Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for FRESHWATER

FRESHWATER, a village and a parish in the Isle of Wight. The village lies on the river Yar, 1¾ mile SSW of Yarmouth; is a small scattered place; and has a post office‡ under Southampton. The parish contains the tythings of Easton, Weston, Middleton, and Norton. Acres, 5, 242; of which 280 are water. Real property, £7, 246; of which £650 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851, 1, 393; in 1861, 1, 678. Houses, 322. The increase of pop. arose partly from the presence of military forts, and partly from the erection of lodging-houses for visitors. The property is much subdivided. The parish forms the western extremity of the Isle of Wight; and the greater part of it is nearly insulated by the Yar or Freshwater river, and was formerly called Freshwater Isle. The Yar river rises in a break or "gate" of the S coast; is separated at its source, from the sea, at the head of Freshwater Bay, by only a low narrow isthmus of shingle; receives into its waters, from that bay, in violent gales, portions of briny billows; runs some distance along a deep narrow valley; and widens, over most part of its course, into considerable estuary. Freshwater Bay is of small extent; but, with the "gate" above it, forms a picturesque break between Afton down on the E and High down on the W. Two isolated masses of rock, on its E side, about 500 yards from the shore, stand boldly up from the sea; and one of these, called the Arched Rock, from its being pierced with a rough arch of quasi-Gothic outline, is one of the most picturesque objects in the Isle of Wight. Many caves, mostly inaccessible by land, are in the cliffs on the W side; and one of these, called the Freshwater Cave, entered by a rugged arch of about 30 feet in width, was long an object of great attraction to strangers, but perished about the year 1850, partly by sea-abrasion, and partly by erection of a fort. Freshwater Gate, at the head of the bay, is a visiting-place for tourists and summer sojourners; and has two excellent hotels, a number of lodging-houses, some bathing machines, and a small museum. The coast thence to the western extremity, in the vicinity of the Needles, an extent of 3½ miles, is described by Mantell as "a succession of mural precipices of chalk, from 400 to upwards of 600 feet in height;" and he adds that "the face of these cliffs, when seen from the sea at a short distance, has a remarkable appearance, from the rows of flints which score the surface of the white rock with fine dark parallel lines, running in an oblique direction from the top to the bottom of the section. " Chief parts of this coast will be noticed in the articles Main Bench and Scratchell's Bay; and chief parts of the other or western coast of the parish are noticed in Needles, Totlands Bay, and Colwell Bay. Two forts, the Albert and the Victoria, are on the NW coast, commanding the W entrance of the Solent; and another fort is at Freshwater Gate. The manors of Afton, Compton, and Wilmingham form the SE part of the parish, and lie E of the Ya The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £710.* Patron, St. John's College, Cambridge. The church is transition Norman, and good. There are a Wesleyan chapel, an endowed school with £27, and other charities with £24. Dr. Robert Hooke, the mathematician, was a native.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Freshwater CP/AP       Hampshire AncC
Place: Freshwater

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