Description

Summary: Set of 6 silver spoons inside a presentation box. The spoons are hallmarked Sheffield 1942 and the maker's mark is HA. A wedding present from Major and Mrs Whistler of Imber Court, to Bernie and Phyllis Wright, the last villagers to be married at Imber Church, November 1943. Bernie Wright was a farm worker and Phyllis was in service at a house in Bratton. Today Imber is an uninhabited village and former civil parish within the British Army's training area, now in the parish of Heytesbury, on Salisbury Plain. Beginning in the 1890s, the Ministry of Defence slowly bought up the village and in 1943 the whole population of about 150 was evicted to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. After the war, the villagers were not allowed to return to their homes. It remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence despite several attempts by former residents to return. Non-military access is limited to several open days a year.