Kelly's Directory (1886) - Whippingham

Whippingham is a parish and station on the Newport and Ryde railway, in the East Medina liberty, North-east Medina rural deanery, Winchester diocese and archdeaconry of the Isle of Wight, distant about 1.5 miles from East Cowes and 3.5 miles north-by-east from Newport: the parish is bounded by the Motherbank on the north-east, and on the west by the river Medina. East Cowes and Barton are in the civil parish of Whippingham, separate parishes for ecclesiastical purposes only. The church of St. Mildred was rebuilt in the years 1861 and 1862, in the Transition style from Early English: it is a massive building, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, transepts and central tower, surmounted by a spire, without bells: the chancel belongs to Her Majesty the Queen, and was built at her sole cost in 1855; it contains a very fine memorial to the Prince Consort, executed at the expense of Her Majesty: there is a very fine organ. The register dates from the year 1728. The living is a rectory, gross yearly value £829, with residence and 33 acres of glebe, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor and held since 1857 by the Rev. George Prothero M.A. of Brasenose College, Oxford, sub-dean and canon of Westminster, rural dean of North-east Medina, chaplain in ordinary to Her Majesty and J.P. for the county of Worcester. In 1668, John Mann left a yearly rent charge out of Lazenby Grange, Yorkshire, for apprenticing poor children of the parish, with preference for those of East Cowes. In 1856 Beatrice Sheddon left by will £1,000 in £3 per Cent Consols, producing £30 yearly for distribution in Whippingham, East Cowes and Barton among the poor. OSBORNE HOUSE, the beautiful marine residence of Her Majesty, built by the Queen and Prince Albert in 1845-48, is in this parish; the house is a noble mansion, in the Palldian style, with a flag tower 100 feet high and a clock tower 90 feet in height, situated on an eminence commanding very extensive views, with a lawn sloping to the sea. The Queen is lady of the manor. The principal landowners are Her Majesty the Queen, R.S. Holford esq. of Weston Birt, Gloucestershire, H. Pinnock, of Carisbrooke, Miss Joliffe, of Padmore, C. Wykeham Martin esq. of Leeds Castle, Kent, J. Batten, of Fairlee house. The chief crops are wheat, barley and roots. There are 4,631 acres of land, and 394 water and foreshore; ratebale value, including East Cowes, £18,332; the population, including 2,543 in the town of East Cowes & 1,334 in Barton, in 1881 was 4,528.

[Description(s) from Kelly's Directory of the Isle of Wight (1886)]