ISLAND HISTORY
turn right into Steyne Road or carry on past
Bembridge windmill, the only windmill left
on the Island. Owned by the National Trust,
Bembridge windmill is a 30-foot Georgian
stone tower complete with four sails and
was a working mill from 1746 to the
First World War, grinding flour, meal and
cattle-feed. It was from this viewpoint that
J.M.W. Turner sketched Brading Haven but
for me, the time to see the mill at its best
is at sunset when the tower stands against a
brilliantly coloured sky.
Writing about Bembridge in 1884, Adams
noted “Now that it is being connected with
Ryde by railway, it will probably grow into
a prosperous watering-place, but at the same
time lose that charm of seclusion which
has hitherto endeared it to the artist and the
botanist.” The railway has come and gone
but it seems the village has lost none of its
charm for Cavendish Morton, a well-known
local artist who recently held an exhibition
called “In his 99th year”. Cavendish told
me that the light on the Island was different
to East Anglia where he’d lived before.
“The light there is colder and clearer,” he
said, “here it’s milder, warmer, and there’s a
change in the evening - more colour.”
I asked Liz Murray, Bembridge’s parish
clerk, how the village is today. “It’s a large
and diverse place,” said Liz. She went on
to explain that the village has the highest
number of elderly residents per capita
for the south of England with three care/
residential homes and an Abbeyfield. “But
we also have two schools and many second
home owners which makes for an interesting
community.”
She went on to say there’s a lifeboat
station that has always been manned by
men from the village, a coastguard station
and the Bembridge Youth and Community
Centre in Steyne Road Park, home of the
Isle of Wight Youth Concert Band. “I get
visitors who were stationed here during
the war coming into the office,” she said,
“asking where they can find places they
remembered.”
And that made me look for the Bembridge
Heritage Centre. I crossed the High Street
and Church Road, stopping to look at the
war memorial erected in 1920 on a site
given to the village by Sir John and Lady
Thornycroft to honour the local men who
died in two world wars, the Korean War and
the Falklands conflict. Another memorial
on the site commemorates all ranks of the 41
Royal Marines Commando, 1942-1946, who
gave their lives during operations in World
War 11 and “those islanders who took them
into their homes.”
The Heritage Centre is tucked behind the
old church school on land adjoining the
church bought by the first vicar, Sir Henry
Thompson, in 1833 to build a Junior and
Infant School. The school is used now as a
library and holds art exhibitions by different
artists throughout the year. I walked down
the side of the school building to the centre,
full of information on Bembridge’s history
and as well as the regular exhibits, the
Society’s committee and volunteers are
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regularly adding new ones - like the current
one on the Isle of Wight Royal Golf Club
and the Ladies Golf Club. They are also
contributing towards the reprinting of the
Culver Trail walks leaflet.
You can see a pump from the Pipe Line
Under the Ocean (PLUTO) that ran from the
Island to France during the war, a collection
of photos like the ones of Bembridge
airport terminal and the booking office in
1934 and the 1959-1967 Britten-Norman
Cushioncraft. My favourites were the signs
from two pubs, the Village Inn in 1787, and
the Row Barge Inn (later the Marine Hotel)
that has been converted into new houses.
The Row Barge Inn was in Station Road
with the village slaughterhouse next door
and the crews of the row barges used to tie
up at quay wall and pop into the inn while
they waited for the carcasses, enjoying a
drink from a barrel of home brewed ale
in the days when Bembridge had its own
brewery.
The parish church stands next to the
Heritage Centre. In the days before the
church was built and the harbour was frozen
over in winter, villagers had to travel over
rough roads to Brading. Priests visited
occasionally, one was the Reverend Leigh
who wrote ‘The Dairyman’s Daughter’, but
on 16th July, 1827 an indenture was signed
between a local landowner, Mr. Edward
Wise, and the vicar of Brading for a gift of
land in perpetuity for a Chapel of Ease and a
burial ground.
It’s interesting that Trinity House was
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