Churches with great stories to tell
The Isle of Wight can lay claim to having some of the UK's most interesting and historic churches - all of them within a maximum of 23 miles of one another - and ferry operator Wightlink has chosen to spotlight 14 of these in its newest themed booklet. Just published, the Wight Church Trail is an eight-page supplement to the revised 2012 Wight History Trail and features churches, chapels, abbeys and graveyards that have a particular story to tell.
Following on from surge of interest in royal connections after the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations earlier this year, the Isle of Wight's most royal church opens the Wight Church Trail. St Mildred's, Whippingham was designed by Queen Victoria's Consort, Prince Albert and stands on the site of a Norman church mentioned in the Domesday Book. Among the many royal treasures to be discovered at this imposing church that overlooks the River Medina are Queen Victoria's chair and her memorial tablet to Prince Albert, both located in the Royal Pew.
Queen Victoria was not the only Victorian with a taste for the Isle of Wight. Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived on the Island at Freshwater and encouraged a coterie of 19th century celebrities to visit him there. Two of the churches chosen for the new guide have strong links with the Poet Laureate and are located in Freshwater. His wife, Emily, Lady Tennyson is buried in the churchyard of All Saints, one of the Island's oldest churches, located above the River Yar near the Causeway bridge.
Considerably more modest in scale than All Saints, St Agnes' Church lies even closer to the Poet's Farringford home at Freshwater Bay and was chosen for the guide because it is the Isle of Wight's only thatched church. Its link with the Tennyson family lies in the fact that it was built on land donated by Lord Tennyson's son Hallam in 1908.
Among others included in the guide, St Lawrence Parish Church features because of its stained glass windows designed by Pre-Raphaelite artists including Sir Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown, while All Saints, Godshill was selected not only because it is one of the most photographed Island churches but also because of its unusual medieval mural, which shows a figure of Christ crucified on a triple-branched flowering lily.
The Wight Church Trail is available to download from the Wightlink website at wightlink.co.uk/churchtrail and free printed copies of the 32-stop Wight History Trail, containing the new supplement, can be downloaded at wightlink.co.uk/historytrail.
Wightlink Green Getaway Church Trail breaks:
Two night weekend break: Stay in deepest countryside at Gotten Manor, located in a sheltered hollow at the foot of St. Catherine's Down in the south of the Isle of Wight. The rooms in Gotten Manor's Old House are decorated traditionally with lime-washed walls in soft pastels and polished wooden floors. Surrounded by open farmland, the peaceful private retreat offers a private walled garden and a woodland copse with rare bats, badgers and buzzards. Departing on either 5 or 12 October, a two night weekend break costs from £117 per person (based on two sharing a room) and includes Bed & Breakfast and return car ferry crossings with Wightlink from Portsmouth or Lymington.
Three-for-the-price-of-two midweek break: Stay in a manor house by the seaside in West Wight, a stone's throw from two of the historic churches on Wightlink's new trail. One of a clutch of imposing houses built along a leafy avenue in Totland by wealthy Victorians, Sentry Mead is offering three night B&B breaks for the price of two throughout October. Packages cost from £107 per person (based on two sharing a room) and include return car ferry crossings with Wightlink from Portsmouth or Lymington.
For more information, visit wightlink.co.uk.
