Thanks Fred, for a terrific link!
I'll be browsing that for some time.

To answer your question, I would presume the MOD used the area
for target practice, or war games of some sort, and the area would have
unexploded ordinance around. It still seems rather weird though.



"fred fep" wrote in message ink.net...
| This is the eeriest of ghost towns I have ever heard of:
| http://www.weymouth.here-on-the.net/tyneham.html
|
| What did they do to this island that people are banned forever?
|
|
| "Rodney" wrote in message
| ...
|
| Ten minutes in the "life" of a post office helped make
| it a famous landmark on the philatelic front. For,
| prior to its recent opening it had remained closed
| for the past 30 years. And probably would've
| remained that way if it were not for a group of
| local village folk who wanted to echo a protest!
|
| The post office, situated at Tyneham, a Dorset village,
| is in a terrace of decaying houses. These properties
| were taken over by the War Department in 1943.
| It became too much for some folk to bear seeing
| such buildings neglected and still under control of
| the Army. So they formed a group. Called themselves
| the 1943 Committee.
|
| Braving warning signs and the dangers of unexploded
| shells, they cut through barbed wire and set up shop
| selling postcards from the old post office stores.
| Philatelic holidaymakers were in their element buying
| up post-card views of the area stamped
| "Posted at Tyneham Post Office".
| However, brisk business came to a standstill
| after just 10 minutes of opening, when the protesters
| agreed to leave. (The original inhabitants were ordered
| to leave six days before Christmas 1943).
| When all was calm again, police removed a sign stating
| "Tyneham Post Office Reopens After 30 Years".
| And troops started replacing the posts and fencing
| around the shop.
|
| Apparently ten square miles of these ranges were
| recommended for release to the people by Lord Nugent's
| Defence Lands Report. And as committee chairman'
| Mrs Mavis Caver put it "We did this to show Lord Carrington
| that the Government must accept the report and
| conserve this land as a huge natural wilderness
| owned by the National Trust".
|
| It's nice to know that, when you get right down to it,
| the ordinary post office can play such an important
| part in community life!
|
| "Bird Talk" by Shirley Channack 1973
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