“Please treat the church and houses with care,” reads an anonymous but heartfelt note, pinned to the wooden door of a Dorset church since December 1943. “We have given up our homes where many of us lived for generations to help win the war to keep men free. We shall return one day and thank you for treating the village kindly…”
The story of Tyneham (), is one of great sacrifice and – ultimately – unbearable yearning. With plans afoot for the 1944 Normandy landings, this. The record is a plaintive collection of softly-plucked guitar, wistful Mellotron and rustling field recordings, a melodic amble around Tyneham’s half-demolished cottages and deserted schoolrooms. It has now been freshly reissued on vinyl, but the two musicians involved have always remained resolutely anonymous. “It just seemed unimportant really, who we were,” one of them discreetly tells me. “That being said, I can’t pretend I don’t love a good mystery, and I think we both loved the idea that years after we made it someone might find an old battered copy in the back of a charity shop and wonder what it was all about…”. is re-released on 23 May, and is available from .
