As he finished the call, it came around the corner to our stop, having already been to the school.

We got on the bus and the driver apologised for our wait and asked us where we wanted to go. We took our seats and enjoyed listening to the light hearted banter of the schoolchildren, whose numbers steadily lessened as we stopped at Puddletown, Tolpuddle, Alfpuddle and Briantspuddle. Eventually we arrived at Bere Regis and the last of them alighted, at which point the driver came upstairs to tell us he was now taking the bus out of service and would take us directly to our home bus stop before returning to Dorchester. Apparently there was another bus about to start there and do the rest of the route. So our bus became a rather large free taxi for the two of us.

When we did get off the bus, I thanked the driver and apologised for making him drive so far. But he wasn't a bit put out “Not at all,” he said with a lovely smile. “I apologise to you for making you wait so long.” I had been thinking I wouldn't be repeating the bus riding experience, but that made me think again.