A list of events and incidentals contributing to the Island's history A few national historical events are included to help put things in context, although it's worth bearing in mind that many developments may have taken years to reach our somewhat remote outpost 1800c---Island items are displayed like this 1800c__National items are displayed like this The year has a suffix : e= exact date c= + or - a few years x= + or - up to 25 years This list is but a small proportion of the complete fund of Island knowledge. We invite you to submit your own items, the main criteria being that they are of general interest. Please Email iwhistory.centre@virgin.net with your entries and source references. Comments and corrections also welcome The Isle of Wight Timeline of History . . . 0020x---Some Iron Age settlements acquiring Roman goods 0043e__Roman Conquest of Britain 0050c---Roman presence at Brading 0070x---Roman activity in Arreton Valley 0170x---Brading and Newport Roman villa sites in existence 0300x---Stone quarrying at Binstead sites 0400x---Half the Island's natural woodland now stripped (Roman furnaces etc) 0450x__Roman occupation over 0495e__Saxon Cerdic invades and establishes kingdom of Wessex 0530e---Saxons defeat natives in Bowcombe valley and conquer Island 0534e---Cerdic gives Island to relatives 'Stuf' and 'Whitgar' 0550x---Pagan Jutes arrive 0625x---Christian West Saxons annex Island 0664e__Synod of Whitby: England adopts the Roman Catholic faith 0686e---IW last part of England to be converted to Christianity 0700x__Water wheels driving mills in general use 0826e---King Egbert of Wessex gives West Wight to Winchester Church 0885e---First recorded settlement at Arreton - Eaderingtune 0889c__Vikings and Irish Danes raiding south west coast 0897e---King Alfred's forces battle with Viking ships off Brading Haven 0900c__England divided into shires, with county courts to safeguard civil rights 1001c---Danish raids on West Wight - leader 'Swein' for Swainston 1001e---Danes raid Newtown shore settlement 1013e---King Elthered 'The Unready' spends Christmas on the Island 1052e---Flanders fleet raids and plunders Island coast. 1066e__The Norman Conquest 1066e---William Fitz Osbern first Lord of the Island 1068c---Six churches granted to the Abbey of Lyre 1070c---St Boniface Old Church Bonchurch built by Normandy monks 1071e---William Fitz Osbern killed at battle of Cassel 1082e---William the Conqueror visits Carisbrooke Castle 1086e---Domesday Book records 24 watermills, 10 churches and 126 properties 1087c---Church of St Edmund, Wootton built 1090c---Abbey of Cluny established at St Helens 1091c---Quarr Limestone used in the building of Chichester Cathedral 1096e__Start of the First Crusade 1100c---Appuldurcombe Priory established by Abbey of Monteburg 1100e---Henry I gives Island to Richard de Redvers 1110x---Present walls of Carisbrooke Castle built 1115c__First recorded windmill 1115c---Priory of St Cross established on the banks of Lukely brook 1118e---Newport founded by Richard de Redvers 1120c---Nunwell acquired by the Oglander family 1132e---Quarr Abbey established (Cistercian) 1150c---Carisbrooke Castle well sunk 1156c---Carisbrooke Priory established by Abbey of Lyre 1166c---Yarmouth first Island town built on medieval grid system 1198c---Island's first fulling mill in existance at Heasley, Arreton 1203e---Rookley estate first recorded 1212c__Tiles replace thatched and wooden roofs of London houses 1214e---King John at Yarmouth organising the invasion of France 1215e__King John seals Magna Carta at Runnymede 1220c---Rabbits introduced 1238e---Charter granted to Newtown by Bishop of Winchester 1250c---Quarr Abbey establish salt water fish ponds on the Medina 1256e---Charter for new settlement at Swainston 1262e---Isobella de Fortibus is Lady of IW 1269e---Typically, 166 cheeses and 16 stone of butter from a manor's summer dairy 1272e---Barton oratory built by rectors of Godshill and Shalfleet 1272e---Earliest record of 'East Shamlord', now East Cowes district 1280e---Isobella de Fortibus claims all wrecks of the sea 1282c---Isobella de Fortibus and Quarr Abbey in armed dispute over tithes 1285e---Edward I staying at Swainstone, with a view to acquisition 1293e---Isobella de Fortibus dies and Crown acquires IW 1294c---Defences and infrastructure improved at Crown's behest 1296e---Carisbrooke Castle reverts from IW Lords 'seat' to military centre 1296e---100 crossbow men imported to help defend anticipated French invasion 1299e---Calbourne Mill first mentioned 1300c---'La Ride' (Ryde) fishing village recorded 1300x---Quarries at Binstead past best quality stone 1302c---Farm produce being shipped to Scotland to support war with Scots 1305e__Yard and acre standardised 1312c---St Catherine's Hill lighthouse built as part of oratory 1324e---System of 18 warning beacons established across the Island 1334e---Mottistone recorded as having sixty taxpayers 1335e---State of Emergency declared in face of imminent French invasion 1338e__Hundred Year's War under way: French burn Portsmouth 1338e---Some landowners leave Island in fear of French invasion 1339e---Build up of arms and men in readiness for French 1340e---French raid gains ground at St Helens before being repulsed 1346e---Edward III sets sail from St Helens to invade Normandy 1349e__Black Death widespread 1350x__Artillery cannon coming into general use 1350x---Hall House of Chale Abbey farm built by John de Langford 1352c---The Black Death diminishes population and leaves deserted villages 1362e__English becomes the country's official language 1375e---Crown threatens to take land from gentry fleeing French invasion 1377e---French plunder northern towns and lay siege to Carisbrooke Castle 1377e---Population 4,733 1378e---Roud recorded as having seventy two taxpayers 1379e__Poll Tax raised to fund wars with France 1379e---Newport still uninhabited following destruction by French 1381e__Peasants' Revolt under Wat Tyler 1381e---French incursion reaches Newport 1395e---Ninety clothmakers recorded: IW a major 'Kersey' centre 1402e---French land 1700 men and rout some villages 1404e---French raiding party claims locals fled to the hills 1413c---First mention of 'Cows' (sandbanks), origin of Cowes 1415e__Henry V defeats French at Battle of Agincourt 1418c---St Helens Priory (alien) lands given to Eton college 1418e---More French raids repulsed 1450c---Mottistone Manor rebuilding started by Robert Cheke 1454e---First White Horse Inn Whitwell built 1477c__Caxton's first English press prints Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales' 1480x---Larger farms and field enclosures begin to deplete population 1488e---Battle of St Aubin takes the lives of 400-700 Islanders 1489e---Act to limit land holdings and thereby increase population 1489e---IW ". . desolate and not inhabited, but occupied with sheep and cattle . ." 1498e---Quarr Abbey lease Appuldurcombe to Sir John Lygh 1499e---Henry VII tours the Island staying at Nunwell and Brook House 1500e---Only island towns are Yarmouth, Newport and Newtown 1500x---Many vacant cottages and manor houses fall into decay 1500x---Decline of Newtown as harbour (silting/increasing ship size) 1528e__Severe outbreaks of the plague 1528e---Accusations of witchcraft against two Newport residents 1531e__Reformation: Henry VIII recognised as Head of Church of England 1535c---Henry VIII instructs major fortification of Island coastline 1536e---Quarr Abbey dissolved 1537c---Defensive blockhouse forts built on Medina (one now RY squadron) 1538e---Henry VIII entertained by Richard Worsley at Appuldurcombe 1544e---John Cheke of Mottistone appointed tutor to Prince Edward 1545e---Mary Rose founders 1545e---French landings at Sandown, St Helens and Bonchurch 1545e---Yarmouth Castle built 1546c---IW Captain Worsley orders every parish to have a gun 1548e---IW boasts "no hooded priests; no lawyers; no wolves and no foxes" 1550x__Linen industry becoming established 1550x---Brewing and leather production main town industries 1558e__Queen Elizabeth I 1559e---Typical vacant dwellings: 25% at Arreton and 19% at St Helens 1559e---Recorded complaints about the enclosure of common fields 1559e---Survey highlights decay of many island churches 1559e---Yarmouth only having "dosen hosis" and "in grete decay" 1559e---Population recorded as 8,767 of which 1,880 were 'able men' 1560c---Field system established which prevails on present day farms 1561e---Patent raised to extract Alum 1565e---Proclamation reprimands local support and succour to piracy 1567e---Mottistone Manor west wing completed by Thomas Cheke 1570c---Worsley and Urry in dispute over maintenance of Gatcombe's mill stream 1575e---Customs House established at East Cowes 1575x---Piracy rampant: centred around Mead Hole (Osborne Bay) 1577e---End of an 18 year dispute over sheep grazing rights on St Catherine's Hill 1580c---Nettlestone Manor built (earliest known IW brick building) 1584c---Extra graveyard created for Newport plague victims (Church Litten green) 1584e---"The majority of pirates in this country are between IW and Poole" 1585c---Newport Harbour beginning major development 1586c---Two shipwrecked catholic priests executed for their faith 1588e__Drake battles with the Spanish Armada 1588e---A suggestion of Island shipbuilding 1590x__Glass windows appearing in domestic houses 1602e---Major refortification of Carisbrooke Castle in face of Spanish threat 1603c---Crown sales of Manors increases 'gentry' population 1607c---Quarr Abbey now in ruins 1607e---"The commodities of this place are but corne and wooll" 1607e---James I hunting in Parkhurst Forest 1609e---Sir Thomas Fleming acquires most of the ex Quarr Abbey estates 1611e---John Speed's map of IW published: Newport has 476 buildings 1613e---Newport regulates chimney height to limit fires 1620c---Post travelling by 'foot' between IW and London 1620c---Earliest record of Cowes shipbuilding 1620e__Pilgrim Fathers leave Plymouth for America 1620e---10 year old Brading Haven dam is irretrievably breached 1624c---Island traders supply developing Virginia 1627e---Charles I inspects military training exercises on Arreton Down 1632e---Crown re-purchase Watchingwell Park to preserve timber 1633e---Ships leave Cowes to colonise Maryland America 1635e__The Post Office founded 1641e---Newport population 3,000 1642e__Civil War begins 1642e---Island falls to Parliamentarians with only one shot fired 1643e---Origins of Mew Langtons brewery 1643e---Sir John Oglander arrested as a Royalist 1647e---Charles I flees to Carisbrooke and is ultimately imprisoned 1648e---Failed attempt to free Charles I 1649e__Free enterprise receives state support 1649e__Charles I executed 1650e---Watchingwell Park still contains "nine score deer" 1650e---Charles I's daughter, Elizabeth, dies at Carisbrooke Castle aged 14 1650x__Flintlock gun developed 1655e---Sir John Oglander dies 1661e__Monarchy restored: Charles II 1664e---Castle Inn Newport built 1665e---Charles II visits to confer knighthood on Edward Worsley 1666e__Great Fire of London 1673e---Earliest record of an Island postmaster 1675e---Charles II forced ashore at Puckaster Cove in rough seas 1680e---Newport's first municipal library opened 1695c__Press freedom established 1696e---Island 'flint' glassworks recorded - whereabouts unknown 1697e---Calbourne Mill purchased by John Dillington of Knighton 1699e---Present Newtown town hall built 1700c---Cowes shipbuilding yards established 1700c---Bembridge windmill in operation 1703e---Violent storms demolish trees and houses 1710e---Appuldurcombe House built by Robert Worsley 1711c---Paper mill operating at Clatterford ford 1712e__Last execution for witchcraft 1720e---Earliest known IW postmark 1735e---Ashey Down seamark built 1750e---Swainston Manor largely rebuilt 1750x---Yafford mill built 1751e---Gatcombe Manor House built by Edward Worsley 1752e__Gregorian calendar introduced: year now starts on Jan 1st 1754c__First iron rolling mill 1755e---'Roads' still field tracks ( 52 gates between Newport and Yarmouth) 1756e---Niton recorded eleven houses including the poor house 1757c---New quay built at Cowes 1759c---Oyster fishery flourishing in Bembridge harbour 1760c---Josiah Wedgwood experimenting with materials from Alum Bay 1761e---Charitable school for poor girls (Blue Jenny) opens at Newport 1765e---Existing frontage of Nunwell House built 1768e---Capability Brown starts landscaping Appuldurcombe House 1770c---IW farmers berated for their "ignorance idleness and insularity" 1770e---Appuldurcombe House adapted to existing palladian style 1770e---Pritchett brickworks established to build Parkhurst Barracks 1771e__Arkwright produces first spinning mill 1771e---Population 18,700 1774e---Incorporation for the Poor established in the 'House of Industry' 1777e---Customs' William Arnold starts 23 year campaign against smuggling 1778c---Serious smallpox develops: beginning years of outbreaks 1780e---Upper and lower Ryde hamlets joined by Union St 1781e__The first commercial rotative steam engine to drive machinery 1781e---Richard Worsley publishes his 'History of the Isle of Wight' 1781e---John Wesley opens one of first IW Methodist chapels at Newport 1785x---Alum Bay white sand a major source for English and Irish glass Industries 1786e---Newport paving act passed: raised pavements 1786e---First Needles lighthouse built, on upper cliffs 1789c__French Revolution puts the wind up the English ruling classes 1790c---Island breed of pig developed 1790c---Wool exports require 40,000 sheep shorn per year 1790c---Sandown: "a village by the sandy shore" 1792c__Gas illumination introduced 1792e---IW "granary of the western counties" and main supplier to the navy 1793e---First ordnance survey (unpublished) 1793e---Yarmouth tide mill built 1794e---Farming: "the Island's fertility is almost proverbial" 1795c---Hundreds of farm labour imported for harvesting 1795e---IW cheese "can scarcely be cut by hatchet or saw" 1795e---Potatoes planted only by "little farmers and labourers" 1797c---Customs now have many fast cutters to combat smuggling 1797e__First copper pennies and pound notes issued 1798c---John Nash starts to build East Cowes Castle 1798e---New Parkhurst barracks open and introduce major military presence 1799e---Norris Castle built by James Wyatt 1800c---Humphrey Repton designs St Johns garden at Ryde 1800c---Rising corn prices cause rebellious stirrings amongst the poor 1801c---Seaview harbour becomes major sea saltworks centre 1801e---Population 23,687 1803e__Start of the Napoleonic Wars 1804e---John Nash rebuilds Whippingham Church 1805c---Ryde attracting "genteel company . . crammed into accommodation" 1806e__Cotton industry employing 184,000 handloom weavers 1807c---Supplies for Napoleonic wars climax farming prosperity 1809e---Prison ships established at Medina entrance 1810c---Shanklin chine drawing visitors and promoting cottage lets 1810c---Arson against landowners by poor encouraged by public posters 1810c---South Islanders still sparse and regarded as remote from Island capital 1811c__Anti-industrial 'Luddite' protests 1812e__First successful steamship launched 1813e__Highways Act to improve road conditions 1813e---Ryde Town Hall rebuilt by John Nash 1814e---First record of 'White' shipbuilding family on IW (subsequently J S Whites) 1814e---Ryde pier opens 1814e---Ryde-Newport road surfaced with Quarr pit chippings 1815c__John Macadam constructs first road of crushed stone 1815c---Church funded schools open at Newport, Cowes and E.Cowes 1815e__Corn Law passed: price levels artificially maintained 1815e__Battle of Waterloo heralds the end of Napoleonic Wars 1817c---Keats on Bowcombe Down with "A thing of beauty is a joy forever . . ." 1817e---Abortive attempt at steamship service between Ryde and Portsmouth 1819c---Solent sail crossing: "formidable conveyances to bad sailors and invalids" 1820c---'House of Industry' occupants now have single unshared beds 1820e---Public gas supply introduced 1820e---First steamship for regular Solent crossings: Cowes-Southampton 1821c---Ryde population has risen to 3000 from 600 in 25 yrs 1821e---Knighton Gorges dismantled by its dying owner 1821e---Ventnor: a mill and seven cottages 1821e---George Brannon publishes his first edition of 'Vectis Scenery' 1823e---First medical dispensary opens (Newport): doctor in regular attendance 1825c__Expansion of the Trade Union movement 1825e---Hospital facilities established in Newport by the Guardians of the Poor 1827e---Turner paints while a guest at East Cowes Castle 1829e---Ryde recognised as town under lighting and paving act 1830c---Alum Bay coloured sands are a tourist attraction 1830e__First passenger rail service opens 1830e---Limited action in conjunction with mainland 'labourers revolt' 1830e---All Solent crossings now have steamships 1831c__Electromagnetic Induction Engine invented 1831c---Broadlands lace factory employing nearly 800 people on 80 machines 1831e---A 12 year old future Queen Victoria holidays at Norris Castle 1832e__Reform Bill widens election suffrage and changes political influence 1832e---Population "nearly all more or less concerned with smuggling" 1832e---Island MPs reduced from six to two 1833e__Abolition of slavery throughout the Empire 1833e---Royal Yacht Squadron founded at Cowes 1834e---The first of several years of drought hits farming 1835e---John Nash dies 1836e---Farms sending 8,000 lambs to London per season 1836e---IW Trustees Savings Bank opened (first banking for poor) 1836e---" 80% of the population consume contraband spirits tobacco and tea" 1836e---IW 'Guardians of the Poor' become subservient to new Poor Law 1836e---'Clarendon' shipwrecked at Chale: timber used to enlarge pub 1837e---Economic grievances cause riots at Tory election victory 1838e__Queen Victoria's coronation 1838e---Existing St Catherine's lighthouse built 1838e---Parkhurst barracks adapted to take juvenile prisoners 1838e---Improved postal services to (remote) southern districts 1838e---Northwood House, Cowes, built 1839c---Ventnor beginning to develop housing as winter haven for invalids 1840c---Medina Cement company established 1840c---Many poor taking advantage of assisted emigration to Canada 1840e__Uniform Penny Postage applied throughout the country 1840e---First Roman Villa discovered, at Rock, Brighstone 1842c---First juvenile prisoners shipped from Parkhurst to New World 1845c---Plans for East Cowes Park raised 1845e---Foxes first imported for hunting 1845e---Blackgang Chine first opened to the public 1845e---Landowners forestall attempts to establish Island railway 1845e---Queen Victoria acquires Osborne Estate 1845e---IW Observer newspaper launched 1848c__Pedal cycle invented 1849e---Dickens writing 'David Copperfield' at Winterbourne 1849e---First purpose built hospital opens: Royal IoW Infirmary Ryde 1850e---East Cowes has one well serving 150 families 1850e---Cowes has 1000 people living in courts and alleys 1851e---Cowes first America Cup yacht race (world oldest trophy) 1851e---Osborne House completed 1851e---Population 45,640 1852e---Medina Cement build Britain's first(?) concrete house at East Cowes 1853e---Alfred Tennyson moves into Farringford 1854e---St Thomas's 12th century Church Newport rebuilt 1855e---IW Mercury newspaper launched 1856e---Ryde Esplanade built 1856e---Fort Redoubt built on Freshwater cliffs 1859e__Darwin publishes 'Origin of Species' 1859e---Present Needles lighthouse built 1860c---Island's first two lifeboats acquired, for Brook and Brighstone 1860c---IW one of the last outposts of the coaching age 1860c---Steam ploughs reach a few farms 1860e---Prince Albert oversees rebuilding of Whippingham Church 1861e__Prince Albert dies 1861e---National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest opened at Ventnor 1862e---First railway line opened: between Cowes and Newport 1862e---IW Times newspaper launched 1863e__Last public execution 1863e---Needles battery built 1863e---Brook Church burns down 1863e---Bridge over the Yar ends the isolation of West Wight 1864e---Railway opened between Ryde St Johns and Shanklin 1865c---Excessive intrusion drives Tennyson to mainland for summer seasons 1865c---New land drainage techniques improve farming capabilities 1865c---Ventnor population at 5000 (from 350 in thirty years) 1865e---Bembridge fort built 1866e---Railway extension to Ventnor opened 1867e---Golden Hill Fort built 1868e---Broadlands lace factory closes 1868e---Charles Darwin sits for photographer Julia Margaret Cameron at Dimbola Lodge 1869e---Parkhurst becomes general prison for male offenders 1872e---Ventnor pier built 1875c---American grain imports lower prices and bankrupt many farms 1875c---Typically, parish doctor walks from Newport to treat Porchfield patients 1876e---Yarmouth pier built 1877e__Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates his telephone invention 1878e---Sandown pier built 1879e---Railway between Sandown and Newport crosses the Medina 1880c__Electric light bulb invented 1880c---Smallpox vaccination stations now established throughout IW 1880e---Ryde canoe lake built 1880e---Railway takes trains to Ryde Pier Head 1881e---Seaview pier built 1882e---Railway linking Bembridge and Brading over completed embankment 1884e---IW County Press published - first Island wide newspaper 1884e---'White' family shipbuilding unifies into one company under J Samuel White 1885c__Coated photographic paper becomes available 1885e---Fort Victoria modified for early torpedo experiments 1885e---Knighton watermill converted to waterworks by Ryde Water Co. 1885e---Island reduced to one MP as Newport ceases to be a borough 1886e---Solent tunnel proposal with local authorities 1889e---Newport to Freshwater railway opens 1889e---Tennyson writes 'Crossing the Bar' between Lymington and Yarmouth 1889e---All fifty toll gates removed from Island roads 1889e---Dolphins captured in Alum Bay 1890e---Isle of Wight County Council established 1891e---Shanklin pier built 1892e---First Shanklin cliff-face lift built 1895e__The first British car manufacturer established 1895e---John Milne, 'Father of Seismology', with home and observatory at Shide 1897e---Marconi establishes wireless telegraph station at Alum Bay 1897e---Island telephone system infrastructure established 1897e---Railway to St Lawrence opened 1898c---New World meat and bacon imports worsen farm profitability 1898e---First electric power cables laid (Ventnor?) 1898e---J Samuel White established as a Private Limited Company 1899e__Boer War starts 1900e---John Milne builds earthquake laboratory at Shide 1900e---Just twenty cars on Island roads 1901e__Queen Victoria dies 1901e---Edward VII gives Osborne House to the Nation 1901e---Cowes week: "a fixture in the calendar of society" 1903e---Osborne House Naval College opens 1904e---The Seely Library opens in Newport 1909c__Commercial manufacture of Bakelite launches the age of plastic 1911e__Lloyd George introduces National Health Insurance Bill 1912e---Quarr Abbey built by architect Paul Bellot 1912e---Princess Beatrice moves from Osborne House to Carisbrooke Castle 1912e---Saunders Roe launch worlds first amphibious aircraft 1912e---Camp Hill prison opens as an experiment to treat habitual prisoners 1913c---High unemployment prompts many Islanders to leave for the colonies 1914e__World War 1 1917e---Isle of Wight Rifles lose 182 men at the 2nd Battle of Gaza 1919e__British Empire at its height 1920e__Marconi opens first public broadcasting station 1920e---First council houses built 1921e---First regular bus service: Cowes-Newport 1921e---Population 94,000 1923e---Southern Railway take over Island rail companies 1926e__The General Strike 1928e---Enormous landslide at Blackgang 1929c---Farming industry dominated by dairy products 1931e---Camp Hill becomes a Borstal Institution 1932e---Ryde Airport opens with services to Portsmouth, Shoreham and Shanklin 1936e---Saunders Roe open new purpose built flying boat works 1938e---One of the first Radar Stations built on St Boniface Down 1939e__World War 2