Tyneham Village Photos

These photographs document Tyneham village — the church, schoolroom, post office, red phone box, cottages and surrounding landscape — both as it appeared before the 1943 evacuation and as visitors find it today. Some images are from the 1930s and 40s; others are recent.

The Village Today

The roofless cottages of Tyneham village have been preserved by the MoD since the 1970s. The church and schoolroom are maintained as free exhibitions.

Tyneham village today — roofless but preserved

The ruined cottages of Post Office Row

The K1 telephone kiosk — installed in 1929, and one of only five of its type still in existence. The current kiosk is a 1985 replacement; the original was destroyed during filming of the movie Comrades

The rectory cottages in the upper part of the village

Tyneham Church

St Mary's Church dates to the 13th century. Unlike the cottages, it has been maintained with a roof and is open as a free exhibition, housing photographs and documents about village life.

St Mary's Church, Tyneham — maintained as a heritage exhibition

Inside the church: photographs and village records

The note the villagers pinned to the church door on 19 December 1943 as they left

Tyneham School

The village school has been restored to its 1943 appearance, with original desks, slates, and a blackboard. It's free to enter and gives a vivid sense of what school life was like.

The school building, preserved and open as a free exhibition

The restored classroom interior

The school from the village path

Tyneham school class of 1912 — a photograph displayed in the schoolroom

The Post Office and Village Cottages

Post Office Row was the main terrace of cottages. The post office was also the village shop and the hub of local communication.

The post office building — open as an exhibition

Minterne's Cottage at Worbarrow Bay — the Minterne family were among the Worbarrow fisherfolk

Rose Cottage, one of the ruined Post Office Row cottages

One of the surviving outbuildings in the village

Tyneham House

Tyneham House was the Elizabethan manor of the Bond family, who had owned the estate for centuries. Requisitioned in 1943 and largely demolished by the military in 1973, only the earthworks and terraced gardens remain.

Tyneham House photographed in 1943, the year of the requisition

The house and terraced gardens — only the earthworks survive today

East elevation of Tyneham House

Inside Tyneham House before the evacuation

Historic Village Life

Before the evacuation, around 250 people called Tyneham home. These photographs give a glimpse of the community that was displaced.

Tyneham village c.1930 — photographed over a decade before the evacuation

An early black-and-white photograph of the village

Tyneham Farm — farming was the backbone of the village community

Tyneham village in the early 1900s

Portraits of Tyneham Families

These portraits of Tyneham residents — many taken from the documentary Tyneham Remembered — are among the only surviving photographs of the people who called the village home.

The Holland family at Tyneham Farm, 1909

Rose Holland, Nell, Arthur, Ellen and Jack Davis — several Tyneham families

Charles and Harriet Miller of Worbarrow Bay. Charlie, 92 and seriously ill at the evacuation, died days later and was buried at Tyneham by special permission of the Army

Jack and Miggie at Sea Cottage, Worbarrow Bay, c.1930

Percy Holland with the farm horses

Jack Davis at work on Tyneham Farm

George Davis and Bill Holland

Members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force outside Tyneham House during the war

Taking Your Own Photographs at Tyneham

The village faces east, so the cottages and church are at their best in morning light — and arriving when the gates open at 9am also means photographing the village before the crowds arrive. Worbarrow Bay faces south-west and rewards late-afternoon visits. The K1 telephone box outside the post office is the most photographed object in the village; the schoolroom interior, with its desks and coat pegs, is the most photographed indoor scene. Autumn mist in the valley makes the ruins especially photogenic, and the site is far quieter outside the school holidays.

Drone flying is not permitted — the village sits inside an active military range. Check the opening times before travelling, as the ranges close at short notice.