National Gazetteer (1868) - Yarmouth

YARMOUTH, a parish, seaport, and market town in the liberty of West Medina, Isle of Wight, county Hants, 10 miles W. of Newport, 12 S.W. of Cowes, and 6 by steamer across the Solent to Lymington. This place, anciently called Eremuth, and now occasionally South Yarmouth, to distinguish it from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, derives its name from its situation at the mouth of the river Yar, which falls into the Solent, and is here crossed by a bridge, just constructed, connecting the town with the neighbouring parish of Freshwater. It is a coast-guard station and sub-port to Cowes, being the first port within the Needles passage. In ancient times it appears to have been of much greater extent and importance than it is at present, as proved by the "town field," which, though now destitute of buildings, is laid out regularly at right angles, marking the lines of the ancient streets. Its decadence is attributed to the French, by whom it was, in the reign of Richard II., pillaged and entirely burned, and on two subsequent occasions it was nearly destroyed by them.

It is a corporate town, having been incorporated by Baldwin de Rivers, or Redvers, Earl of Devon, and is nominally governed by a mayor and 12 capital burgesses. The borough first sent members to parliament in the 23rd of Edward I., but made no other return until the 27th of Elizabeth, from which period it exercised the privilege continuously till disfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. The town consists of several streets, for the most part running E. and W., the houses are chiefly of brick. It contains a townhall and market-house, and a castle or fort at the western extremity of the town, built by Henry VIII. on the site of a former church, and in 1855 repaired and much strengthened by government. The George Hotel was originally built by Sir Robert Holmes, the admiral, for the reception of Charles II., and has in front of the house a small platform or balcony, which belonged to an old mansion, from which Charles I. addressed the people of the place when in the hands of the parliament and on his way from Carisbrooke to Hurst Castle.

The population of the parish is 1861 was 699. The trade is now limited, consisting of the import of coal from Sunderland, timber from the New Forest, and of the export of iron ore to the smelting furnaces of Wales, which latter is dredged up off the coast, also fine white sand, used in the manufacture of flint-glass and the finer sorts of British china, obtained chiefly from pits on the shore of Alum Bay near the Needles. The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Winchester, value £100. The church, dedicated to St. James, was built in 1543, and repaired in 1831, when the tower was raised 30 feet higher at the expense of T. Alexander, Esq. On the S. side is a sepulchral chapel containing a statue of life size, in parian marble, of Sir R. Holmes, formerly Governor of the Isle of Wight. The Wesleyans and Baptists have chapels. There are National schools opened in 1855, and at which the present (1868) average daily attendance is 160. The charities produce about £45 per annum, the bequest of Thomas Lord Holmes and others. Vestiges of a Roman station formerly existed on a spot now built upon. Friday is market day. A fair is held on 25th July.

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]