The Morning Post, in 1934, reported:
LAND PURCHASED IS ESSENTIAL FOR ARMY TRAINING
Tracts of land on the outskirts of Imber, including a part of the village, are among portions of the Salisbury Plain purchased by the War Office.
The total area of War Department land on the Plain is now over 80,000 acres. When all the land earmarked in the scheme of purchase has been brought into the Government area, it will bring the area up to approximately 100,000 acres.
Already Wiltshire provides the largest area for the training and manoeuvres of troops in the country.
The recent acquisitions are in the neighbourhood of Imber on the Warminster side of the Plain. Last year a considerable portion of land between Warminster and Westbury was set apart as a machine-gun range, and a permanent training camp was established near Warminster. Now, other tracts of land on the outskirts of Imber, including a part of the village, have been acquired.
This part of the Plain – it falls between a boundary marked the villages of Heytesbury, Chitterne, Tilshead, Lavington and Imber – is the wildest and least known part of the county. It is comparatively trackless, and a difficult country to traverse because excessively hilly.
The development of Salisbury Plain is essential if the Army is to have proper facilities for training. All the troops stationed on the Plain are now concentrated in permanent barracks at Tidworth, Bulford and Larkhill. Since it is important to have troops stationed within easy distance of a training ground, it is thought that in a few years time it will be necessary to provide permanent accommodation on the Warminster side of the Plain, and to utilise to the full the extensive manoeuvring area there, and on the other side of the Wylye valley and in the direction of Shaftesbury.