The Isle of Wight is an island, English county and unitary authority in the English Channel, 2 to 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, across the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island in England. Referred to as "The Island" by residents, the Isle of Wight has resorts that have been popular holiday destinations since Victorian times. It is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland, and chines. The island is historically part of Hampshire. The island is designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Shanklin is a seaside resort town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on Sandown Bay. Shanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake Sandown. The sandy beach, its Old Village and a wooded ravine, Shanklin Chine, are its main attractions. The esplanade along the beach is occupied by hotels and restaurants for the most part, and is one of the most tourist-oriented parts of the town. The other is the Old Village, at the top of Shanklin Chine. Together with Lake and Sandown to the north, Shanklin forms a built up area of around 25,000 inhabitants.
The Isle of Wight Central Railway (IoWCR) was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. It was formed in 1887 by the merging of three earlier railways, the Cowes and Newport Railway, the Ryde and Newport Railway and the Isle of Wight Railway,.
Arreton is a village and civil parish in the central eastern part of the Isle of Wight, England. It is about 3 miles south east of Newport.
Blackwater is a village on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located about two miles south of Newport, close to the geographic centre of the island. It is in the civil parish of Arreton. The Newclose County Cricket Ground is just to the north of the village.
Newchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. It is located between Sandown and Newport in the southeast of the island. Anthony Dillington, owner of the Knighton Gorges Manor in Newchurch wrote to his son Robert in 1574 that, "This is the very Garden of England, and we be privileged to work in it as Husbandmen......." Newchurch obtained its name from the new church built in 1087 by the Norman monks of Lyra. The Newchurch Parish for many centuries stretched from the north to south coasts of the Island; by the early Nineteenth Century the growing resort towns of Ventnor and Ryde were included within its boundaries. The parish was administered by the Church Parish Vestry until 1894 when civil matters were passed to the newly formed Parish Council which now forms the second tier of Local Government under the Isle of Wight Council. In 1982 Alverstone was included in the civil parish. The present day parish includes Newchurch Village, Apse Heath, Winford, Whiteley Bank, Alverstone, Alverstone Garden Village, Queen's Bower, Princelett and Mersley.
Sandown railway station is a railway station serving Sandown on the Isle of Wight, England. It is located on the Island Line from Ryde to Shanklin.
Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight. The company was founded in 1921 as "Dodson and Campbell" and became the "Vectis Bus Company" in 1923. The company was purchased by the Southern Railway before being nationalised in 1969. In 1987, the company was re-privatised. In July 2005, it became a subsidiary of Go-Ahead Group.
Lake is a large village and civil parish located on Sandown Bay, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is six miles south-east of Newport situated between Sandown and Shanklin, and 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) to the east of the hamlet of Apse Heath.
Luccombe is a hamlet a short distance south of Shanklin, on the south coast of the Isle of Wight, England.
Ventnor West railway station was in operation from 1900 to 1952 in Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
Whitwell Station, on the Ventnor West branch of the Isle of Wight Central Railway, was opened on 20 July 1897 along with the other stations on the branch. It was equipped with a passing loop, two platforms, a signal box and a substantial station building.
St Lawrence railway station is a former railway station in the village of St Lawrence on the Isle of Wight.
Godshill station was at Godshill on the Isle of Wight on the Newport, Godshill & St Lawrence Railway, later the Isle of Wight Central Railway.
Merstone railway station, was an intermediate station situated on the edge of Merstone village on the line from Newport to Sandown incorporated by the Isle of Wight Railway in 1868
Newport railway station was established in 1862 with the opening of the Cowes and Newport Railway. It was enlarged in December 1875 when the lines to Ryde and Ventnor were opened. The station was also used by the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway from its opening in 1888 until 1913, when that company opened its own station nearby. Upon the formation of the Southern Railway in 1923 reverted to using this station. The station was closed by British Railways in 1966. It was then used as a base for the Wight Locomotive Society until January 1971, when it was demolished.
There are several modes of Transport on the Isle of Wight, an island in the English Channel.
There once existed a 55+1⁄2-mile (89.3 km) network of railway lines on the Isle of Wight, which operated both as a self-contained railway network, and as links to ferry services between the island and the South coast of Great Britain. The routes were opened by several companies between 1862 and 1901 and modernised after The Grouping in the 1920s. Most of them were permanently closed between 1952 and 1966, whilst the 8+1⁄2-mile-long (13.7 km) Island Line was temporarily closed in 1966 and rebuilt for electric train services, introduced in 1967. Replacement trains were introduced in 1990, and again in 2021 along with a major renewal of the line. A further 5+1⁄2 miles (8.9 km) have reopened as a heritage line known as the Isle of Wight Steam Railway and there have been several proposals to expand the network further since the 1960s, either with conventional heavy rail or by conversion to light rail.
Merston Manor is a manor house in Merstone on the Isle of Wight, England. The manor was first mentioned in the Domesday Book. Prior to the Norman Conquest, Merston Manor was owned by the Brictuin family. The present home, built in 1605 in the Jacobean style by Edward Cheeke, was rebuilt in the Victorian era. This structure may be the oldest brick house on the Island. The manor now belongs to the Crofts family.
Percy Goddard Stonefsafriba was an English architect, author and archaeologist who worked extensively on the Isle of Wight, where he lived for most of his life. He designed and restored several churches on the island, designed war memorials and rebuilt Carisbrooke Castle. His "passion for archaeology" led him to excavate the ruins of Quarr Abbey, and as an author he wrote about the churches and antiquities of the Isle of Wight and contributed to the Victoria County History.
