nearest to 1 September (St Giles' Day), has been attended by former residents, soldiers who have used the village for training, and the general public. A small number of former residents have been buried in the churchyard, with funeral services held in the church. Since 2009 there has been a carol service on the Saturday before Christmas. The Ministry of Defence is required to allow public access to the village on between one and fifty days a year; in the late 2020s, the open days were reduced to three because of trespassing. Since 2009, the annual summer opening of the village has been served by Routemaster double-decker buses on a scheduled service from Warminster known as Imberbus, which raises money for charity. St Giles' parish church Unlike the rest of the parish, St Giles' church and its graveyard remained in the hands of the Diocese of Salisbury, although access was and still is controlled by the Ministry of Defence. The church was recorded as Grade I listed in 1987. By 2001 it had become clear, according to a Church of England press release, that St Giles's "was in need of extensive repairs". Since it was not possible for the parochial church council to accept liability for the maintenance of a building to which they only had effective access for worship once a year, the Edington with Imber PCC requested that Imber church be declared redundant, a process which ended in 2005 with the vesting of the church in the Churches Conservation Trust. In the meantime, the church tower had been struck by lightning in 2003, weakening the structure, but restoration work began in 2008 and the annual service resumed in September 2009 upon completion of the repair works. On 5 January 2023 the burial of Ray Nash took place, the second known burial at St Giles' graveyard since evacuation in 1943. Nash was a great nephew of the village blacksmith Albert Nash, was born in Imber and was the last recorded baptism in the church. His father Jim died in 1936 and was also buried at Imber, and Ray Nash had wanted to be reunited with his father upon his death. He may have been the last remaining former inhabitant of Imber. Governance The civil parish of Imber has been incorporated into the adjoining parish of Heytesbury. A parish council known as "Heytesbury, Imber and Knook" covers this parish and