Thursday, 4 September 2014

ISLE OF WIGHT 3





The iconic Needles is a row of three distinctive eroded stacks of chalk which rise out of the sea off the western extremity of the island. 
A fourth thinner needle like stack  collapsed in a storm in 1764.
The lighthouse was built in 1859
 
 
 
 
 


 







Alum Bay, accessible by steep path or by chair lift, is a great tourist attraction alongside the Needles. Of great geological significance it is noted for its multi-coloured sand cliffs.  There is also a small pier where boat trips leave for a tour of The Needles.
 
















Yarmouth is a tiny town and port ion the western part of the island with car ferry connection to Lymington in the New Forest. A settlement for over a thousand years, Henry V111 built a castle type gun emplacement here in 1547.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Yarmouth :Pier, opened in 1876 is Grade 11 listed and at 609 feet in length is the longest timber pier in England which is open to the public.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Gribble Seat
 







St James Church



There is a very fine statue of King Louis X1V of France in the church at Yarmout but the interesting thing is that the head is not that of the king.
The statue which was sculptured for and represents Louis X1V  was being conveyed to France when the vessel containing it (and the sculptor) was captured by an English ship commanded by Sir Robert Holmes.
The sculptor had finished the body but the head was left to be completed in France. Upon learning who the statue was for, Holmes compelled the sculptor to finish it by carving his (Holmes) head on the King’s body.
Holmes later became the Governor of the Isle of Wight and held the office from 1667 to 1692, and after his death the statue was erected in the church in his memory.









Godshill is the quintessential English village where the church on its hill dominates the charming thatched cottages. Legend has it that when the villagers tried to build their church at the foot of the hill, the stones were found to have persistently been moved to the top of the hill where the church was eventually built on Gods Hill.
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 


 

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