The Great House

I took my leave of the permitted paths through the Purbeck ranges to go exploring, and visit the forlorn ruins of the seat of the Bond family for over 500 years, Tyneham House. Tucked away in the Great Wood, Tyneham House was once, by all accounts, a majestic building with its origins in the early Elizabethan era, and packed with interesting period features, it was said to be one of the finest houses in the county. Even now you can see it must have been something, and the setting...wow, what a place to call home. That goes for the whole valley, which is beautiful throughout. I crept stealthy through the woods towards the old house, eyes and ears open for any movement along the track; I still get that same rush I got as a kid when I'm somewhere I shouldn't be. I'd visited the house with a friend once before about 25 years ago, and I could see straight away how much the house and its environs had changed. Since the 90's the undergrowth has rapidly encroached, climbing the walls, up through the windows, filling courtyards, corners and doorways; nature is eating the house. Though it's in the garden that I noticed the greatest changes, now so overgrown and swampy, where nature is reclaiming what was once hers, Mythago Woody style. When I was here last you could still see the fading semblance of a formally landscaped manor house garden, not so much now. Seeing the ruinous state of the buildings you'd imagine the house was destroyed when the Tyneham valley and all therein were requisitioned for training during World War Two. Though you'd be mistaken. Tyneham House was used a accommodation for the Brandy Bay radar station WAAF staff during the war years, and survived unscathed, remaining intact right into the 1960's. The destruction you see here was done by the army, though primarily through neglect and then after the army had decided that the house couldn't be restored, they destroyed it intentionally. Why they thought that was the right course of action, I don't know; photos of the period show the house in a dilapidated though restorable condition. Some sources suggest that it wasn't that the house couldn’t be restored, but that everything of salvageable value, panelling, stonework, features, things like that, had been removed by the army, and that was why the building was razed.  They also suggest the army realised their mistake and that's why Tyneham House remains off limits, hidden from the public, even though it was the most important building in the village. I don't know, thaey could just be stories, I know whatever the reason, it was a sad waste. Even with all the damage (and the house is damaged far more than any other in the village), there's still so much to see here; as well as the main house you have all the ancillary building and features which kept it going. Today was a nervous recon, now I have the lay of the land, I plan to research the site some more and return in spring for a better look about, see what can be found of the old house and garden. There is one feature particularly that I'm excited about exploring, though that's for another post.