Imber friendly fire incident

Imber is an uninhabited village within the British Army's training area on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. It lies in an isolated area of the Plain, about 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) west of the A360 road between Tilshead and West Lavington. A linear village, its main street follows the course of a stream. Recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, Imber was always an isolated community, several miles from any market town, and most of its men worked in agriculture or related trades. Beginning in the 1890s, the Ministry of Defence slowly bought up the village and in 1943 the whole population of about 150 was evicted to provide an exercise area for American troops preparing for the invasion of Europe during the Second World War. After the war, the villagers were not allowed to return to their homes. The area of the former parish, which is now part of the civil parish of Heytesbury, remains under the control of the Ministry of Defence despite several attempts by former residents to return. Non-military access is limited to several open days a year.

St Giles' Church in the deserted village of Imber, Wiltshire, England, was built in the late 13th or early 14th century. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade I listed building, and is now a redundant church in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It was declared redundant on 1 November 2002 and was vested in the Trust on 14 September 2005.

The Wessex Ridgeway is a long-distance footpath in southwest England. It runs 136 miles (219 km) from Marlborough in Wiltshire to Lyme Regis in Dorset, via the northern edge of Salisbury Plain and across Cranborne Chase AONB. The footpath was opened in 1994. At Marlborough, the footpath meets the Ridgeway National Trail which continues into Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Two further long-distance footpaths extend to Hunstanton in Norfolk; together, the four paths are referred to as the Greater Ridgeway.

Great Cheverell Hill (grid reference ST966520) is a 33.2 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Great Cheverell in Wiltshire, notified in 1971. The site consists of unimproved species-rich chalk grassland on the edge of Salisbury Plain, parts of it with over forty plant species per square metre, and supports some uncommon butterflies. Its slopes of the Lower Chalk mostly face south-west, and there are two combes. The sward is notable for upright brome (Bromus erectus) and sheep's fescue (Festuca ovina). Other plants include quaking grass! crested hair-grass, Bird's-foot-trefoil, dwarf thistle, small scabious (Scabiosa columbaria) and hoary plantain (Plantago media).

Knook Castle is the site of an Iron Age univallate hillfort on Knook Down, near the village of Knook in Wiltshire, England, but largely within the civil parish of Upton Lovell. It has also been interpreted as a defensive cattle enclosure associated with nearby Romano-British settlements. It is roughly rectangular in plan with a single entrance on the south/south-east side, but with a later break in the wall on the western side. The site is a scheduled monument.John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870–1872) described Knook Castle as follows: Knook Castle is an ancient single ditched entrenchment, of about 2 acres; is supposed to have been originally a British village, and afterwards a Roman summer camp; and has yielded Roman coins. Traces of another ancient British village are to the N. "The site of these villages", says Sir R. Hoare, "is decidedly marked by great cavities and a black soil; and the attentive eye may easily trace out the lines of houses and the streets, or rather the hollow ways, conducting to them. Numerous tumuli and barrows are in the neighbourhood." The site and surrounding downs are easily accessible by public footpath, with the Imber Range perimeter path running east to west immediately to the north of the site. Further to the north lies Imber Range, one of the military firing ranges of Salisbury Plain.

Erlestoke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the northern edge of Salisbury Plain. The village lies about 6 miles (10 km) east of Westbury and the same distance southwest of Devizes. Erlestoke Prison, the only prison in Wiltshire, is within the parish.

HM Prison Erlestoke is a Category C men's prison, to the east of the village of Erlestoke in Wiltshire, England. Erlestoke is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service, and is the only prison in Wiltshire.

The Senior Officers' School was a British military establishment formed in 1916 by Brigadier-General R. J. Kentish for the training of Commonwealth senior officers of all services in inter-service cooperation. It was created as part of a wider attempt by the British Army to create a coherent training plan for its officers. At first at Aldershot, the school was at Erlestoke, Wiltshire, from 1939 until its closure in 1961.

The Aston Valley Barrow Cemetery, or Ashton Valley Barrow Cemetery, is a group of Bronze Age bowl barrow and bell barrow tumuli on the south facing edge of Codford Down on the west side of the valley of the Chitterne Brook, within the civil parish of Codford, in Wiltshire, England. There were originally ten bowl barrows and a single bell barrow, but some of these have now been ploughed out: only the bell barrow and five bowl barrows survive. The site is a scheduled monument.

Baynton House is a Grade II listed 17th-century country house at Coulston, Wiltshire, England, about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of the town of Westbury.

Chitterne is a village and civil parish in the county of Wiltshire, in the south west of England. The village lies in the middle of Salisbury Plain, about 7 miles (11 km) east of the town of Warminster. The Chitterne Brook, a small tributary of the River Wylye, flows southwest through the village.

Little Cheverell is a small village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. In some sources the Latinized name of Cheverell Parva is used, especially when referring to the parish. The village lies on the B3098 Westbury–West Lavington road, which skirts the northern edge of Salisbury Plain, and is about 7+1⁄2 miles (12 km) east of Westbury and 5 miles (8 km) south of Devizes. Like its neighbour to the west, Great Cheverell, the parish is narrow from east to west, but extends south onto higher ground where its southernmost part has been within the Imber Range military training area since 1943.The civil parish elects a parish council. It is in the area of Wiltshire Council unitary authority, which is responsible for all significant local government functions.