Product Code Database
Sandown is a seaside resort and civil parish on the south-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England. The neighbouring resort of Shanklin and the settlement of Lake are sited just to the south of the town. Sandown has a population of 11,654 according to the 2021 Census, and the three Sandown Bay settlements form a built-up area of more than 20,000 inhabitants. Sandown is the Bay's northernmost town, with its easily accessible, sandy beaches running continuously from the cliffs below Battery Gardens in the south to Yaverland in the north.
The name Sandown derives from the Old English sandhām meaning 'sandy village' or possibly from sandhamm meaning 'sandy hemmed-in land'.http://kepn.nottingham.ac.uk/map/place/Isle%20of%20Wight/Sandown
Before the 19th century, Sandown was on the map chiefly for its military significance, with the Bay's beaches feared to offer easy landing spots for invaders from the Continent.
It is the site of the lost Sandown Castle. While undergoing construction in 1545, the fortification was attacked during the French invasion of the Isle of Wight when invaders fought their way over Culver Down from Whitecliff Bay before being repelled. The castle was built into the sea, prone to erosion and demolished fewer than a hundred years after it was built. In 1631, the castle was replaced by Sandham Fort, built further inland. In 1781, the fort's complement consisted of a master gunner and over twenty soldiers.History of the Isle of Wight by Sir Richard Worsley, 1781 Sandham Fort was demolished in the second half of the 19th century and is now the site of Sandham Gardens. In the 1860s, five Palmerston Forts were built along the coast of Sandown Bay, including Sandown Fort at Yaverland, now the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary. On the town's western cliffs Sandown Barrack Battery survives as a scheduled monument and Bembridge Fort, where the National Trust offers tours, can be seen on the downs to the north-east.
One of the first non-military buildings was Sandham Cottage or 'Villakin', a holiday home leased by the radical politician and one-time Mayor of London John Wilkes in the final years of the 18th century. See 'Sandown's famous connections' below.
The arrival of the railway in 1864 saw Sandown grow as a Victorian era resort, with the town's safe bathing becoming increasingly popular. In the summer of 1874, the Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Victoria of Germany, their children and entourage rented several properties in the town and took regular dips in the Bay. Sandown's pier was built in the same decade, opening in May 1878, and extended in length in 1895.
The town laid further claim to becoming a fashionable English resort when the Ocean Hotel opened in 1899. The brainchild of West End theatrical impresario Henry Lowenfeld, the Ocean built around the town's previous hotel of choice, the King's Head. For the new hotel's inauguration, a large number of dignitaries were invited from London, arriving in Sandown from Portsmouth by special boat. Guests had the chance to explore Sandown in coaches and carriages, and the hotel servants were all dressed in uniforms 'like admirals and post-captains'.
Sandown's destiny in the 20th century was to become a favourite bucket-and-spade destination for all classes. The Canoe Lake was opened in 1929 by the author Henry De Vere Stacpoole followed in 1932 by Brown's Golf Course (see below). The Art Deco Grand Hotel, opened next door to Brown's in April 1938, is now closed with planning permission for demolition granted in 2014. Today, Sandown's esplanade has a mixture of former Victorian and Edwardian era hotels with modern counterparts overlooking the beach and the Bay. A new Premier Inn opened in 2021.
The original Sandown Pier was opened in 1878 and extended to its present length in 1895. The Pier Pavilion Theatre closed in the 1990s and the pier's former landing stage is used for sea fishing today.
Further north is the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary, formerly Isle of Wight Zoo. Established as Sandown Zoo in the 1950s, it was acquired by the Corney family in the 1970s; today, it specialises in rescued , other big cats and primates. Nearby is the purpose-built Dinosaur Isle palaeontology centre, which opened in 2001, and Sandham Gardens, which offers a dinosaur miniature golf course, attractions for children and young people, and bowls.
The ship was re-floated in August and beached at Yaverland to be pumped out, the subject of a painting by Henry Robins (1820-1892) for Queen Victoria who came over from Osborne House with other members of her family to see the wreck.
There is a memorial to crew of the Eurydice in the graveyard of Christ Church, Sandown.
The bay that gives Sandown its name is an example of a concordant coastline, with of tidal beaches from Luccombe to Culver replenished by longshore drift. Sandown Bay has one of the longest unbroken beaches in the British Isles. To the north-east is Culver Down, mostly owned and managed by the National Trust. It supports typical chalk downland wildlife, and seabirds and birds of prey which nest on the cliffs.
Nearby is the flood plain of the Eastern Yar, one of the few freshwater wetlands on the Isle of Wight, where Alverstone Mead Local Nature Reserve is popular for birdwatching. Sandown Meadows Nature Reserve, acquired by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust in 2012, is a place to spot kingfishers and water voles. Further inland, Borthwood Copse provides woodland walks, with many Common Bluebell in the Spring.
The area's marine littoral zone, including the reefs and seabed, is a Special Area of Conservation. At extreme low tide, a petrified forest may be revealed in the northern part of the bay, and fragments of petrified wood are often washed up.
Today, Brown's is in the ownership of the Isle of Wight Council with its three golf courses and cafe leased to a private operator. A conservation management plan for the site was published in July 2020.
Today, Sandown Carnival Association - a non-profit community group run by volunteers - puts on a series of popular events including the annual Children's, Main and Illuminated Carnivals as well as fireworks displays.
In 2022, the Association took on the organisation of Sandown Bay Regatta, another historic town event with roots in Victorian times and first held in 1857.
The Carnival received Arts Council England funding in 2023 and 2024 to revive Sandown's tradition of wearing hats on Regatta day, fondly remembered from the town's post-war decades.
Hundreds of locals and visitors, along with a local primary school and care home, got involved in community hat-making workshops with artists commissioned to design their own extraordinary headwear. The results feature in the annual Grand Regatta Hat Parade on the beach where awards are presented for best entries.
In autumn 2024, a public exhibition featuring Sandown's hats was held at the Isle of Wight's Quay Arts Centre.
Boojum and Snark at 105 High Street opened in 2019 as a venue for art exhibitions and community events, with its name inspired by author Lewis Carroll who stayed across the road in the 1870s when he was writing his epic nonsense poem The Hunting of the Snark.
Sandown is served by buses run by Southern Vectis with direct services to Bembridge, Newport, Ryde, Shanklin and Ventnor. Night buses run on Fridays and Saturdays.
Pleasure steamers once called at Sandown Pier and even offered trips across the English Channel in the 1930s, but the pier's landing stage is no longer used for vessels to moor alongside.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Wayback Machine:
Sandown High School and locations nearby were used in the 1972 film That'll Be The Day starring David Essex, Ringo Starr, Billy Fury and Rosemary Leach.
The TV series Tiger Island, on ITV and National Geographic in 2007 and 2008, chronicled the lives of the more than twenty tigers living at Isle of Wight Zoo.
Sandown featured in the Channel 5 series Isle of Wight: Jewel of the South, shown in the UK in 2023 and 2024.
|
|
