Tyneham House.
10" Coloured Vinyl with hand made booklet.
300 numbered copies + download code.
Pre-orders now available.
Previously available on CD as a split release between Second Language and Clay Pipe Music, this is its first outing on vinyl.
The small village of Tyneham, on the beautiful Isle of Purbeck, in Dorset, was once a thriving little community – that is until the British Government requisitioned it for training manoeuvres and other ‘strategic purposes’ in the run up to WWII. This was supposed to be a temporary measure, but the area remained in military possession long after hostilities had ceased, causing distress among former inhabitants, many of whom were farmed out to prefabs in nearby Wareham and Swanage.
Tyneham
was characterised by its red telephone box, a tiny parade of shops –
Post Office Row – and a grand country pile which stood about half a
mile away from the village: Tyneham House. The army removed the
building’s oak panelling and ornate decorative details and promptly set
about using it for target practice. So great was the shame expressed
locally about the damage inflicted upon one of Dorset’s grandest houses
that the powers that be decided to grow a copse around the remains of
the structure to give the impression that it was no longer there.
Despite this, a substantial part of the structure remains intact,
including its Saxon hall.
Land
access around Tyneham was opened up in the 1970s, but admission to the
house remains strictly verboten. Those who’ve been found around the
premises, especially anyone wielding a camera, have felt the full
weight of military trespass law. Tyneham today is regarded as a nature
reserve by some – as a national embarrassment by others. It’s still a
political hot potato, in Dorset at least.
The pastoral, wistful yet ineffably disquieting music of Tyneham House
is made by artists who wish to remain anonymous here, save for their
eponymous title. The musicians are happy, however, to let it be known
that these recordings have been around for some years (many of them
complied from old cassettes) and that they take inspiration from the
1960s/’70s/’80s work of the Children’s Film Foundation – a body who
really ought to have made a film about this mysterious West Country
curio. At least now we have its endlessly poignant soundtrack.
Tracklisting:LP
• A Chalk Horse
• Rookery Wood
• Coppice Walk
• Binoculars
• Bletchingley
• Post Office Row
• The Crows Circle
• Winter Carriage
• The Ragged Cat
• I Shall Not Cross The Sleeping Hill
• The Porch Room
• Saxon Chapel
• Last Village Before The Sea
• Lit Room At Midnight
• Rookery Wood
• Coppice Walk
• Binoculars
• Bletchingley
• Post Office Row
• The Crows Circle
• Winter Carriage
• The Ragged Cat
• I Shall Not Cross The Sleeping Hill
• The Porch Room
• Saxon Chapel
• Last Village Before The Sea
• Lit Room At Midnight
Download Extra :
A: A School Holiday, 1977
B: May Day, 1981
B: May Day, 1981