Användare:Grillo/wight

Isle of Wight
Ceremoniellt och administrativt grevskap
Land	Storbritannien
Riksdel	England
Region	Sydöstra England
Administrativ huvudort	Newport
Yta	384 km² km²
Folkmängd	140 000
Befolkningstäthet	368 invånare/km²
Tidszon	GMT (UTC+0)
- sommartid	BST (UTC+1)

Isle of Wight är en brittisk ö strax utanför Southampton på Englands sydkust i Engelska kanalen. Den var historiskt en del av Hampshire, men utgör sedan 1890 ett eget grevskap. Ön skiljs ifrån Storbritannien av sundet Solent, och mellan ön och fastlandet går det färjor. Det går färjor mellan Southampton och Cowes, Portsmouth och Ryde, Portsmouth och Fishbourne samt Lymington till Yarmouth. Huvudort är Newport. Ön är på grund av sitt milda klimat ett populärt turistmål, något den har varit sedan viktoriansk tid, och har kilometerlånga sandstränder.

Ön har en händelserik historia, och har till och med varit självständigt kungarike under 1400-talet. Poeten Alfred Lord Tennyson har bott på ön, och drottning Viktoria av Storbritannien byggde sitt sommarresidens Osbourne House vid East Cowes. Öns maritima och industriella historia inkluderar båtbyggande, segelskapande, flygbåttillverkning samt testning och utveckling av Storbritanniens rymdraketer. Under 1970-talet hölls musikfestivalen Isle of Wight Festival på ön, vilken för tiden var en av världens största rockevenemang. Denna festival har nyligen återupptagits. Ön har ett ovanligt djurliv och även en av de största dinosauriefossilsfyndigheterna i Europa.

Ön var tidigare en del av Hampshire, men blev ett självständigt grevskap 1890, men delade lordlöjtnant med Hampshire. 1974 fick ön en egen lordlöjtnant och blev därmed ett ceremoniellt grevskap. Med en enstaka parlamentsmedlem och 132.731 invånare enligt 2001 års folkräkning är det också den största valkretsen i Storbritannien.

Historia

Förhistoria

Isle of Wight nämns för första gången i text i Geografike hyfegesis av Klaudios Ptolemaios.

Mot slutet av Romerska rikets tid blev ön Vectis ett jylländskt kungarike och regerades av kung Stuf och hans efterträdare fram till år 661, då ön invaderades av Wulfhere av Mercia och tvångskonverterades till kristendom. Efter att Wulfhere lämnade ön återgick invånarna till hedendom.

År 685 invaderades ön av Cædwalla av Wessex, och kan anses ha blivit en del av Wessex. Då Wessex anslöt sig till England blev det också en del av England. Ön blev då en del av Hampshire och delades in i härader enligt normen. År 686 blev ön den sista delen av landet att konvertera till kristendomen.

Ön led extremt kraftigt av vikingaräder. Alfred den stores flotta besegrade till slut danerna 871.

Medeltiden

Minnesstaty till Karl I på Carisbrooke slott

Den normandiska invasionen skapade positionen lord av Isle of Wight och Carisbrooke slott byggdes. Ön kom inte under fullständig brittisk kontroll förrän den såldes av den sista normandiske lorden, lady Isabella de Fortibus, på sin dödsbädd, till Edvard I 1293.

Positionen lord kom därefter att bli ett kungligt uppdrag, med kort undantag då Henry de Beauchamp 1444 krönades till kung av Isle of Wight, av Henrik VI. Utan manlig ättling förföll dock den kungliga titeln vid Henry de Beauchamps död.

Henrik VIII, som utvecklade Royal Navy och dess permanenta bas i Portsmouth, befäste ön vid Yarmouth, östra och västra Cowes samt Sandown. Efter situationen med den spanska armadan 1588, befästes även Carisbrooke slott 1597 och 1602.

Inbördeskriget

Under det engelska inbördeskriget flydde kung Karl I till Isle of Wight, där han trodde han skulle få sympati av guvernören, Robert Hammond. Hammond blev dock förskräckt, och fängslade kungen i Carisbrooke slott.

Osborne House och dess marker är idag öppna för allmänheten

Drottning Viktoria

Drottning Viktoria gjorde Osborne House på ön till sitt sommarhem i många år, och ön blev därför ett populärt resemål för fashionabla viktorianer, bland andra Alfred Lord Tennyson, Julia Margaret Cameron, Charles Dickens (som skrev stora delar av David Copperfield där) och olika europeiska kungligheter.

Under hennes regeringstid installerades 1897 världens första radiostation av Guglielmo Marconi, vid öns västligaste punkt.

Modern historia

Under andra världskriget drabbades ön av frekvent bombning. Med tanke på öns nära lokalisering till Frankrike var ett antal observationsstationer och sändare placerade på ön. Ön var också startpunkt för en av Operation Pluto-röreledningarna, som skulle föra bränsle till Normandielandstigningen.

Militärinstallationen The Needles-batteriet användes för att testa och utveckla rymdraketerna Black Arrow och Black Knight, som senare skjöts upp från Woomera Test Facility i Australien.

Isle of Wight Festival tog plats mellan 1968 och 1970. Festivalen 1970 har gjort sig känd för sitt stora antal besökare, enligt många uppskattningar uppemot 600.000. Det var även en av Jimi Hendrix sista konserter. Festivalen återupplivades 2002 och har hållits årligen sedan dess.

Fysisk geografi och djurliv

Karta över Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight är diamantformad och täcker en yta på 380 km². Lite mer än halva ön, huvudsakligen västra delen av den, definieras som en Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Ön utgörs av 258 km² åkermark, 52 km² uppbyggd område och 92 km kustlinje. Öns landskap är ovanligt mångfaldig, vilket lett till smeknamnet "England i miniatyr". Västra delen är huvudsakligen lantlig, med dramatiska kustlinjer som domineras av kuperade kritaplatåer, som går längs hela ön och slutar vid The Needles. Den högsta punkten på ön är St Boniface Down på 241 meter över havet.

The famous view at The Needles and Alum Bay.

Resterande delar av ön upplever också en stor mångfald, som kanske främst noteras av de mjuka klippor längs havet som är viktiga för öns djurliv. Dessa är också internationellt skyddade. Medinafloden flyter norrut ut i Solent, medan den andra huvudfloden, Eastern Yar, flyter åt nordöst och flyter ut i havet vid Bembridge i öst. Det finns även en separat flod på öns västra del, vid namn Western Yar, som sträcker sig mellan Freshwater Bay till en relativt stor flodmynning vid Yarmouth.

Öns sydkust vätter åt Engelska kanalen och utan människans inverkan kan den mycket väl ha delats i tre, då havsvatten flyter in vid två olika platser:

• vid västra delen av ön där en strandbank med småsten skiljer Freshwater Bay från Western Yars sumpiga bakvatten och
• vid östra delen av ön där en tunn bit land delar Sandown Bay från Eastern Yars sumpiga flodområde.

Staden Yarmouth låg tidigare på i praktiken en egen ö, med vatten på alla sidor.

Ön är en av få platser i England där ekorren blomstrar, med en stabil befolkning. Till skillnad ifrån övriga England, finns inga grå ekorrar på ön., och det finns heller inga vilda rådjur. Däremot finns flera sällsynta och skyddade arter på ön, såsom sovmöss och flera olika sällsynta fladdermöss.

En tävling år 2002 utsåg salepsroten till countyblomma.

Ön är känd för att innehålla många dinosauriefossiler. De eroderande klipporna avslöjar ofta tidigare okända fyndigheter.

Klimat

Då det är en av de sydligaste delarna av Storbritannien, upplever Isle of Wight ett mildare klimat än de flesta övriga områden, vilket gör ön till ett viktigt turistmål, framförallt till semesterorterna i sydvästra delen av ön.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	Maj	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Okt	Nov	Dec
Genomsnitt högsta (°C)	9	9	10	13	16	18	20	21	19	15	12	10
Genomsnitt lägsta (°C)	3	3	4	7	9	12	14	14	12	9	6	4
Medel (°C)	6	6	7	10	13	15	17	17	15	12	9	7
Genomsnitt nederbörd (mm)	89	61	66	48	56	53	41	56	66	79	84	89

Geologi

Blackgang Chine circa 1910

Isle of Wight består av en stor mångfald av bergarter från tidig krita till mitten av paleogen. Alla stenarter på ön är sedimentära, det vill säga skapade av mineraler från tidigare stenar. Vanliga stenarter på ön är kalksten och sandsten.

Stenarter från kritaperioden, vanligtvis röda, visar att klimatet på ön tidigare varit varmt och torrt, vilket gav gynnsamma levnadsförhållanden för dinosaurier. Dinosaurieben och -fotspår kan också ses i berggrunden runt öns stränder, speciellt vid Yaverland och Compton Bay.

View west from Shanklin Chine

Politics

The Clipper Ship "Flying Cloud" off the Needles, Isle of Wight, by James E. Buttersworth, 1859–60.

The Isle of Wight is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county. Since the abolition of its two borough councils in 1995 and the restructuring of the county council as the Isle of Wight Council, it has been a unitary county. It is unique in England in this way — all other unitary areas are single districts with no county council, while the Isle of Wight is the other way round. It also has a single Member of Parliament, and is by far the most populous constituency in the United Kingdom (more than 50% above the average of English constituencies).

As a constituency of the House of Commons, it is traditionally a battleground between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. The current MP Andrew Turner is a Conservative, and his predecessor Dr Peter Brand was a Liberal Democrat.

The Isle of Wight Council election of 2009 was a victory for the Conservative Party, which took 24 of the council's 40 seats.

There has been a minor regionalist movement, in the form of the Vectis National Party and Isle of Wight Party, but they attracted little support in elections.

Orter

Det finns nio större orter på Isle of Wight. De flesta ligger på östra sidan av ön och längs kusten. Den största orten är Ryde med 26.152 invånare, medan Newport är huvudstad och ligger mitt på ön. Det går vägar från de flesta orter rakt till Newport, vilket gör orten till öns servicecentrum.

Town	Population
Ryde	&&&&&&&&&&026152.&&&&&026 152
Newport	&&&&&&&&&&023957.&&&&&023 957
Cowes/East Cowes	&&&&&&&&&&016925.&&&&&016 925
Shanklin	&&&&&&&&&&&08055.&&&&&08 055
Ventnor	&&&&&&&&&&&07000.&&&&&07 000
Sandown	&&&&&&&&&&&05299.&&&&&05 299
Brading	&&&&&&&&&&&02077.&&&&&02 077
Yarmouth	&&&&&&&&&&&&0855.&&&&&0855

Utöver dessa finns flera mindre byar längs kusten, speciellt då på östra sidan. Det finns också en mängd mindre byar. Vissa av dessa, som Godshill attraherar också många turister.

Culture

Graveyard on the grounds of the church in the town of Brading, Isle of Wight

Language and dialect

The Isle of Wight accent is a somewhat stronger than but similar to the traditional dialect of Hampshire, featuring the dropping of some consonants and an emphasis on longer vowels. It is similar to the West Country dialects heard in SW England, but less removed in sound from the Estuary English of the SE. As with many other traditional southern British regional dialects and accents, a strong island accent is not now commonly heard, and, as speakers tend to be older, this decline is likely to continue.

The island also has its own local and regional words. Some words, including grockle (visitor, tourist - hence grockle-can, tour coach) and nipper/nips (a younger male person), are still commonly used and are shared with neighbouring areas of the mainland. A few are unique to the island, for example overner (a mainlander who has settled on the island), caulkhead (someone born on the island and born from long-established island stock) and 'somewhen' (a derivative of sometime, with similar meaning). Other words are more obscure and now used mainly for comic emphasis, such as mallishag (meaning "caterpillar") and nammit ("noon-meat", meaning food). Some other words are gurt meaning "great", and gallybagger ("scarecrow").

Identity

There has been and still is some confusion between the identities of the Isle of Wight as a separate county and, as it once was, a part of the nearby county of Hampshire. Prior to 1890 the Isle of Wight was normally regarded and was administered as a part of Hampshire. With the formation of the Isle of Wight County Council in 1890 the distinct identity became officially established - see also Politics of the Isle of Wight. In January 2009 the new Flag of the Isle of Wight, the first general flag for the county, was accepted by the Flag Institute.

Sport

Cowes is a world-famous centre for sailing, playing host to several racing regattas. Cowes Week is the longest-running regular regatta in the world, with over 1,000 yachts and 8,500 competitors taking part in over 50 classes of yacht racing. In 1851 the first America's Cup race took place around the island. Other major sailing events hosted in Cowes include the Fastnet race, the Round the Island Race, the Admiral's Cup, and the Commodore's Cup.

The Isle of Wight Marathon is the United Kingdom's oldest continuously held marathon, having been run every year since 1957. The course starts in Ryde, passing through Newport, Shanklin and Sandown, before finishing back in Ryde. It is an undulating course with a total climb of 459 metres.

The island is home to the Isle of Wight Islanders speedway team, who compete in the sport's third division, the National League. The club was founded in 1996, with a first-night attendance of 1,740. The island is also home to the Wightlink Raiders, an ice hockey team based at Ryde Arena. They compete in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, the 2nd Division in the country. There is also an amateur team the Vectis Tigers of the English National Ice Hockey League, also based at Ryde Arena.

The Isle of Wight Hockey Club run three senior teams and a junior side, with the 1st XI competing in Hampshire's top division, just one below the regional leagues. The island also has a ladies team - the Vectis Ladies - which is a separate organisation to the IW Hockey Club. Ventnor Middle School on the Isle of Wight runs a successful hockey set-up, producing a number of players who have since gone on to play at high standards.

The now-disbanded Ryde Sports F.C. was founded in 1888 and became one of the eight founder members of the Hampshire League in 1896. There are several other non-league clubs such as Newport (IW) F.C. There is an Isle of Wight Saturday Football League with three divisions, and a rugby union club, plus various other sporting teams. Beach football is particularly prevalent on the island and has several of the nation's premier clubs with almost all of the England Beach Soccer team made up from players from the island.

The Isle of Wight is the 39th official county in English cricket, and the Isle of Wight Cricket Board organise an internal cricket league between various local clubs, and Ventnor Cricket Club compete in the Southern Premier League, and have won the Second Division in several recent years. There is a new County Ground near Newport which held its first match on 6 September 2008. The Board's intent is to enter a side in the Minor Counties tournaments in future seasons.

The Isle of Wight competes in the biennial Island Games, which it hosted in 1993. The Isle of Wight will host these games again in 2011.

Music

The Isle of Wight is home to the Isle of Wight International Jazz Festival, the Isle of Wight Festival and the Bestival. The Isle of Wight is also the home of the band "The Bees". Recently they have been having more national success and often perform at smaller concerts on the island. The band "Trixie's Big Red Motorbike" (extant in the early-to-mid 1980s) as well as Mark King of Level 42 also came from the Isle of Wight.

Economy

A satellite photograph of the Isle of Wight and the Solent.

This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added by the Isle of Wight economy at current basic prices by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of pounds.

Year	Regional Gross Value Added	Agriculture	Industry	Services
1995	831	28	218	585
2000	1,202	27	375	800
2003	1,491	42	288	1,161

Industry and agriculture

The largest industry on the Isle of Wight is tourism, but the island has a strong agricultural heritage, including sheep and dairy farming and the growing of arable crops. Traditional agricultural commodities are more difficult to market off the island because of transport costs, but island farmers have managed successfully to exploit some specialist markets. The high price of these products overcomes the transport costs. One of the most successful agricultural sectors at present is the growing of crops under cover, particularly salad crops, including tomatoes and cucumbers. The Isle of Wight has a longer growing season than much of the United Kingdom and this also favours such crops. Garlic has been successfully grown in Newchurch for many years, and is even exported to France. This has led to the establishment of an annual Garlic Festival at Newchurch, which is one of the largest events of the island's annual calendar. The favourable climate has led to the success of vineyards, including one of the oldest in the British Isles, at Adgestone near Sandown. Lavender is also grown for its oil. The largest sector of agriculture has been dairying, but due to low milk prices, and strict UK legislation for UK milk producers, the dairy industry has declined. There were nearly one-hundred and fifty dairy producers of various sizes in the mid-eighties, but this has now dwindled down to just twenty-four.

The making of sailcloth, boats and other connected maritime industry has long been associated with the island, although this has somewhat diminished in recent years. Cowes is still home to various small marine-related companies such as boat-builders.

Although they have reduced the extent of the plants and workforce, including the sale of the main site, GKN operates what was once the British Hovercraft Corporation a subsidiary of, and known latterly, when manufacturing focus changed, as Westland Aircraft. Prior to its purchase by Westland, it was the independent company known as Saunders-Roe. It remains one of the most notable historic firms, having produced many of the flying boats, and the world's first hovercraft.

The island's major manufacturing activity today is in composite materials, used by boat-builders and the wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, which has a wind turbine blade factory and testing facilities in Newport and East Cowes.

Bembridge Airfield is the home of Britten-Norman, manufacturers of the world-famous Islander and Trislander aircraft. This is shortly to become the site of the European assembly line for Cirrus light aircraft. The Norman Aeroplane Company is a smaller aircraft manufacturing company operating in Sandown. There are have been 3 other aircraft manufacturers that built planes on the island.

In 2005, Northern Petroleum began exploratory drilling for oil, with its Sandhills-2 borehole at Porchfield but ceased operations in October that year, after failing to find significant reserves.

Breweries

There are three breweries on the island. Goddards Brewery in Ryde opened in 1993. David Yates, who was head brewer of Burts and Island Brewery, started brewing as Yates Brewery at the Inn at St Lawrence in 2000. Ventnor Brewery, under new management, is the latest incarnation of Burt's Brewery, which has been brewing on the island since the 1840s in Ventnor. . Until the 1960s most pubs were owned by Mews Brewery sited in Newport near the old railway station, but it closed and the pubs taken over by Strongs and then by Whitbread. By some accounts Mews beer was apt to be rather cloudy and dark. They pioneered the use of cans in the 19th century for export to British India. The old brewery was derelict for many years but was then severely damaged in a spectacular fire

Services

Tourism and heritage

Compton Chine, looking east towards Blackgang

The heritage of the island is a major asset, which has for many years kept its economy going. Holidays focused on natural heritage, including both wildlife and geology, are becoming a growing alternative to the traditional British seaside holiday, which went into decline in the second half of the 20th century, due to the increased affordability of air travel to alternative destinations.

Tourism is still the largest industry on the island. In 1999, the 130,000 island residents were host to 2.7 million visitors. Of these, 1.5 million stayed overnight, and 1.2 million visits were day visits. Only 150,000 of these visitors were international visitors. Between 1993 and 2000, visits increased at a rate of 3% per year, on average.

At the turn of the nineteenth century the island had ten pleasure piers including two at Ryde and a "chain pier" at Seaview. The Victoria Pier in Cowes succeeded the earlier Royal Pier but was itself removed in 1960. The piers at Ryde, Seaview, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor originally served a coastal steamer service that operated from Southsea on the mainland. The piers at Seaview, Shanklin, Ventnor and Alum Bay were all destroyed by storms during the last century. Today only the railway pier at Ryde and the piers at Sandown, Totland Bay (currently closed to the public) and Yarmouth survive. Blackgang Chine is arguably the oldest theme park in the UK, and one of the oldest in the world.

As well as more traditional tourist attractions, the island is often host to walking holidays or cycling holidays through the attractive scenery. Almost every town and village on the island plays host to hotels, hostels and camping sites. Out of the peak summer season, the island is still an important destination for coach tours from other parts of the United Kingdom and an annual walking festival has attracted considerable interest. The 108 km Isle of Wight Coastal Path follows the coastline as far as possible, deviating onto roads where the route is impassable closer to the sea.

A major contribution to the local economy comes from sailing and marine-related tourism.

Transport

A map of the island from 1945

The Isle of Wight has a total of 787 km of roadway. Major roads run between the main island towns, with smaller roads connecting villages. It is one of the few counties in the UK not to have a motorway, although there is a dual carriageway from Coppins Bridge in Newport towards the north of Newport near the island’s hospital and prison.

A comprehensive bus network operated by Southern Vectis links most island settlements, with Newport as the central hub.

The island's location 8 km off the mainland means that longer-distance transport is by boat. Car ferry and passenger services are run by Wightlink and Red Funnel as well as a hovercraft operated by Hovertravel. Fixed links, in the forms of tunnels or bridges, have been proposed.

The island formerly had its own railway network of over 88 km, but only one line remains in regular use. The Island Line is part of the United Kingdom's National Rail network, running a little under 14 kilometres from Ryde to Shanklin. The line was opened by the Isle of Wight Railway in 1864, and from 1996 to 2007 was run by the smallest train operating company on the network, Island Line Trains.

There are currently two airfields for general aviation, Isle of Wight Airport at Sandown and Bembridge Airport.

The island has over 322 km of cycleways, much of which can be enjoyed by families off road. Major Trails are

• The Sunshine Trail which incorporates Sandown, Shanklin, Godshill and Wroxall in a 19 km circular route
• The Troll Trail' between Cowes and Sandown (21 km, 90% off road)
• The Round the Island Cycle Route which circumnavigates the island on a reported 100 kilometre ride.

Cycles can be brought to the island by foot passengers on any of the car ferries. Hire cycles are also available.

Communications

All the island telephone exchanges are broadband-enabled, although some areas, such as Arreton, have no broadband access. Some urban areas such as Cowes and Newport are also covered by cable lines.

Media

The Isle of Wight's main local newspaper is the Isle of Wight County Press. It discusses local issues and is published each Friday, or on the previous working day if the Friday is a public holiday. In May 2008 the Isle of Wight Gazette was launched as a free newspaper supporting the local Earl Mountbatten Hospice.

The island had a television station called Solent TV from 2002 until its closure on Thursday, 24 May, 2007.

The island has two local commercial radio stations and also falls within the coverage area of a number of local stations on the near mainland. Isle of Wight Radio has broadcast in the medium-wave band since 1990 and on 102 and 107 MHz FM since 1998, as well as streaming on the internet. In 2007, Angel Radio began broadcasting on 91.5 MHz from studios in Cowes. On 1 February 2009, Wight FM began broadcasting as an internet radio station.

An active local websites with coverage of island news is Ventnor Blog.

Emergency Services In Isle of Wight

• Hampshire Constabulary
• Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service
• Isle of Wight Primary Care Trust

Prisons

The geography of the island, and its location near the densely populated south of England, led to it hosting three prisons: Albany, Camp Hill and Parkhurst, all located outside Newport near the main road to Cowes. Albany and Parkhurst were among the few Category A prisons in the UK until they were downgraded in the 1990s. The downgrading of Parkhurst was precipitated by a major escape: three prisoners (two murderers and a blackmailer) made their way out of the prison on 3 January 1995 for four days of freedom before being recaptured. Parkhurst especially enjoyed notoriety as one of the toughest jails in the British Isles and "hosted" many notable inmates, including the Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, New Zealand Drug Lord Terry Clark and the Kray twins.

Camp Hill is located to the west of, and adjacent to, Albany and Parkhurst, on the very edge of Parkhurst Forest, having been converted first to a borstal and later to a Category C prison. It was built on the site of an army camp (both Albany and Parkhurst were barracks); there is a small estate of tree-lined roads with well-proportioned officers' quarters (of varying grandeur according to rank, but now privately owned) to the south and east.

These 3 prisons were merged into a single HMP Isle of Wight in April 2009.

Education

There are sixty-nine Local Education Authority-maintained schools on the Isle of Wight, and two independent schools. As a rural community, many of these schools are small, with average numbers of pupils lower than in many urban areas. There are currently 46 primary schools, 14 middle schools and five high schools. However, education reforms have lead to plans for closures (for full details on these see Education reforms on the Isle of Wight). There is also the Isle of Wight College, which is located on the outskirts of Newport.

The island implements a middle school system.

Famous residents

Over the years, the island has had many well-known visitors. Many come over for health reasons due to the cool sea breeze and clean air. For example, Winston Churchill and Karl Marx were visitors to the island.

Notable residents have included:

• Raymond Allen, scriptwriter, best known for writing Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
• Indie rock group The Bees are from the Isle of Wight.
• Julia Margaret Cameron, a renowned Victorian portrait and creative photographer, lived at Dimbola Lodge which is now a museum dedicated to her work.
• Charles I of England was imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle.
• Irish Republican Thomas Clarke
• Sir Christopher Cockerell, inventor of the hovercraft, lived in East Cowes while it was being developed by Saunders-Roe.
• Dave Ellison Creator/writer/producer childrens world famous, award winning TV series Tales of the Riverbank
• Cardell 'Scum' Goodman, late 17th century actor, murderer, highwayman and Jacobite conspirator was the son of Robert Hooke's fathers predecessor as vicar of Freshwater.
• Bear Grylls Survival Expert, Motivational Speaker and Chief Scout.
• Thomas Harrison, Regicide of Charles I and Fifth Monarchist leader was imprisoned at Carisbrooke Castle by Cromwell as were other Fifth Monarchy Men, John Rogers and Christopher Feake.
• Peter de Heyno, defended the Carisbrooke Castle 1377 against French / Castilian troops
• Robert Hooke, a 17th century natural philosopher and polymath, is perhaps best known for his definition of Hooke's Law of Elasticity, but he also coined the term "cell" to define the basic unit of life and made valuable contributions in the fields of physics, astronomy and microscopy.
• David Icke - Author
• Laura Michelle Kelly, Olivier Award-winner for her role as Mary Poppins in the world premiere of the Mary Poppins musical and film actress playing Lucy Barker in Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd
• Mimi Khalvati - Iranian poet was educated at Upper Chine School, near Shanklin
• Mark King, lead singer and basist for 80's/90's pop-funk band Level 42.
• Allan Lake, presenter on Absolute Radio
• Anthony Minghella, Academy Award-winning film director, playwright and screenwriter
• Henry Sewell, first Prime Minister of New Zealand.
• Alfred Tennyson, who was Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria, lived at Freshwater and became Baron Tennyson of Aldworth in the County of Sussex and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight.
• Alan Titchmarsh, the renowned UK gardener, was High Sheriff of the Isle of Wight in 2008/9.
• Future Roman Emperor Vespasian, 44CE

Selected places of interest

• Alum Bay
• Appuldurcombe House
• Blackgang Chine
• Brading Roman Villa
• Carisbrooke Castle , where King Charles I was imprisoned
• Dimbola Lodge , home of Victorian photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron
• Dinosaur Isle
• Fort Victoria
• Godshill Village, and Model Village
• Isle of Wight Bus & Coach Museum
• Isle of Wight Steam Railway
• Isle of Wight Zoo, Yaverland
• Medina Theatre, home to the island's entertainment including music and performances.
• The Needles, which is near "The Old Battery" museum and Old Look-out Tower tea-room
• Osborne House , where Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert had a country residence
• Quarr Abbey
• Robin Hill
• Botanic Gardens, Ventnor
• Yarmouth Castle , associated with King Henry VIII

Notable media references

• The 1980s pop group Level 42 is from the Isle of Wight.
• The Northumbrian scholar, Bede, recorded the arrival of Christianity on the Isle of Wight in the year 686, when the population was massacred and replaced by Christians.
• The Beatles' song "When I'm Sixty-Four", written by Paul McCartney, refers to renting a cottage on the Isle of Wight (if it's not too dear).
• The Isle of Wight is called The Island in some editions of Thomas Hardy's novels in his fictional Wessex.
• There is a running joke in radio sitcom The Navy Lark involving Sub-Lieutenant Phillips inability to navigate and subsequent "tailing the Isle of Wight ferry".
• The Isle of Wight is the setting of Julian Barnes's novel England, England.
• The island also features in John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids and Simon Clark's sequel to it, The Night of the Triffids.
• In the radio series Nebulous, the Isle of Wight has been accidentally disintegrated by Professor Nebulous while he was trying to move it slightly to the left to give it more sunlight, on Janril 57, 2069.
• Bob Dylan recorded the songs "Like a Rolling Stone", "Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)", "Minstrel Boy", and "She Belongs to Me" for the album Self Portrait live on the Isle of Wight.
• The Isle of Wight is the setting in D. H. Lawrence's book The Trespasser, filmed for TV in 1981 on location.
• In the 1966 novel Colossus, the entire island is selected for the development of a new base by the supercomputer, Colossus.
• The Isle of Wight is the setting of Graham Masterton's book Prey.
• Parts of Frágiles (Fragile: A Ghost Story), a 2005 movie starring Calista Flockhart, were filmed on the island.
• Karl Marx visited the Isle of Wight on numerous occasions while he was writing The Communist Manifesto.
• The Commodore 64 game 'Spirit of the Stones' by John Worsley was set on the Isle of Wight.
• In the radio panel game Genius, someone proposed that in order to increase tourism to the Isle of Wight, it should be made symmetrical, even though it would involve destroying Ventnor. The idea was rejected.
• In the Blackadder II episode "Potato", Blackadders plot to sail to France is thwarted when it turns out that the captain of his ship is completely incompetent at navigation, and that because of this, every expedition the captain had organised so far had been limited to "sailing around the Isle of Wight until everyone gets dizzy", and then sailing back home to Southampton.
• The song "Island in the Rain", by The Men They Couldn't Hang is about the Isle of Wight.

See also

• Isle of Wight gasification facility
• Isle of Wight Rifles
• List of civil parishes on the Isle of Wight
• List of places on the Isle of Wight
• Yaverland Battery

References

• Hansard, Wednesday 14 November 2001 column 850
• Isle of Wight County Press

External links

Wikimedia Commons har media som rör Grillo/wight.

Bilder & media

Wiktionary har ett uppslag om isle of Wight.

Ordbok

• Grillo/wight på Open Directory Project
• Isle of Wight Guide

General Information:

• Isle of Wight Council
• Official Tourism Website
• Isle of Wight Festival
• The Isle of Wight Weather Station

Media:

• Isle of Wight County Press
• Isle of Wight Radio
• VentnorBlog
• Wifi Hotspots (Some free)
• [1]

Tourism:

• Svenskspråkiga Wikivoyage om en:Isle of Wight
  Reseguide

Photos:

• Isle of Wight Pictures
• Isle of Wight Historic Postcards
• Isle of Wight Photos
• Old pictures of Newport