Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England. The neighbouring resort of Shanklin and the settlement of Lake are sited just to the south of the town. Sandown has a population of 11,654 according to the 2021 Census,[1] and the three Sandown Bay settlements form a built-up area of more than 20,000 inhabitants.[2] Sandown is the Bay's northernmost town, with its easily accessible, sandy beaches running continuously from the cliffs below Battery Gardens in the south to Yaverland in the north.
There is some evidence for a pre-Roman settlement in the area.[3] During the Roman period, it was a site of salt production.[3]
Before the 19th century, Sandown was on the map chiefly for its military significance, with the Bay's beaches feared to offer easy landing spots for invaders from the Continent.
It is the site of the lost Sandown Castle. While undergoing construction in 1545, the fortification was attacked during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight when invaders fought their way over Culver Down from Whitecliff Bay before being repelled. The castle was built into the sea, prone to erosion and demolished fewer than a hundred years after it was built. In 1631, the castle was replaced by Sandham Fort,[4] built further inland. In 1781, the fort's complement consisted of a master gunner and over twenty soldiers.[5] Sandham Fort was demolished in the mid-19th century and is now the site of Sandham Gardens.
Sandown Barrack Battery, a Palmerston Fort built in the 1860s
One of the first non-military buildings was Sandham Cottage or 'Villakin', a holiday home leased by the radical politician and one-time Mayor of London John Wilkes in the final years of the 18th century.[7] See 'Sandown's famous connections' below.
The arrival of the railway in 1864 saw Sandown grow as a Victorian resort, with the town's safe bathing becoming increasingly popular. In the summer of 1874, the Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Victoria of Germany, their children and entourage rented several properties in the town and took regular dips in the Bay.[8] Sandown's pier was built in the same decade, opening in May 1878, and extended in length in 1895.
The former Ocean Hotel
The town laid further claim to becoming a fashionable English resort when the Ocean Hotel opened in 1899. The brainchild of West End theatrical impresario Henry Lowenfeld, the Ocean built around the town's previous hotel of choice, the King's Head. For the new hotel's inauguration, a large number of dignitaries were invited from London, arriving in Sandown from Portsmouth by special boat. Guests had the chance to explore Sandown in coaches and carriages, and the hotel servants were all dressed in uniforms 'like admirals and post-captains'.[9]
Sandown's destiny in the 20th century was to become a favourite bucket-and-spade destination for all classes. The Canoe Lake was opened in 1929 by the author Henry De Vere Stacpoole followed in 1932 by Brown's Golf Course (see below). The Art Deco Grand Hotel, opened next door to Brown's in April 1938, is now closed with planning permission for demolition granted in 2014.
A view of Sandown and its pier from the south end of the Bay
Today, Sandown's esplanade has a mixture of former Victorian and Edwardian hotels with modern counterparts overlooking the beach and the Bay. A new Premier Inn opened in 2021.[10]
The original Sandown Pier was opened in 1878 and extended to its present length in 1895. The Pier Pavilion Theatre closed in the 1990s and the pier's former landing stage is used for sea fishing today.
Further north is the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, formerly Isle of Wight Zoo.[11] Established as Sandown Zoo in the 1950s, it was acquired by the Corney family in the 1970s; today, it specialises in rescued tigers, other big cats and primates. Nearby is the purpose-built Dinosaur Isle palaeontology centre, which opened in 2001, and Sandham Gardens,[12] which offers a dinosaur miniature golf course, attractions for children and young people, and bowls.
HMS Eurydice
HMS Eurydice foundering in 1878
On 24 March 1878, the Royal Navy training ship HMS Eurydice capsized and sank in Sandown Bay with the loss of 317 lives, one of Britain's worst peacetime naval disasters. The tops of the vessel's sunken masts were still visible from Sandown two months later, on the day the town's pier was opened.[13]
The ship was re-floated in August and beached at Yaverland to be pumped out, the subject of a painting by Henry Robins (1820-1892) for Queen Victoria who came over from Osborne House with other members of her family to see the wreck.[14]
The bay that gives Sandown its name is an example of a concordant coastline, with 5 miles (8km) of tidal beaches from Luccombe to Culver replenished by longshore drift.[16] Sandown Bay has one of the longest unbroken beaches in the British Isles.[17]
Red Cliff and Culver Cliff at the northern end of Sandown Bay
To the north-east is Culver Down, mostly owned and managed by the National Trust. It supports typical chalk downland wildlife, and seabirds and birds of prey which nest on the cliffs.
Nearby is the flood plain of the Eastern Yar, one of the few freshwater wetlands on the Isle of Wight, where Alverstone MeadLocal Nature Reserve is popular for birdwatching. Sandown Meadows Nature Reserve, acquired by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust in 2012, is a place to spot kingfishers and water voles.[18] Further inland, Borthwood Copse provides woodland walks, with many bluebells in the Spring.
Commissioned by the local board of health in 1869, the Grade II listed Sandown Town Hall is in Grafton Street.[19] In March 2021, the Isle of Wight Council granted planning permission to convert the building for housing[20] and subsequently decided to dispose of the Town Hall while exploring opportunities for community use.[21] In 2022, paint samples found evidence of the celebrated multi-coloured ceiling decorated by Henry Tooth in 1873, hidden for many decades beneath layers of 20th century paint.[22] In 2023, government funding was announced to renovate parts of the Town Hall for youth and community services.[23]
Brown's golf course
The distinctive 1930s roof tiles at Brown's Golf Course on Sandown seafront
Designed by one of the UK's leading players of the time, Henry Cotton, the Brown's pitch and putt courses were the idea of south London pie and sausage maker Alex Kennedy. Opened on Sandown's eastern sea front in March 1932, the original clubhouse had the motto Golf for Everybody emblazoned on its roof.[24] Brown's and its ice cream factory were reportedly adapted in the 1940s to disguise pumping apparatus for Pipeline Under the Ocean (PLUTO) intended to deliver oil to the D-Day beaches. A conservation management plan for the 7.5-hectare (19-acre) site was published in July 2020.[25]
Events
Sandown Main Carnival in July 2022
The town's summer carnival has existed since 1889.[26] Today, Sandown Carnival Association puts on a series of events including the Children's Carnival and Illuminated Carnival, Sandown Bay Regatta, and New Year's Day Celebrations with a fireworks display. Arts Council England funding was received in 2023 and 2024 to revive the town's tradition of wearing hats on Regatta day.[27]
Amenities
Sandown's 1920s bandstand, now a café
Sandown offers an assortment of restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs along the seafront and in the town. Sandown Pier is a popular attraction for amusements and refreshments, and there are new cafes and eating places along the seafront promenade towards Lake and Shanklin.
Boojum and Snark at 105 High Street opened in 2019 as a venue for art exhibitions and community events, with its name inspired by author Lewis Carroll who stayed across the road in the 1870s.[28]
The UK group Take That filmed the video for their fifth single "I Found Heaven" on Sandown's beaches and sea front in 1992.[31]
Sandown High School and locations nearby were used in the 1972 film That'll Be The Day starring David Essex, Ringo Starr, Billy Fury and Rosemary Leach.[32]
Sandown featured in the Channel 5 series Isle of Wight: Jewel of the South, shown in the UK in 2023 and 2024.[34]
Namesakes
The town of Sandown and its Bay have inspired the naming of a number of Sandowns around the world,[citation needed] including Sandown, New Hampshire USA, Sandown, Gauteng a suburb of Johannesburg in South Africa, and Sandown Bay in South Africa's Western Cape. The former industrial area of Sandown on the Parramatta River, New South Wales, Australia was commemorated by the Sandown railway line in the western suburbs of Sydney, which ceased passenger services in 1991.
The site of John Wilkes' cottage, just off the High Street
John Wilkes (former Lord Mayor of the City of London) stayed regularly in Sandown in the late 18th century at the place he called 'Villakin', also known as Sandham Cottage. A memorial plaque marks the site of the cottage close to the present-day High Street. On Sunday mornings, Wilkes would go to Shanklin Church, and after the service would walk across the fields to Knighton with David Garrick and his wife.[35]
Naturalist Charles Darwin worked on the abstract which became On the Origin of Species when staying at Sandown's King's Head Hotel in July 1858. He and his family later moved on to Norfolk House in nearby Shanklin.[36] Darwin also visited the Isle of Wight on other occasions, and was photographed there by Julia Margaret Cameron in 1868.[37]
The writer George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) stayed in Sandown during a two-week visit to the Isle of Wight in June 1863, having recently published her novels Romola and Silas Marner.[38]
Germany's Crown Prince and Princess and their family spent the summer of 1874 in Sandown
Frederick III, German Emperor and his consort Victoria, Princess Royal, when Crown Prince and Princess of Germany, stayed at Sandown with their children for two months in the summer of 1874. Queen Victoria, the Crown Princess's mother, travelled from Osborne House to visit them on 31 July, an event she described in her journals.[39] The German royals commissioned a stained glass window which can still be seen at Christ Church, Sandown to commemorate their stay in the town.
The author Lewis Carroll, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, spent successive summers on Sandown sea front in the 1870s, staying first at the King's Head Hotel and later at Culverton House. In 1875, while he was writing The Hunting of the Snark, he met 9-year old Gertrude Chataway whose family was staying next door. The first edition of The Hunting of the Snark is dedicated to Gertrude.[40]
The composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949) spent summer holidays at Sandown's Ocean Hotel in 1902 and 1903. His sketchbooks show that, while there, he worked on his Symphonia Domestica and themes that found their way into Der Rosenkavalier[41]
Mary Ellis, ATAPilot 1941–1945, later managing director of Sandown Airport. Mary died in July 2018 aged 101[48]
Twin towns
Sandown had a twinning (jumelée in French) arrangement with the town of Tonnay-Charente in the western French département of Charente-Maritime although the relationship was reported to be 'in tatters' in 2002.[49] Sandown has also been twinned with the United States city of St. Pete Beach, Florida.
See also
Christ Church, Sandown's parish church consecrated in 1847
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. With a land area of 380 km2 (150 sq mi), it is about half the size of Singapore.
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 and 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, Shanklin alone contributing around 7,200 of this.
Bembridge is a village and civil parish located on the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It had a population of 3,848 according to the 2001 census of the United Kingdom, leading to the implausible claim by some residents that Bembridge is the largest village in England. Bembridge is home to many of the Island's wealthiest residents. The population had reduced to 3,688 at the 2011 Census.
The ancient 'Kynges Towne' of Brading is the main town of the civil parish of the same name. The ecclesiastical parish of Brading used to cover about a tenth of the Isle of Wight. The civil parish now includes the town itself and Adgestone, Morton, Nunwell and other outlying areas between Ryde, St Helens, Bembridge, Sandown and Arreton. Alverstone was transferred to the Newchurch parish some thirty years ago.
The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated 14 miles of railway line between Ryde and Ventnor. It opened the first section of line from Ryde to Sandown in 1864, later extending to Ventnor in 1866. The Ryde station was at St Johns Road, some distance from the pier where the majority of travellers arrived. A tramway operated on the pier itself, and a street-running tramway later operated from the Pier to St Johns Road. It was not until 1880 that two mainland railways companies jointly extended the railway line to the Pier Head, and IoWR trains ran through, improving the journey arrangements.
Sandown Bay is a broad open bay which stretches for much of the length of the Isle of Wight's southeastern coast. It extends 8+1⁄2 miles (13.7 km) from Culver Down, near Yaverland in the northeast of the Island, to just south of Shanklin, near the village of Luccombe in the southwest. At Luccombe, the bay is separated from The Undercliff by a large headland from which Upper Ventnor sits atop. The towns of Shanklin, Lake and Sandown are on the bay's coast, while Luccombe and Upper Ventnor feature panoramic views across both Sandown Bay to the East and the Undercliff to the southwest. Due to the bay being relatively sheltered from offshore winds it is often used as temporary anchorage point for boats, including large cargo ships, before continuing east towards Continental Europe, or north towards The Solent.
Seaview is a small Edwardian resort located on the north-eastern corner of the Isle of Wight, overlooking the Solent. The village is popular with tourists and is 2+1⁄3 miles (3.8 km) from the town of Ryde, where most tourists reach the island by ferry or hovercraft. Together with Nettlestone, it forms a civil parish of Nettlestone and Seaview.
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.
Yaverland is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Sandown, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is just north of Sandown on Sandown Bay. It has about 200 houses. About 1⁄3 of a mile away from the village is the Yaverland Manor and Church. Holotype fossils have been discovered here of Yaverlandia and a pterosaur, Caulkicephalus. The White Air extreme sports festival was held annually at Yaverland pay and display car park between 1997 and 2008, but moved to Brighton for 2009.
The Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, previously known as the Isle of Wight Zoo and Sandown Zoo, is a wildlife sanctuary on the coastline of Sandown, Isle of Wight. At 8.5 acres, it is the largest collection of exotic animals on the Island.
There are several modes of Transport on the Isle of Wight, an island in the English Channel.
The Isle of Wight Coastal Path is a circular long-distance footpath of 70 miles (113 km) around the Isle of Wight, UK. It follows public footpaths and minor lanes, with some sections along roads.
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.
Bembridge Fort is a fort built on the highest point of Bembridge Down close to the village of Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, England. It is one of the many Palmerston Forts built around Portsmouth during the period of the Second French Empire, as a safeguard against a perceived threat of French invasion by Napoleon III.
Many forts and fortifications have been built to protect the Isle of Wight from foreign invasion. Throughout history the island has been a site of key military importance. Controlling both entrances to the Solent and the home of the Royal Navy, Portsmouth. This is a list of most of the fortifications on the island.
References
↑ "Sandown". City Population. Retrieved 16 September 2023.
↑ The Isle of Wight Chronicle. 30 July 1874. No greater recommendation can be given to the excellent bathing facilities possessed by Sandown than recording the fact that the members of the Imperial family take every possible advantage of them by bathing almost daily...
↑ "The Ocean Hotel, Sandown". Isle of Wight Observer. 20 May 1899.
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