Imberbus 2024

 

17 August

Imberbus 2024

I had another day out riding buses on Route 23A on a normally closed military road on Salisbury Plain to the "lost" village of Imber and to some other villages around the edges of the military training ranges.
Imber isn't really lost, it was just taken over by the army during the second small disagreement of 1939-1945 and never returned to the former residents. Which means it's off-limits to the public save for a few days a year when access is granted to visit St. Giles Church in the village and the August date has now become a regular event, Imberbus, where many heritage buses from London and elsewhere (and some modern ones too) provide a service from Warminster to Imber and onward to several destinations beyond. It's a fun day out which in recent years has become incredibly well attended, fares are £10 adult and £2 child and it's an "all day rover" ticket with the proceeds going to charity. In 2023 that was £38,000 and judging by the crowds again this year should at least reach something similar.

 

 

There was a very long queue outside Warminster Station when I arrived at about 1130 so having obtained my ticket I joined the back of it and waited for a bus to turn up. The first one up was a modern single decker from the local Beeline operator, lots of people in the queue shunned this preferring to wait for a Routemaster so those of us who weren't so fussy hopped on for a comfortable and not crowded ride to Imber.

 

 

At Imber I decided against joining the long queue to the church - I've seen it before - and caught another modern bus, the LT Museum branded electric double decker bound for the village of Tilshead via the interchange at Gore Cross. The top deck was full but I got the last seat downstairs and when a lot of people got off at Gore Cross quite a few of us dashed upstairs to claim the vacant seats for the rest of the way to Tilshead. I'd never got off at Tilshead before and now I know why. Despite the crowds of thirsty visitors the pub, The Rose & Crown, (with the rather unusual inn sign)) was shut. On a Saturday lunchtime? A Bath City double decker appeared going to Chitterne appeared so I got on it. Chitterne is a good place to watch the buses and have lunch. The village hall does a roaring trade in refreshments and there was room on the green outside to eat my picnic lunch.

 

 

Three buses in and I'd yet to ride on anything that was old enough to buy beer so when an open topped Bristol FS turned up I bagged a seat on that to take me to Gore Cross. But downstairs because I've made the mistake of the open top deck out of Chitterne before. Those trees are low and they hurt!

 

 

Gore Cross is the interchange point for all the routes east of Imber, connecting to Chitterne, Tilshead, The Lavingtons (Market & West), the amusingly named Brazen Bottom, and New Zealand Farm Camp. The first three being villages and the last two being fairly remote points on the Salisbury Plain ranges. Gore Cross interchange itself is a gravelly square on an exposed hillside and being a really good spot for photos and filming is busy with both passengers swapping routes and Men Who Like Buses™ There's a corner of Gore Cross which is a happy haven for neurodiversity and all the better for it.

I got my cheap action camera out here and the result is this 10 minute video.

Comparing 2024 and 2023 crowds with my video from 2022 (see Youtube playlist) where Gore Cross is at times almost empty brings home just how popular Imberbus has become in a short time.

My next ride was on an open top Routemaster but the top deck was full so I grabbed one of the inward facing benches over the rear wheels where knee room is less of an issue and took a ride out through Brazen Bottom and Market Lavington and back to Gore Cross. After spending a bit more time videoing the comings and goings I calculated that i had enough time to repeat that loop, this time on the top deck of Routemaster Coach RMC1485 (roomier and more comfortable than a standard Routemaster) and then remain on board back through Imber to Warminster to get my train home.

 

 

This proved to be a wise move since the queue for buses back to Warminster from Gore Cross was now alarmingly long. On the return through Gore Cross towards Warminster we managed to squeeze on a few more passengers with the last seat, next to mine, being taken by Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill on his way back to Imber village. Only fair really given that he's the driving force behind organizing Imberbus. So the few of us at the back of the top deck got a bit of an insight into the running of the event and the history of Imber. And I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that "I'm never doing this again" was said only in jest ☺

 The journey home was "interesting", I got the last train north from Warminster before the usual GWR Saturday cancellations started, and my connecting service at Bath Spa came complete with half a dozen BTP officers and a couple of hundred drunk/coked-up Milwall FC fans. So that wasn't a tense journey at all. Better than last year though when loads of trains got cancelled and the only way out of Warminster was, it turned out, on a bus!

I seem to have taken relatively few photos this year but there are 20 in this Flickr Album 

 

Stonehenge Experience

24th March 2019

Last time I went to Stonehenge you could still walk right up to the stones, so it must have been in the 1970s. I vaguely remember the old visitor centre and car park. Of course back then the A344 still passed to the north of the monument, since then it has been closed and partly obliterated, the remaining part being used for shuttle buses to ferry the less able bodied or the lazy from the new visitor centre to the stones.

The new visitor centre contains an exhibition about the site, a ticket office, toilets, and of course a gift shop and cafeteria.

Entry is by timed ticket. I got in for "free" as an English Heritage member as do National Trust members but you do need to download a timed ticket and present this at the ticket office where an entry ticket will be issued. I was a bit early but was told not to take any notice of the time on the ticket and just go in anyway via the exhibition where my ticket was examined and ticked with a marker pen. The exhibition would be worth spending some time studying if you weren't at all familiar with Stonehenge. I gave it a brief tour and then headed outside, past the replica neolithic houses, and walked up the former A344 to the monument.

On the way there is a roadside memorial to Major Alexander William Hewetson, of the 66th Battery Royal Field Artillery, who was killed in a flying accident on 17 July 1913. In the early 20th century this was a  popular area for flying (and crashing) military aircraft. By the visitor centre is another similar memorial, the Airman's Cross,  erected in memory of two pioneer airmen, Captain Eustace Loraine and Staff Sergeant Richard Wilson, who were killed in a flying accident near Stonehenge in 1912.

On arrival at the end of the access road where the shuttle buses stop my ticket was checked again and I was allowed to join the crowds around the stones. The majority of whom seemed to be busloads of European teenagers, presumably on school trips. Along with them were the obligatory Oriental tourists and the occasional New Age pagan type. What they all had in common was an obsession with taking selfies.

I had downloaded the free app and audio guide before my visit - although I had to dig out an older smartphone as the app refused to play more than 1 second of the audio on my current one - so I put my earphones in which helped cover the noise from the student horde and made my way around the site with the guided commentary. Which was actually quite clear and informative. Worth getting if you're visiting, audio guide gadgets can be rented from the visitor centre if you don't have a suitable smartphone or tablet.

The stones remain an impressive feat of engineering whatever their purpose was.

There are plenty of theories and many of them have evidence to support them. I don't propose to go not them here though.

One thing is certain though, they had bugger all to do with the Druids. Not the original ones anyway. There were one or two modern ones amongst the crowds though.

Concern for the preservation of the underlying archeology and the misbehaviour of some visitors in the 1970s means you can no longer get within touching distance of the stones unfortunately.

The closest point that the fenced path gets is to the back of the monument where many of the stones are missing, affording a better view into the interior.

It's here that the press of selfie takers is thickest. In fact some visitors don't seem to bother looking any further. Stonehenge ✅
Walking back to the visitor centre I went the quiet way, up across the chalk to the Cursus Barrows and then behind the wooded area of the Fargo Plantation.

Up here there were hardly any visitors. It was a pleasant stroll back in the sunshine with the short turf underfoot, a gentle breeze, and the sound of birdsong (and the distant A303) in the ears.

That A303 of course may not be there in future if the plans go ahead to put it in a tunnel, depriving passing travellers of a free view of the stones. It might or might not also end the long traffic jams at busy times although more likely will just move them elsewhere.

So did I enjoy my second visit to Stonehenge? Yes, up to a point. Over the last couple of years I  have driven past it many times on the way to work somewhere or other so it made a change to turn off at the Winterbourne Stoke roundabout instead. Would I have visited if I'd had to stump up the £20 rather than got in "free" as a member?
Probably not if I'm honest. As with many of our heritage sites there's a certain amount of "disneyfication" that puts me off.

Anyway, Flickr Album of photographs of the stones and surroundings here.