Today, the former inhabitants of the village of Imber on Salisbury Plain held an event to commemorate their village. Imber was evacuated in the 1930s, and its residents never allowed back. The village buildings remain, and are in continual use for military training. At least another ten other villages across England have been depopulated for various reasons during the 20th century.
Regular readers will recall a couple of blogposts here about the abandoned villages in the Pairc area of Lewis. They were cleared in the years up to 1826; the croft histories for Pairc (except for Stiomrabhagh, Orasaigh and Leumrabhagh) all end in that year. It may well be possible to trace the descendants of the residents of Brunigil, Stromos, Airigh Dhomhnuill Chaim, Rias, Scaladale Beag and Mor, Gilvicphaic, Ceannmore, Bagh Ciarach and Bagh Reimsabhaigh, Bunchorcabhig, Glenclaidh, Smosivig, Caolas an Eilean, Valamus and Valamus Beag, Ceann Chrionaig, Brollum, Hamascro, Mol Truisg, Molhagearraidh, Ailtenish, Buhanish, Gearraidh Righsaidh, Ceann Tigh Shealag, Gearraidh Reastail and Stiomrabhagh. The Angus Macleod Archive in Kershader has a few stories from there, and of course the famous Pairc Raid of 1887 came to a head at Kinloch Shell.
However, I feel it my duty to keep alive the awareness of the memory of those places, and indirectly the people and their stories.
Good for you, but these places are and will be remembered by the people descended from those who lived in these places. My own people came from Ceann Crionaig at the head of Loch Brollum.
ReplyDeleteWhich is exactly what I was hoping for, BOH. I hope to see some of the locations with my own eyes one day.
ReplyDelete