If you are planning on visiting Tyneham, the Tyneham visitors guide is a must have. It contains all the information you need to plan a successful trip to Tyneham in an instant downloadable guide that you can print out at home. Including information on:

• How to get there (including map)
• Current Opening Times
• Village Map
• Worbarrow Bay Map
• The Secret Location of Tyneham House
• Fascilities at Tyneham
• Frequently asked questions

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There have been many books written about Tyneham, Sadly some of them are now out of print. The books that are still in print are all available from Amazon.co.uk. A couple of the books written by the Bonds of Tyneham are particularly interesting.

Along with the church, Tyneham school has been fully restored, both inside and out and gives a good idea of what school life would have been like for those attending.

The school's head teacher was Miss Norah Woodman who taught her pupils to count using beads. Families had to pay less than 1p per child per month to go towards her salary of £25 a year. At 9am every morning the children would march round the playground to salute the Union Flag.

Tyneham School closed in 1932 and its 13 pupils had to travel to other schools in the local area.

We are currently compling more information and photographs of the school which will be uploaded in the coming weeks.

This video was posted on YouTube and shows the interior of the school.

St Mary's Church is a rather small compared to other churches in the county of Dorset, but it served the villegers of Tyneham quite adequately. Built of limestone rubble and dating from the 13th Century, the South tracept was rebuilt in the mid 19th century by the Reverand William Bond. Tyneham church contains memorials to the Bond family of Tyneham House. After the military took over Tyneham, the church was neglected and some fittings were moved out. The bells and organ were moved to Steeple church and the Jacobean pulpit was moved to Lulworth Camp.

Today, Tyneham's church serves two separate purposes. First and foremost it's a museum of the village. It contains many charts and displays, recording both the broad history and the minutiae of village life - there are documents, artefacts, timelines, old photographs and everything else you'd expect to find in a small town museum.

The second function of the church is to act as a sort of memorial shrine to the 'idylic life' that the inhabitants had so unfairly taken away from them. The names of the villagers now line the inside walls and also grace a restored bible.

When the villagers left the for the last time, a note was pinned to the church door..

"Please treat the church and houses with care; we have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly."

Tyneham House - One of Purbeck's Finest Country Houses

Tyneham House, or 'The Great House' as it was known was the home of the Bonds. The Bonds owned Tyneham and much of the village life revolved around the House. In it's heyday Tyneham House was one of the most beautiful country houses in Dorset. Built in 1523, the three story Elizabethan mansion was set in beautiful grounds with immaculate lawns, lime trees, palms and other tropical plants that were able to survive in the humid micro-climate of the valley.

After the forced evacuation of Tyneham, Tyneham house was used to house members of the WAAF that were billeted there during the war. After the war it was boarded up and remained more or less intact up until the late 1960s with some missing roof tiles the only real sign of neglect.

However, soon after, it was reduced to rubble by the army after it had been assessed and decided that it couldn't be restored, thus leaving demolition as the only option. Photographic evidence shows that this was clearly not the case and could have easily been restored and preserved like the church and school in the village.

The difference with Tyneham House was that few people had ever seen it, let alone knew the whereabouts of it. Unlike the church and school which were well and truly in the public eye, Tyneham House was hidden away in Tyneham Great Wood, roughly half a mile from the village itself.

Before the destruction of Tyneham House, most of the interior and anything else that was salvageable were taken away to other parts of the country and even as far away as America.

The Army have since realised that this was a huge mistake and would rather keep whatever is left of Tyneham House out of the public's eye.. Thus it is left hidden away in Tyneham Great Wood.

Although the army have made it impossible to actually get to Tyneham House, it can still be seen from a couple of easily accesbile vantage points in the surrounding countryside. See the visitors guide for the exact locations.