After missing a year, Routemasters and other mainly London vehicles returned to Salisbury Plain for this unique one-day registered service across the military ranges. Co-founder MARTIN CURTIS, who also took these photographs, describes what was there and what this year’s event achieved
Imberbus, begun in 2009 with four London Routemasters providing one-day registered bus service 23A from Warminster across the normally inaccessible Salisbury Plain firing ranges, controlled by the Ministry of Defence, returned on August 21 after the Covid pandemic caused its cancellation last year. Twenty-seven vehicles took part, 24 of them providing the service; 14 of these were classic Routemasters.
All funds raised by the event are donated to charities, principally the Royal British Legion and the Friends of St Giles Church in Imber, the Wiltshire village evacuated in 1943 as Allied troops took over the area in preparation for D-Day and the invasion of mainland Europe.
Although villagers fully expected to return to their homes after the war, the area has remained under military control, with buildings used for training in connection with subsequent conflicts. It is only open to the public on a handful of occas…
