IOW Part 3........

Another hearty breakfast set us up for the journey to Godshill, located between Newport and Ventnor in the southeast of the Island.  A beautiful village with it's thatched properties,

quaint restaurants,

and pubs.  One of the pubs offered a unique service,

 Chocolate shops,

tea rooms,

quirky courtyards,

 and it's 14th century church, the Church Of Lily Cross.

The name 'Godshill' is said to originate from the foundations of the local church being moved from the bottom of the hill to its present location on the top of the hill on three occasions whilst it was being built. This was taken to be a sign from God that the church should be built on the hill, hence the name Godshill.  We were allowed to take photographs inside the church, which I am happy about because it means I get to show it to you.

Godshill also has a model village.

On our journey to our next destination we passed the famous Parkhurst prison.

Parkhurst prison is one of the two prisons that make up HMP Isle of Wight, the other being Albany. Parkhurst and Albany were once amongst the few top-security prisons (called "Dispersals" because they dispersed the more troublesome prisoners rather than concentrated them all in one place) in the United Kingdom, but were downgraded in the 1990's.  The downgrading of Parkhurst was preceded by a major escape: three prisoners (two murderers and a blackmailer) made their way out of the prison on 3 January 1995 to enjoy four days of freedom before being recaptured. One of them, Keith Rose, is an amateur pilot. During those four days, they were living rough in a shed in a garden in Ryde, having failed to steal a plane from the local airclub.  A programme entitled Britain's Island Fortess was made about this prison escape for National Geographic Channel's Breakout documentary series.


Parkhurst enjoyed notoriety as one of the toughest jails in the British Isles. Many notable criminals, including the Richardson brothers, the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Moors Murderer Ian Brady and the Kray twins, were incarcerated there.

Our next stop was Cowes.  West Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank of the river. The two towns are linked by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry.

Cowes has been seen as a home for international yacht racing since the founding of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815. The town gives its name to the world's oldest regular regatta, Cowes Week, which occurs annually in the first week of August. Later on in the summer, powerboat races are held.   It is believed that the building of an 80 ton, 60-man vessel called Rat O'Wight on the banks of the river Medina in 1589 for the use of Queen Elizabeth I sowed the seed for Cowes to grow into a world renowned centre of boat-building.   However, seafaring for recreation and sport remained the exception rather than the rule until much later. It was not until the reign of keen sailor George IV that the stage was set for the heyday of Cowes as 'The Yachting Capital of the World.' In 1826 the Royal Yacht Squadron organised a three-day regatta for the first time and the next year the king signified his approval of the event by presenting a cup to mark the occasion. Hence the start of Cowes Regatta which soon grew into a four-day event that always ended with a fireworks display.

 Much of the town's architecture is still heavily influenced by the style of ornate building which Prince Albert popularised.

In earlier centuries the two settlements were much smaller and known as East and West Shamblord or Shamelhorde, the East being the more significant settlement.   The Isle of Wight was a target of attempted French invasions, and there were notable incursions.  Henrician Castles were built in both settlements in the sixteenth century. The west fort in Cowes still survives to this day, albeit without the original Tudor towers, as Cowes Castle. The fort built in East Cowes is believed to have been similar but was abandoned c1546 and since destroyed.



Walking round the streets of Cowes we were never very far from the sea.

Of course we found a little pub to have lunch and some ale.

After a great day out, seeing much of the island, it was time to head back to the hotel.  We had time to have a short rest before getting ready for another delicious dinner, after which we enjoyed a game of Bingo!

Join me again for IOW Part 4 when we visit the naval dockyard at nearby Portsmouth on the mainland.

A Nice Day Out......

Last Friday we booked a day trip to Whitby,  on the Yorkshire Coast.    Whitby's skyline is dominated by the ruins of St. Hilda's Abbey, high on Whitby's East Cliff.      Whitby is a maze of alleyways and narrow streets running down to the busy quayside and from the old town of Whitby 199 steps lead up to the parish church of St. Mary, whose churchyeard on Whitby's East Cliff gave Bram Stoker the inspiration to write the world famous book, Dracula.  

We didn't visit the Abbey as we've seen it before and the purpose of this visit wasn't to take in the sights it was to meet up with a fellow blogger the lovely Denise (Mrs. Nesbitt's Space). 

Denise and I have been trying to arrange a meet-up for quite and while, so when I saw that a local coach company were running a day trip to Whitby (Denise lives nearby) I couldn't resist asking if she could meet up for lunch.   We have been blog friends for a long time and friends on Facebook and have spoken on the phone a few times but never actually met.

The weather was miserable, drizzly and foggy but it was great to finally meet up with Denise.  MWM and I were hoping to meet John, Denise's hubby, but unfortunately he was working.    Denise took us to the best Fish & Chip restaurant in Whitby, where we sampled their best battered cod, chips and mushy peas, washed down with a lovely pot of tea.   Denise had brought me a gift

six freshly laid eggs from her gals and had even drawn on each one the name of the chicken that had laid them!


After lunch we went to the railway station, part of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, which operates steam trains along an 18 mile line between the market town of Pickering and the village of Grosmont, through the heart of the North York Moors National Park, and also operate trains to Whitby on certain days of the year.

You know MWM loves steam trains and of course he had checked before we left home to find out if any steam trains were running to Whitby that day - they were.

Denise and I waited in the station cafe, with a warming cup of tea, whilst MWM took his photographs of the steam engines, then when he'd finished we ambled round the alleyways looking in the quaint shops and markets, catching up on what we'd been doing and where we had been.  

We decided to retire to a lovely little pub, where they sold real ale and had a real coal fire, for a couple of drinks before it was time to meet the coach for our journey home.

We had lots of laughs with Denise and had a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, but all too soon it was time to say our goodbyes.   We are hoping Denise and John will come over to see us soon so we can treat them to some Lancashire hospitality.

IOW Part Two......

After a hearty breakfast we walked along Sandown seafront, right in front of our hotel, to blow the cobwebs away

click on photos to bigify

before we got on the coach for our first excursion, which was to IOW Pearl, which houses the largest collection of pearl jewellery in the UK.  MWM didn't buy me any pearls as he said there wasn't a pearl in the world that could compare with me (Pearl being my name for those of you who didn't know).  LOL he's so cheesy. There were also various other little shops on the site, one of which sold crystals and fossils found on the IOW.   We noticed this gem whilst we were looking round that particular shop

we resisted the urge to buy it.


Boarding the coach again we made our way to Alum Bay, the location of the famous coloured sands, which are due to oxidised iron compounds formed under different conditions. The sands are used to create ornaments using the coloured sands layered in vials and jars, they were also used to make pictures, a popular craft in Victorian times known as marmotinto.

Guglielmo Marconi moved to Alum Bay in 1897 to experiment with radio. He installed a 40 metre radio antenna outside the Needles Hotel in Alum Bay. Initially establishing communication with ships offshore, by early 1898 he had successfully communicated with stations at Madeira House, Bournemouth and the Haven Hotel, Poole, 20 miles away.

The Needles is a row of three distinctive stacks of chalk that rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the IOW near Alum Bay. The Needles lighthouse stands at the end of the formation. Built in 1859, it has been automated since 1994.  The formation takes its name from a fourth needle-shaped pillar called Lot's Wife that collapsed in a storm in 1764. The remaining rocks are not at all needle-like, but the name has stuck.   The Needles were featured on the 2005 TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of Southern England. 

The Needles Pleasure Park situated at the top of the cliff is a small amusement park with a selection of shops and rides. The most famous attraction at the pleasure park is the 'chairlift', which operates between the park and Alum Bay.  It was very windy that day so we didn't venture on it.

Our next stop on the excursion was Yarmouth, named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river.  Yarmouth is a crossing point for the river, originally with a ferry, replaced with a road bridge in 1863. 

Yarmouth has been a settlement for over a thousand years, and is one of the very earliest on the Isle of Wight. The first record of a settlement here was in King Ethelred the Unready's record of the Danegeld tax of 991. It was originally called Eremue, meaning "muddy estuary". The Normans laid out the streets of Yarmouth on the grid system, a plan which can still be seen in the layout today.   Until the building of the castle, regular raids on the island by the French continued, and in 1544 the town of Yarmouth was reputed to have been burned down. Legend has it that the church bells were carried off to Cherbourg or Boulogne.

Yarmouth has it's own castle, built in 1547, it survives and is now in the care of English Heritage. It is effectively a gun platform built by Henry VIII to strengthen the Solent and protect the Isle of Wight, historically an important strategical foothold for any attempted invasion of England.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see the castle as we only had time to get some lunch and have a quick walk around the quaint streets.

It was quite a cold day and we were happy to get back on the coach to head back to the hotel to get warm and get ready for dinner.   I think I said in my first post that the food at the hotel was superb, see here for a sample dinner menu.

To clarify for anyone who doesn't get the joke Fox's Glacier Mints are sweets/candies.

I hope you'll join me for IOW Part3 and our visit to Godshill and Cowes.

IOW Part 1....

 I was away last week on another little jaunt to the Isle of Wight.   The Isle of Wight is the largest island of England, (approx 23 x 15 miles) located in the English Channel off the coast of Hampshire, separated from Great Britain (referred to by its inhabitants as "the mainland") by a strait called the Solent.  It has the distinction of being England's smallest county - but for only half of the time.  It has been calculated that during high tide Wight's area is slightly less than that of Rutland (England's smallest county), but not during low tide.   The island has many resorts which have been holiday destinations since Victorian times.  It's rich history includes a brief status as an independent kingdom in the 15th century.

Home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria, who built her much-loved summer residence and final home, Osborne House, at East Cowes, the island has a maritime and industrial tradition such as boat building, sail making, the manufature of flying boats, the worlds first hovercraft and the testing and development of Britain's space rockets.  The Isle hosts annual festivals including the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival, Bestival and the recently revived Isle of Wight Festival, which, in 1970, was the largest rock music event ever held.   The island has well-conserved wildlife and some of the richest cliffs and quarries for dinosaur fossils in Europe.


The Isle of Wight was part of Hampshire until 1890 when it became an independent adminstrative county.  Until 1974 it continued to share the Lord Leiutenant of Hampshire when it was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan ceremonial county which gives its own Lord Leiutenant and recognised as a postal county.

We were picked up from home at 7a.m. to meet our coach at a nearby motorway services, with a comfort stop at Sandbach in Cheshire, where we picked up more passengers, before heading towards Banbury for lunch.

 Banbury Cross was designed by John Gibbs and built in 1859.  At one time Banbury had many crosses but these were destroyed by Puritans in 1600.  Banbury remained without a cross for more than 250 years until the current Banbury Cross was erected in 1859 at the centre of the town to commemorate the marriage of Victoria, Princess royal (eldest child of Queen Victoria to Prince Frederick of Prussia.  The current Banbury Cross is a stone, spire-shaped monument decorated in Gothic form. Statues of Queen Victoria, Edward VII and George V were added in 1914 to commemorate the coronation of George V.  The cross is 52' 6" high and topped with a gilt cross.

 The English nursery rhyme "Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross"

Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross,
To see a fine lady upon a white horse;
Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And she shall have music wherever she goes

may refer to one of the crosses destroyed by Puritans.  In April 2005, The Princess Royal unveiled a large bronze statue depicting the Fine Lady upon a White Horse of the nursery rhyme.

 There are lots of beautiful buildings in Banbury, including The Parish Church of St. Mary The Virgin. With 13th Century origins the Church stands as part of the Broughton Castle estate, home to the Fiennes family. Features include a 13th Century Norman font, 14th Century rood screen and 15th Century gateway tower.

The Church House, originally the main hall for St Paul's Church which is just across the road, the Church House was later transformed into a theatre, but future plans for the theatre were shelved and it stood empty for a number of years until about 1997 when it was fully renovated and turned into a pub / brassiere.

 and Whately Hall, a 17th Century Coaching house now a hotel,  to name a few.

We would have liked more time in Banbury to explore, but only had 90 minutes to get some lunch and have a quick look round before boarding the coach again to get to Portsmouth, to catch the 4.30 p.m. ferry across the Solent to Fishbourne, IOW, and then continue our journey to the south coast of IOW to our hotel in Sandown.

If you ever find yourself  in the IOW I can thoroughly recommend The Ocean Hotel,  family run since 1958 it offers 96 bedrooms and is conveniently situated between the High Street and the Esplanade overlooking Sandown Bay, with its six mile stretch of glorious well groomed sand.    The hotel boasts a huge lounge with real fires.

A beautiful dining room overlooking the well kept gardens.

We arrived with just enough time to find our sea view room

freshen up and go down to dinner.   The breakfast and dinner menus were vast and we were spoilt for choice at meal times and the food was delicious!  After dinner we repaired to the lounge to enjoy a couple of drinks and that evening's entertainment, a guitar playing singer.

Join me next time for our day trip to see The Needles and Yarmouth.