Tuesday 24 January 2012

BEYOND COINCIDENCE

Have you ever felt that events went beyond coincidence - that certain happenings had a pattern, almost as if an unseen hand were at work to ensure some specific result?

Continuing from where my Blog ended yesterday, I began to feel an invisible hand guiding matters after I left Philip Draper clutching a fat file of documentation, letters and photographs dating from 1943 to the present day.  Philip (whom I had met for the first time just two hours earlier) had loaned me this invaluable file for as long as I needed it.  The degree of trust he had placed in me was truly awesome.

My earliest visit to the village that died had coincided with the arrival of workmen to open up St Mary's Church for the first time since 1943.  Although it was in a dangerous condition and members of the public were not permitted within, I was permitted.  I can't explain why the workmen let me (and nobody else) in and doubt they could explain it either.  Whatever the reason, it was an extraordinary feeling to be the first person to enter the church where long ago the Bond family and Tyneham villagers had worshipped.

Even more extraordinary, though, was the phone call I received from a friend, April, several days later telling me that her church (St Mark's, West Parley) had just acquired the bell from St Mary's, Tyneham.  She had learned this moments ago from her parish magazine.

When not dreaming about Tyneham, I was finding that reminders of the village reached me in various such unexpected guises. I had decided on the name 'Tice' for the fictitious family I planned to instal in Tyneham House - but had told nobody of this decision. Then April rang to say that the grandfather of a friend of her daughter's had served in the same Masonic Lodge as the late Lieutenant-Colonel Bond.  She added that Mr Tice had expressed interest in the novel I was planning to write.  Startled, I asked her to repeat the name - and there was no mistake.  Things were getting stranger and stranger!

Conversing one day with my elderly neighbour's daily help, Lily, I learned that her mother was once cook to Mrs Bond at Tyneham House.

On and on the 'coincidences' went.  I discovered during my initial research in 1976 that dates that year fell on the same days as during 1943.  I made exactly the same discovery again when doing further (and final!) research in 1993. Harvest Thanksgiving in all three cases was held on 3 October.  Why was the beginning and end of my research separated by so many years?  The answer to that can wait till my next Blog - beyond coincidence continued ...

Monday 23 January 2012

HELP FROM THE OTHER SIDE?

Did I receive help from the other side while researching Tyneham, the Dorset village that died? Well, judge for yourself as I tell you of the coincidences (or synchronicity?) that led me eventually to write my novel OUT OF TIME (published in hardback, but soon also to be available via Kindle Direct).

Like I said yesterday, I had to wait for seemingly ages before even seeing Tyneham, it having been strictly out of bounds when I first read the snippet about it in the EVENING ECHO.  Yes, years went by - and then, when I was planning a Kimmeridge picnic with my two small daughters, I saw a road sign en route for Kimmeridge proclaiming 'The road to Tyneham is OPEN'.  So, my heart beating like a hammer, I went there - driving down a winding hill into the valley that had been hidden from prying eyes since wartime.

How profoundly that visit affected me!  How I vowed from that day onwards to find out more about Tyneham's story - and tell it to the whole world!

After asking in my local library for information on Tyneham I was handed - much to my surprise - the book TYNEHAM - A LOST HERITAGE by Mrs L.M.G. Bond.  (I had expected, you see, magazine articles or newspaper cuttings - never such an informative 'find'!)

After reading Lilian Bond's graphic account of an idyllic childhood spent in Tyneham's Elizabethan Manor House and of her family's subsequent banishment, thanks to a series of broken promises, I was soon firing on all cylinders. 

My telephone directory revealed that a Lieutenant-Colonel A.R. Bond lived at Creech Grange - a manor house quite close geographically to Tyneham's - and, concluding that he might well be a relative of Lilian's, I wrote to him immediately.  His widow phoned me the very next morning to put me in touch with Major-General Mark Bond - Lilian's nephew and heir to Tyneham House - who now lived in Owermoigne.

I wrote to Mark, expressing my interest in his old home, and heard from him by return of post with an invitation to telephone for an appointment.  I did so at once and later that week he welcomed me into his home.  As he was serving overseas at the time of the 1943 evacuation from Tyneham, he said that the best person to help me would be Philip Draper, who now lived on the Arne peninsula.  The Major-General readily gave his blessing to the writing of my proposed novel - and, later on, to the use of his Aunt Lilian's beautiful poem TYNEHAM as my frontispiece.

On the day that I posted my first letter to Philip Draper I also went to Worbarrow (the beach beyond Tyneham) to start absorbing atmosphere.  Up on Worbarrow's cliffs, I did a spot of pilfering - removing a small piece of Purbeck stone from one of the ruins there.  This I placed under my pillow - and soon started dreaming many remarkable dreams about Tyneham.

Philip Draper telephoned immediately on receipt of my letter and we arranged an appointment for the following week.  Visiting him and his wife at their idyllic cottage on the shore of Poole Harbour, right at the tip of the Arne Peninsula, I discovered in time that the stone I had taken was from the ruin of their old home!

Let's leave the story there for today, ending with the question - given the ease of all my discoveries and the quality of my dreams - was I already receiving help from the other side?

Sunday 22 January 2012

COINCIDENCES - OR SYNCHRONICITY?

Over my next several Blogs I'll be telling you of an extraordinary sequence of events and letting you make up your own mind as to whether these were coincidences - or synchronicity.

It all began a long time ago.  I lived in Bournemouth back then and read a little snippet in my local newspaper, the EVENING ECHO, headed 'Tyneham - The Village That Died'.  For some reason, this heading touched me deeply and I was determined to visit the village in question and find out how and why it had 'died'.

But, despite my determination, this proved impossible until 1976.  Why?  Because of the dangers of going there!  What dangers could there possibly be, in a small Dorset village hidden among the Purbeck hills?  Well, unexploded bombs, among other things - and a definite risk of DEATH.  The more I read (researching the subject in my local library) the more I yearned to go to Tyneham.  I needed patience, though, before I could go - plenty of patience, which stood me in good stead eventually.

I look forward to sharing my experiences with you and en route you may want to ask yourself the question that I've asked myself many, many times - was help reaching me regularly from the 'other side'?  And where do we draw the line to decide whether we're experiencing mere coincidences - or synchronicity?