A row of rustic thatched cottages stands in the shadow of a square-towered village church, while a ragged group of militant labourers dressed in early 19th-century garb – the founders of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Workers – gathers in earnest conversation beneath the tall elm on the green. Yet the year is not 1833 but 1985, and the place – not Tolpuddle but another well known Dorset village some miles distant: Tyneham.

Depopulated at a time of national emergency, this once-attractive yet hard-working village stands empty and ruinous amid a vast Army training area. So faithfully does Tyneham represent a centuries-old rural landscape that it has on occasion found itself dressed as a set for television or film productions.