Isle of Wight

Totland Pier

03/2003/208 Comments

Totland Bay Pier was completed in 1880, with a small shelter at the pier head and a small amusement arcade at the shore side. It is a 450ft (137m) long cast-iron girder construction. The funds to build it were raised by the nearby Totland Hotel which has since been demolished. During the Victorian era it was used to allow paddle steamers to dock, enabling tourists to visit the area.

Sadly the bulk of the pier has now become derelict and closed to the public, but a nice little cafe has replaced the arcade shore side, and I had coffee there on a bench outside. The last time I visited here was back in the ealy 1990s, and an artist had bought it and used it as his studio. The pier aside, I really like the green-cloaked rocks on the beach.

Not of This World …

09/1923 Comments

… ah, but it is … on the third rock from the sun, planet Earth.

Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight is quite famous for its different coloured sands, and a craft tourist industry has grown up around it since early Victorian times.

Here are cliffs of sand of varying hues. The sands are coloured due to oxidised iron compounds formed under different conditions, and look great layered in shaped glass ornaments. There are usually 21 shades of sand available.

Turning your head away from these magnificent cliffs towards the sea and you will see the Needles as featured in the previous post.

September 2019 © Pete Hillman.

The Needles

09/1909/1920 Comments

Of 2 photos. Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. September 2019 © Pete Hillman.

Sunset At Yarmouth

09/1944 Comments

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. September 2019 © Pete Hillman.

Keeping Balance

08/1811 Comments

On a stroll across a quieter section of beach where the tide had gone out I came across this little arrangement of rocks. They kind of reminded me of the remains of a prehistoric cairn, although this is most likely child’s play.

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Shanklin Beach, Isle of Wight, England, August 2018 © Pete Hillman.

08/1808/1823 Comments

You can’t help but see chalk cliffs wherever you go on the Isle of Wight, so I couldn’t resist getting closer to the stuff on a walk along the Ventnor coastline. Plus I have a thing about textures.

The island gets its name not from the colour white, but from ‘wight’. There are several explanations but the most likely are:

1. Around 1900 BC the Beaker people arrived – so-called from their distinctive pottery. They called the Island “Wiht” (Weight) meaning raised or what rises over the sea. Then the Romans arrived in 43AD and translated “Wiht” into the name Vectis from the Latin veho meaning “lifting”.

2. 400BC – Iron Age Celts from the Continent gave Wight its name, meaning ‘place of the division, because it is between the two arms of the Solent. It is one of the Island’s few surviving Celtic names.

So how is chalk formed? Well, from dead things of long ago.

Chalk rock (calcium carbonate), a pure form of limestone formed in warm, tropical seas about 100 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period, a time when dinosaurs roamed the planet. Microscopic marine algae, called coccoliths, lived in the ancient sea. Their shells were made of calcite. As the algae died, their bodies sunk to the sea floor and chalk sediment was deposited. Over millions of years layers of chalk sediment were deposits caused compaction of loose sediment into solid chalk rock.

There there lies your geology lesson for the day 🙂

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Isle of Wight, England, August 2018 © Pete Hillman.

Mysterious Sea Mist

08/1808/1814 Comments

This mysterious sea mist drifted in from Luccombe Bay. As soon as it appeared it disappeared. Memories of John Carpenter’s ‘The Fog’ came to mind. It had quite an eerie quality to it.

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Isle of Wight, England, August 2018 © Pete Hillman.

Pots

08/1808/1825 Comments

Something a bit different here, I know. I have a thing about ornate chimney pots, and couldn’t help but feature these here. They are from Rylstone Manor Hotel at Shanklin, but a stone’s throw from Shanklin Chine and set in beautiful gardens. Rylstone Manor was originally built as a gentleman’s residence in 1863 and remained a private residence until 1923. The Manor is of Victorian proportion and incorporates a blend of Gothic, Tudor and Georgian influences. I only took photos of the chimney pots for there was a dark SUV parked out the front of the main buildingt and the image just would not have worked.

I was quite taken how much detail and artistry was put into these tall chimney pots, and how varied the patterning was. They may have had a red glaze on them at sometime in the distant past.

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Isle of Wight, England, August 2018 © Pete Hillman.

Shanklin Rockpools

08/1808/1818 Comments

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As The Sun Sets

08/1808/1811 Comments

This photo was taken during a pleasant evening’s walk along Keats Green at Shanklin. In the distance, across Sandown Bay, we can see the white chalk cliffs of Culver Down. We can just make out a tall edifice on its top. It is called the Yarborough Monument, erected in memory to Charles Anderson-Pelham, the 2nd Baron Yarborough (later first Earl of Yarborough and also Baron Worsley), founder of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes.

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Sailing Amidst The Blue

08/1808/1831 Comments

Underwater

08/1821 Comments

I love how the sunlight sparkles and shimmers within the rippling movement of the waters on the coast. These are abstract worlds which I would like to glimpse more often than I do, full of the richness of life and wonder. These images feature what I believe is a seaweed called Gutweed (Ulva intestinalis).

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Mythological Nature

05/1805/1816 Comments

Something a little different …

Not a real dragon, of course, but a clay sculpture which I found atop a roof on a a road called St George’s on the Isle of White, England. At least it kept still long enough for me to take the shot 😉