ABOVE: Preserved Swindon Corporation 145 (JAM 145E), a 1967 Daimler CVG6 with Northern Counties bodywork is seen near New Zealand Farm Camp. This bus was amongst the last front entrance half-cab Daimlers built for the UK. All photos in this article were taken on Saturday 15 August 2026.
Imberbus 2026
A Quirky Photo Collection
22 August 2026
One of the things I love about Imberbus, apart from the obvious, is the wide appeal it has. It encourages bus enthusiasts, of course, but it goes far wider. Explorers, historians and ornithologists go. So do those that want a family day out, so do geocachers (or so I'm told) and so do those who are just curious to find out what all the fuss is about. Young people, old people, locals from the Wiltshire environs and visitors from China who have made the trip to the UK especially, all together on a day out like no other.
Well I say "together". The area covered is probably at least 60 square miles, and around 40 buses, old and new, are running around the 'site', so it's easy to miss someone! It's still a shared experience, though, for the thousands who are there or thereabouts!
Starting Point: Warminster
On this, my fourth consecutive visit to Imberbus, I know exactly what to expect, but I still feel a thrill of anticipation on the final approach to Warminster. The train from Salisbury to Warminster always feels like a long haul, even though it's only actually a 20 minute journey. I have been perfectly calm on the ride from London - which has taken five times as long - but now I'm eager to get stuck in!
And 'getting stuck in' means joining the queue at Warminster Station. The front of the queue is directly outside, but I and my two delightful lady companions need to walk the length of Station Road (500 feet), before turning into Fairfield Road. We pass the entrance to Lidl and then the entrance to the Argos and B&M complex, before coming to a halt outside a Fitness Centre. (There's surely no better way to get fit than to join this queue?)
We're around 1,000 feet from the front of the queue. As one of the stewards puts it, that's about "12 or 13 buses' wait"! It doesn't occur to me to count, but I reckon we actually get to the front in eight or nine buses... It only takes 20 minutes anyway!
Don't be put off by this queue - it is well worth the wait for what is to follow, and it's an essential part of the show!
And those "12 or 13" buses will parade past, taking those who somehow managed to get to Warminster even earlier than us - presumably those living or staying locally - into the adventure. And of course, there are also the incoming vehicles to see. Will this one, below, become ours?
Delaine Heritage Trust's preserved 130 (X7 OCT), a Volvo B7TL East Lancs Vyking, in seen in Station Road, Warminster. Built in 2000, it was the very first Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations (PSVAR) compliant vehicle to enter the Delaine fleet. It was also the first low-floor double-decker built by East Lancs.
I have documented all of my previous visits (see 2023, 2024 & 2025 reports). This time I have focused on capturing some of the essence of the event by taking photographs from less 'standard' angles. So fewer full front and side bus pictures and more 'quirky' approaches instead. This is known in the trade as the "couldn't get a front seat anywhere" approach...
So what is Imberbus all about? The isolated village of Imber ("seven miles from anywhere") was commandeered by the War Office in 1943 so that it could be used as a military training ground in preparation for the D-Day landings. The 150 inhabitants were told that they would be able to return home after the war, but that never happened (see this article on the Weird Wiltshire blog for more of the history).
Imberbus has, since 2009, given people a chance to ride through this otherwise-forgotten, and normally out-of-bounds, abandoned village, with special permission from the Ministry of Defence.
The Restricted Area
So here we go again. We're on a regular here, preserved Swindon Corporation 145 (JAM 145E), a 1967 Daimler CVG6 with Northern Counties bodywork, and we enter the restricted area at Sack Hill, a mile-and-a-half north-east of Warminster. It's all military land around here, and even Google Streetview gives out. I wonder that one or two of the older buses don't do the same - it's a steep climb (ours gets quite slow)...
Another of the regular buses to appear at Imberbus is preserved Wilts & Dorset 4413 (BFX 666T, below), a Bristol VRT/SL3, seen here passing through the Security Gate as it leaves the restricted area. We are about to enter. Normally, we would need a reason to want to gain entry here, but not today!
About 15 minutes later, we are in the village of Imber itself, where preserved Routemaster RM 1005 (5 CLT, below) is awaiting its return to Warminster. The vehicle is owned by Lord Peter Hendy, one of the founders of Imberbus and currently the Minister of State for Rail. All of the bus stop infrastructure is brought to the site for each event. The bus stop here carries Lord Hendy's initials.
The passage to the right leads to the only surviving original building in Imber - the late-13th century Church of St Giles. You can just pick out the top of the spire through the trees. A few 'service' vehicles for the event are also visible - cars are otherwise not allowed (they have a separate day to visit).
Incidentally, don't ask for a postcode for the church - it doesn't have one!
Gore Cross
The focal point of the buses is not really Imber, but Gore Cross, just outside the restricted zone to the east. All buses, except Warminster to Imber short workings, call here. This is broadly where the different branches of the service diverge. Below, a Routemaster approaches from Imber. It will turn left where we are now, drive past Highland Farm, and towards the link road to the "Interchange".
And here, below, is one of the first views you are likely to get of Gore Cross Bus Station. An open-top Routemaster is flanked by a modern Stagecoach ADL Enviro400 MMC in the latest livery, whilst another Routemaster approaches from the extreme right. You can also pick out a box-like vehicle on the left, which I mistakenly take to be an MCW Metrobus. You can find out what it actually is shortly...
Well it looks as though the planning permission for the modern-build Bus Station still hasn't gone through, but there are toilets here, which gives it more facilities than many Bus Stations (admittedly the toilets here are portaloos)! The sign below, though, is new this year.
Gore Cross Interchange is, understandably, just a large piece of hard-standing gravel, but it wasn't even that when the event started in 2009. There isn't even a road here in the 2009 Google Streetview image of the access road - it's just a track. It is marked on the map, though, and a much more recent satellite view picks it out (sadly, not on an Imber day - it's deserted).
The vehicle I thought might be a Metrobus turns out to be preserved Alexander RV bodied Volvo Ailsa V1 (A101 SUU, below), one of three such vehicles that were bought by London Transport in 1985 for evaluation trials alongside eight vehicles of other types. And there's a Mercedes-Benz O530G Citaro G articulated bus parked up as well. Preserved Stagecoach London 23021 (LX03 HDE) is presumably just for show. As one bus crew member remarks: "it wouldn't fit around some of the roads we're covering".
As the point where the different routes converge, we do of course see Gore Cross several times during the day. And it gets busier...
Below, Volvo Ailsa V1 again, heading a line-up of three buses heading for Imber and/or Warminster. An unidentified RML and Chaseside Propulsion 208 (W444 CSP), an ADL Enviro400 help to swallow up the queues, which are being expertly and fairly managed by the stewards here.
Buses are scheduled to connect at Gore Cross so a flurry of activity is inevitable. Here are five buses all heading in, led by an open-top Scania N230UD Optare Visionaire from morebus, and Delaine Heritage Trust 130 again. The rest of the troupe comprises of Metroline Travel VWH 2135 (LK65 EBU), a Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3, Arriva London LT 2 (LTZ 1002), a Wright New Routemaster (in green), and another preserved Routemaster.
Photographed from Gore Cross, preserved open-top Routemaster RML 2318 (CUV 318D) is seen, below, on the road towards Highland Farm.
On the road from Gore Cross towards Imber, I was sitting in the wrong position on this Routemaster to get a view of six buses heading towards Gore Cross (you can probably see three through the driver's cab if you use your imagination). But I wondered what chaos might have followed there, especially if several buses from other branches were all to turn up at once...
Note the warning sign out of the front passenger window.
Tilshead and Chitterne
I have included the slightly blurred picture of Tilshead, below, because it includes both St Thomas à Becket Church, Grade-I Listed with some features dating back to the 12th century, and a stone bus shelter, which serves regular bus services on the Devizes to Salisbury route.
In Chitterne, below, almost 60 years separate these two buses. On the left is another view of 1967 Swindon Corporation 145, whilst Salisbury Reds 1327 (HV 26 CWF), a Wright StreetDeck Electroliner, entered service for the first time in March 2026.
Back in Tilshead, below, there is some chaos as three buses load up in the High Street, headed up by Thames Travel 80996 (BU25 ZHX), one of the hideously-uncomfortable Volvo B8L MCV EvoSetis normally found on the X40 Reading to Oxford route. Why hideous? See my comments here.
Market Lavington
We haven't stopped off in Market Lavington before, but it's by far the busiest village in the Imberbus portfolio and merits a visit.
Here's a rather anachronistic view of a modern London bus, entering Church Street from White Street in Market Lavington, whilst a traditional village scene, of Morris Dancers heading for a performance, plays out. The bus is Go-Ahead London DEL 153 (LY75 SDO), a Wright Streetdeck Electroliner, and, as I write this, I can't find any evidence that it has entered revenue-earning service in London...
And here, on White Street, preserved London Transport Routemaster RML 2305 (CUV 305C) is about to perform the same manoeuvre as DEL 153.
The Parish Church of St Mary is from the late 13th century:
And in the grounds of the church, we find the aforementioned Morris Dancing 'side' giving a performance. I can vouch that the man in the red socks in the centre of the picture was really having fun - lovely to see!
And what could be a more village-like scene than this:
New Zealand
The final trip of the day for us is to New Zealand Farm Camp. The scenery along the route is stunning, but the Farm Camp is another military training facility and doesn't look inviting...
There's not to much else to see at New Zealand itself. Is that the most isolated bus stop in Britain?
Return to Warminster
As we come out of the restricted area and back into the environs of Warminster, we look down, from Sack Hill, onto the village below. I would love to get down there and take some photos of the buses passing up and down the hill. But I don't think I can... It looks like this is military land as well - a barracks only accessible via an entry gate. That's why no-one has ever taken pictures of Imberbus from that angle, then...
Back in Warminster at the end of a busy day, and the queues have all gone now. Preserved Routemaster RML 2735 (SMK 735F, below, left) has just finished another run, whilst preserved London Transport AEC Regent III RT 3435 (LYR 854) is the only one of its type to have come to Imber today.
This 74-year-old veteran will subsequently lead the traditional evening cavalcade out of Imber, the moment when (most of) the buses to have taken part during the day form a final procession from Imber back to Sack Hill, vacating the site as they do so for another year.
And, with the hour approaching seven, as we prepare to head back to London, there are few signs left in Warminster that anything out of the ordinary has been happening here today. Only three things - Chaseside 208, whose owners have clearly decided not to take part in the cavalcade, the adjacent bus stop flag (in Manchester Bee Network style), and the barriers - give the game away. Calm is descending again on Warminster.
Until next year, when hopefully we'll do it all over again!
My thanks as always to the organisers, the bus owners and their crews and all of the others involved in making this such a fun and enjoyable day.
Have a look at this video by Theo Thompson to get more of a feel for what this event looks like, and to see the cavalcade.
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