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London to Tyneham, Dorset, to ????? for the night. Update

Posted by (Lynnwood, Washington) on

My sister has decided that she will be going to the UK in November to visit some family history spots. Well, I'm not going to miss a good trip like that! One of those spots for us is Tyneham in Dorset. Now we have already checked the schedule and it should be open the day we are visiting (November 9th).

Here are my main questions. 1
1. Best ways to visit using public transport. I know we can take the train from Waterloo to Wool, it is the Wool to Tyneham section that I need help with. Is there a bus? Taxis available? Rental Cars? (really don't want to drive if possible)

  1. Best place to spend the night. The next day the plan is to make our way to Plymouth. She wants to be there for Remembrance Day on the 11th. We could try to spend the night somewhere near Tyneham or move along a bit on our journey toward Plymouth. I am open to any ideas about what would be a good plan for this night.

I appreciate any input from our resident experts in the UK. Thanks in advance.

Update: I so appreciate isn31c and his answers to my question. First of all, the information that we needed to be in Plymouth for the 10th, not the 11th was invaluable. No final decisions yet, but it looks like Tyneham may be dropped from the trip. The logistics are just extremely challenging. We considered several options and she may change her mind, but for now it looks like we will be going directly from London to Plymouth by train.

My grandfather’s brother (our great uncle) is commemorated on the Royal Navy Memorial in Plymouth. His ship went down near the Orkneys in WWI. We definitely want to be there for the Remembrance Sunday Service. All three brothers survived the Battle of Jutland, but only two of them survived the war.

Thanks again for the help!

Posted by
8134 posts

There is a really interesting question.

There is certainly no bus or one that even gets within walking distance. All buses to Lulworth Cove go via West Lulworth. You wanted one to East Lulworth for a c3 mile walk in, but they don't exist. From the Cove it'll be about a 5 mile walk in, and 5 miles back.

Looking at the road layout in the area Wareham is the better station than Wool, and you will certainly get taxis there. You would have to ask a local company whether their insurance allows them to drive into a firing range where there is live ammo lying around. A very interesting question.

Other than that if there is a rental company in Wareham, if not Poole, then rental car may be the way to go.

If this was my trip, and it's not, I would then train to Weymouth for the night.

Then next day, Sunday, I would take the bus at just before 9am (X51) to Axminster- a 2 hour very scenic ride. The bus terminates at Axminster Railway Station. This is Axminster as in carpets. Then train to Exeter St David's (Waterloo to Salisbury to Exeter line) with a stop at Honiton (if luggage can be sorted)- as in Lace.

Change at Exeter for Plymouth.

The big caveat is that November 11 is Armistice Day. Remembrance Day- when the big commemorations take place like at the Cenotaph in London- is always the nearest Sunday. This year that is November 10.

Thus there will just be very low key things happening on Armistice Day.

So if you want to be in Plymouth for Remembrance Day I think you need to drive the rental car which I know you don't want on to Exeter (maybe Exmouth) for the night.

Then on Sunday morning the hour or so drive to Plymouth. Whether you can turn the rental in on a Sunday is another question. You may have to keep it until Monday.

Hope this helps a bit. But no easy answer springs to mind.

Posted by
8134 posts

PS- I am a bit worried about nightfall being about 5pm.

So how about driving to Weymouth for the night. From there, leave on Sunday at about 7.00 or 7.30 am for Plymouth- a 100 mile drive 2:15 to 2:30?

EDIT- I'm continuing to look at this one. There are Enterprise, Europcar and Hertz Offices at Poole. Jump in a taxi at Poole station (or Enterprise should collect you).

It is a 16 mile (28 minute drive) from the Enterprise Office to Tyneham- let's call that 45 minutes to be generous.

Tyneham to Weymouth is 22 miles (43 minutes- call that an hour) .

Dorchester is a little bit closer- maybe 3 miles or 5 minutes so. Next morning Dorchester to Plymouth is exactly 2 hours. Let's say 2.5 to be generous.

Posted by
8134 posts

@Carol NR- Presumably your great uncle was born in Tyneham and that was the reason for your visit there. I'm just looking at Tyneham WW1 memorial tablet in the Church (which it looks like I need to process into the system) but there is no naval man commemorated thereon. They are all Army lads.

What was his name? (PM if you don't want the whole world to know)- then I can try to run system checks to see which other local memorial to Tyneham he is commemorated on. If that can be established it may make the logistics a bit easier- from that general area to Plymouth is never going to be easy (without car) but just maybe be at least possible.

This sometimes happened- for all sorts of reasons they are not commemorated where you expect. For some families public commemoration in their community was too painful and they chose not to have their family members included on their local memorial.

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