Access to Imber this August | The official community website of Pitton & Farley, Salisbury, Wilts

St Giles Church, Imber

Newsletter No 44 – Amendment
30 June 2013

CHANGE TO LATEST NEWS INFORMATION

Please Note: The opening times for St Giles Church notified in the next section will be:

Saturday and Wednesday: 10am to 4pm

SUNDAY: 11am to 5pm

Our apologies for misinformation in Newsletter No 44

LATEST NEWS

August 2013 – Open Days

The Ministry of Defence is allowing access to Imber across Salisbury Plain between 1600hrs on 2nd August until 0800hrs on 23rd August. Please note that this concession is subject to any urgent operational requirements which might mean access is denied for some or all of the period.

Provided that access is allowed, St Giles Church will be open to visitors as follows during August:

Sat 3rd, Sun 4th, Wed 7th, Sat 10th, Sun 11th, Wed 14th, Sat 17th, Sun 18th and Wed 19th August.

The church will be open to visitors between 1000hrs and 1600hrs (10am to 4pm) on Saturday and Wednesday. The church will be open on Sundays between 11am and 5pm.

There is a possibility that St Giles might be opened on further dates in August. You will be among the first to hear when dates are confirmed.

Please read the section below regarding travelling to Imber. It is important that you are aware of restrictions and dangers of moving across the military training area.

Further Open Days in 2013

We hope to have St Giles Church open on the weekend of 21st/22nd September for the St Gilestide Service. More details will follow.

The annual Service of Remembrance will, hopefully, take place on Saturday 9th November. Access to Imber will only be via Warminster. More details will follow.

The Ministry of Defence hopes to allow access to and through Imber as follows over Christmas and New Year. Planned dates are between 1600hrs 20th December 2013 – 0800hrs 6^th January 2014. We hope to hold the Annual Carol Concert on Saturday 21st December in St Giles Church.

All of the above dates are provisional at this stage and are subject to final approval of the Ministry of Defence. They always reserve the right to deny access to Salisbury Plain at short notice for operational reasons.

The Mailing List

The Mailing List now has 1,105 members. Please tell your family, friends and colleagues about the web site and encourage them to sign up. You know that it has no charge, personal details are kept confidential and they will not be bombarded with junk emails !

Latest SPTA Newsletter

The July 2013 Salisbury Plain Training Area Newsletter is now available on www.imberchurch.org.uk Go to the home page and then to the newsletter. Past editions of the SPTA newsletter are also available.

RestrictedAccess to Imber

We who look after St Giles Church in Imber are not able to grant access to Imber Village. Apart from the church, churchyard and access roads and path from the road to the church, the rest of Imber village and the buildings used for military training are out-of-bounds to the general public at all times including days when the metalled roads are open to the public. Members of the public entering any of the buildings are liable to injury from unexploded ordnance and/or prosecution under Salisbury Plain Training Area Bylaws.

It follows that we are not in a position to grant permission for access to Imber village and its buildings when the roads are closed to the public. Those wishing to gain access to the village of Imber must contact the Ministry of Defence, however, it should be remembered that the Salisbury Plain Training Area is in constant use and permission to enter it is unlikely to be granted.

Greetings Card on Sale

A local company continues to offer for sale greetings cards featuring a reproduction of a watercolour by Clifford Meade of Church Street, Imber before the evacuation of the village in 1943.

The card is A5 size and comes complete with envelope. It is left blank inside for your presonal greeting.

A proportion of the income received from sales is being donated to St Giles Church for upkeep.

If you are interested in purchasing this lovely card to send to friends, relatively, or just to keep for yourself, you can get further details by going to gordonlewis.co.uk

* Please note that we have no commercial link with gordonlewis.co.uk and cannot be held responsible for any disputes you may have with that company resulting from this advertisement

Travelling to Imber

Even though St Giles Church is closed and access to Imber is restricted, we feel we must remind you that when you can reach Imber you must use only the metalled roads from Warminster, Gore Cross (A360), Heytesbury and Bratton and the track leading to the church. An outline map of how to reach Imber is on www.imberchurch.org.uk All other areas are out of bounds to the general public. You can read the latest SPTA Newsletter on www.imberchurch.org.uk for detailed safety information regarding the Salisbury Plain Training Area.

As you are probably aware, the Ministry of Defence always reserves the right to deny access to SPTA at short notice for operational reasons. We always contact mailing list members as soon as we become aware of changes to dates and times when the MoD will allow access or at short notice we post on the web site www.imberchurch.org.uk Such decisions are outside our control so we cannot be held responsible for any nugatory travel or expense as a result of last minute closures.