Bembridge   Contents

Kelly's Directory 1886 - Bembridge

"Bembridge is a pretty village and ecclesiastical parish formed in 1827 out of the parish of Brading, situated at the mouth of Brading Harbour, opposite St. Helen's, at the extremity of the peninsula of about 3 miles in length, being the most eastern part of the island, in the South-east Medina rural deanery, Isle of Wight archdeaconry and Winchester diocese. The Brading Harbour Company have carried out extensive alterations; erected the Royal Spithead hotel, the headquarters of the Isle of Wight Golf club; and established extensive oyster breeding beds, and placed many acres of reclaimed land under cultivation. The Isle of Wight Transit Co. have a station here for the conveyance of passengers and goods to Langstone Harbour. There is frequent communication with St. Helen's by ferry boats. The Bembridge and Brading railway has a station here. The church of the Holy Trinity is a stone building, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave, south aisle, and north and south porches. The register dates from the year 1827. The living is a vicarage, yearly value £100, in the gift of the vicar of Brading, and held since 1851 by the rev. John Le Mesurier M.A. hon. canon of Winchester, of Christ Church, Oxford. The Wesleyans have a place of worship here, built in 1844. A granite obelisk, in memory of the second Earl of Yarborough, was erected by subscription in 1849, on the summit of Whitecliff Down; it is a conspicuous object from most parts of the island, and from the sea. Bembridge Fort is situated on Bembridge Down. Sir Graham E.W. Graeme Hamond-Graeme J.P. who is lord of the manor, and Captain Augustus Macdonald Moreton are the chief landowners. The soil is loamy; subsoil, gravelly. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area is 1,581 acres; 850 acres reclaimed from Brading harbour, a large portion belongs to Bembridge; the population of the ecclesiastical district in 1881 was 881." (From Kelly's Directory of the Isle of Wight, 1886.)