 Hello thank you for joining me I'm at Warminster station just going over the footbridge come here today for the Imba bus rally which I'm very excited about going to we're going to ride the bus up to Imba we're going to see this lost village and what happens here at Warminster once a year is that all these London buses come down here and they take us into Salisbury Plain to this village called Imba that got abandoned in the war which we shall see some of when we get there so as we leave the railway station behind us we step out here you can see there is a London bus and there's lots of people so I'm going to get on one of these buses and enjoy the ride across Salisbury Plain to Imba and then when we get to Imba we'll have a good look around see the church see the abandoned houses so yes go and get on the bus they're upstairs on an open-top bus I hope it doesn't rain for the run to Imba it's going to be quite a sighting we're still outside Warminster station the people who are probably more sensible than me have gone and be covered by Imba and I like going on an open-top bus so very soon we should have the cart warming stuff for Imba This is New Zealand Farm just over there this is the terminus of one of the bus routes so there's none of us behind us it's been quite fun sitting up here on this open-top bus even if it is drizzling a bit what we're going to do now though we're going to go if I stand up you can probably see the road ahead of us we're going to go back down there to Gore Cross bus station which is something a bit different so we're going to go to Gore Cross bus station pretty much the unusual bus station in the UK because it's only there once a year and then from there we should catch a bus to Imba and we'll have a look around the lost village so that's the bus we've been sitting on so we've just been up to New Zealand Farm which was the road up over there towards the trees we're now at Gore Cross bus station so this is a bus station it only exists once a year and you can see there's bus stops and our plan now is to find a bus to Imba and when we get to Imba we'll have a look around the village so you can see there's another route master there looks like this vehicle is here I hope we shouldn't break down into a recovery vehicle so we're in a rather bleak place today and it has started raining if we look across the field you can just see another bus over there just coming in so let's go get that one arrived so there's another bus there it looks like that was possibly British European Airways so it would have been a bus connected with the airline we stand down here we should be able to see this bus arrive I think the yellow area if I'm in the yellow area I think that means I'm safe from buses entirely sure so it's just coming in now the bus you'll see that bus arrival there's been various other modern buses as well Boris Masters and I'm not too much of an expert on buses I'm more of a railway person but you know this is a great event to me if you want to do a bus event and you're not so interested in buses then do come do just see another route master right over there it seems so strange we're out here in the middle of nowhere on Salisbury plain and every now and then you just see this red of a London bus here so here we are there's one coming in now I'll just let you watch that I'm going to go and find a bus now to Imba because that's where I really want to go and have a look around the lost village of Imba and before going to Imba I thought I'd get the bus from Gore Cross to the village of Chittam and there is the church which I believe we're going to have a look in the local village hall has set up some refreshments so I should be able to go in there get a cup of tea here we are the buses are lined up so we'll have to get the bus probably via Gore Cross back towards in but this is the village church so the doors are open so since we're here might as well look obviously we'll take my hat off because men don't wear hats in church so let's just go and see what we can see inside this rather beautiful church history of this church because I've only just got here that's very attractive building and look here looks like there are postcards of the church so I should purchase one again on my way out as a souvenir of my visit to Chittam see what beautiful church in the village I'd never heard of and no railways here so this is the sort of place probably has about one bus a week but today it's got lots and lots of buses so this is Chittam church on the right side now probably get a cup of tea and get a bus back towards Inver and Gore Cross this is probably the furthest away from London you will find a London bus stop we've finally arrived at Inver so here we are you can see this brilliant line up of buses there's some of these houses which we'll be able to have a look at later there's something in behind me the oldest bus stop that's intending the rally today is that a little single decker there there's another one arriving it's really quite an exciting thing to be here seeing all these London buses so far away from London what are we going to do now we're going to go up and have a look at the church which is run by the church's conservation trust and I've been told it's just up the track here so what we'll do now we'll go and have a look at the historic church in Inver and then we'll have a look at some of the houses I don't think we'll actually go in but we can certainly go and see them so let's leave the buses for a bit now and go and find the church I'm just walking up the track now towards St Giles church which is and said it's owned by church's conservation trust because it's a lost village obviously it doesn't have regular congregation but today it's very much come to life and it's where you can go and get refreshments and have a look so there's the church there in front of us let's go and see if we can have a look inside and I think I need to get some rather late lunch because I've been so much enjoying bashing the buses that I haven't had lunch yet but what I'm going to do now take my hat off before going to church put my face covering in and let's go and see what we see this is a map of where I've been so we started there it's where we are now I didn't do this bus route around here today but I didn't use even farm camp we did all the way down here down to the village down there so then I've come back via Gold Cross to Inba we're here in the church we're going to church now have a look and eventually I'll get the bus back to the station so let's go and see now it is fairly busy in the church so I'll just let you see really what the interior is like there's teas and cakes and various other stalls so it's quite interesting let's just have a look the history of Inba what the village would have been like before all the villages were moved out there's pictures of how the village would have once looked before it was all converted into the military training place it is today I've got quite a lot of information about the church's conservation trust so as you can see there's postcards and they fix one order of a church so probably what I'll do probably buy a postcard when I finish recording this clip and what I'm going to do now though is a cup of tea and something to eat and then it's time to have a look at the other houses and get the bus back so let's go following our visits to the church we're back on the main street in Inba what we're going to do now I'm going to have a look at some of what was the village and what's here now so this would have been the main road through Inba there had been houses on each side but they were all moved out in the beginning of the war if you look here though it says 1909 to 1943 so everyone was moved out and they were told they'd be able to come back but they never did come back we have some houses here though these were never lived in these were actually built like this they built these houses basically as abandoned houses for people to train in military personnel to train it's a really rather strange scene just sort of walking past these houses you can't go in very clear but I've been told up here there's a Baptist church so I thought we'd walk up here see what we can see what a funny strange place so when this event's not happening there are soldiers training in there and just see some stairs going up so it'd probably quite be interesting to see but I don't think we'd ever be able to come and see that but there's a whole you know of what looked like would be fairly normal three bedroom houses if they were covered in rendering and had windows and families living in them but these have been built to be abandoned there were some other older buildings which looked like they were possibly surviving from when the village was a functioning village an old east farm which was the other side and of course the church but the church doesn't actually take part in any military training the vicarage was destroyed by a shell and demolished in the late 1960s I believe so it's a really rather unusual place I want to continue to walk up this road because as you can see other people are going in the direction of those houses so we can find the Baptist church and then we shall get a bus back to Warminster railway station this is the site of Imba Baptist church not a lot here few gravestones at the other end so the church would have been here I believe it was demolished in the late 1970s so what we're going to do now we're going to head back to the village centre because that is where we need to go to get a bus back to Warminster to catch my train home I'll just take you out as we come out the gates to where the Baptist church once stood turn around and it's all a bit things you see you don't often see signs saying unexploded military bombs there's a few more houses there which are used for training there's an older building here I believe this one possibly dates back to when Imba village was your usual country village and there's another one across the road so we can go and have a look at those and then as I said it's going to be time for me to head back but it's been a very interesting day both to see the village which you cannot normally see I found it really really fascinating place to come and visit there you are there's possibly an old farm house maybe even a pub but it's been really fascinating place to visit and of course I've enjoyed the bus rally as most of you know I'm more of a railway enthusiast but I do like buses and I've enjoyed riding the buses oh look here we are there's a bit of information on the Baptist church so as you can see Baptist church up there there's a bit of the Baptist church so this way it's going back into Imba that way is the route it's a very scenic route actually out across Salisbury plain back towards Warmeister so there you go there's one of that she tells us what it is it was the bell in it tells us here so whether that was a pub I'm not entirely sure the other building I did want to show you before we head back there's those houses just there we'll have a look at them in a moment up here up the next drive is Imba court which is one of the historic houses from the village so we're still standing over empty I'm not sure if that's used for training it didn't sort of look quite the same as these but it seems strange isn't it so if you want to come to this event it happens once a year if you want nice scenery somewhere a village you can only go to once a year and you like buses or if you just like one of them a village, scenery or buses then do come to this event it's once a year it's usually the penultimate weekend in August it's really good fun I've really enjoyed it's very much worth coming to see I'm just going to turn off up here now we'll go up towards the Imba court there it is in front of us to me I think it's the boarding up it makes it look like a it just looks more like shutters I don't know it just has a bit of a French feeling but we cannot go in it's all had locked up but yeah that is Imba court and there's some other training building just there and have to be on to the right that's really like the most expensive house the richest family of the village probably lived there in Imba court when Imba was you know a functioning village so as I was saying it's very much worth coming to it happens once a year it didn't happen in 2020 for fairly obvious reasons but it's been going for about 10 years and from what I understand all the money raised goes towards the church church's conservation trust church I have been to a few of them in the past and so if you want to visit church's conservation trust church some of them are open all the time some of them you have to go and find a key this one you have a very limited opportunity to go and visit it and just see it over there so if you want to see that church come to the Imba busway I hope you've enjoyed this video I've certainly had a great day thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like, subscribe and comment and hopefully before it starts raining I'm going to go and get my bus back to Walmets the railway station so from the lost village of Imba was once the main street thank you very much goodbye