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Bonchurch, the Landslip and Luccombe
Isle of
Wight
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Old
postcards are sometimes poorly produced and grainy, I've done my best to scan
them. Please click thumbnails for full size picture. Dates are from the card or
my estimate (where possible). The manufacturer of the card is shown in brackets
(where available).
"BONCHURCH
(population, 564. Hotel: Ribband’s)
abounds in the most delightful scenery and most enchanting walks. It is a
combination of wood and water, of rock and dell, of lawny slopes and
blossoming gardens, of Italian skies and sunny seas, with, over all, the
majestic shadow of lofty downs, upon which the dullest eye cannot gaze
unsatisfied. Its climate enjoys so much genial warmth that the myrtle and
the fuchsia, the verbena and the clianthus, grow in the open air, stalwart and
vigorous, and demand from the gardener but little attention. In all sorts
of odd nooks, either reposing against the mighty wall of the Undercliff, or
hiding away in leafy hollows,
are perched its picturesque cottages and handsome villas."
Black's
Guide to the Isle of Wight 1870
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Bonchurch Pond, from about 1910.
(National)
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Bonchurch Shore, 1912.
(Hartmann)
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Bonchurch from the sea, around 1910.
(Ideal) |
Bonchurch beach from the east, undated but
certainly pre 1915.
(Frith)
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Undated card, Bonchurch Old Church, see below. |
The churchyard, Bonchurch Old Church, undated.
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"Turning
to the left we descend to the OLD CHURCH, a picturesque, leaf-shrouded
Norman building, founded about 1070. Remark the chancel-arch and the south
doorway. Some traces of a rude fresco were discovered on the north wall in
1849. In the quiet churchyard, within hearing of the restless sea, and in
the shadow of many an ancient elm, lie the Rev. William
Adams, his tomb distinguished by a cross of iron, in allusion to his
pathetic volume “The Shadow of the Cross;“
Black's
Guide to the Isle of Wight 1870
The
view that his volume was a pathetic volume in not shared, elsewhere it is
described as a beautiful allegory. The card is actually titled 'The Shadow of the
Cross', as an iron cross casts its shadow across the grave when the sun is shining.
The church itself was replaced by a new church (St Boniface) in 1848. The
'old church' is still used for the occasional service. |
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The tea tent, Bonchurch Landslip around
1910.
(Welch)
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The Stone Seat, Bonchurch Landslip,
probably around 1910.
(Ideal)
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A view in the Landslip, again about 1910.
(Ideal) |
This Card, from 1918, is said to be Jacob's Ladder, Bonchurch.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any information about it.
(Frith) |
"Ascending
the steep SHUTE at the extreme end of Bonchurch, we turn into the wild
romantic scenery of “the Landslip,” and make our way through its
masses of gray rock and its murmurous copses to LUCCOMBE CHINE, from
whence we may continue our walk to Shanklin along the cliff, or descending
the chine, speed merrily along the firm and sandy beach. LUCCOMBE FARM
lies about hall a mile inland, at the foot of SHANKLIN DOWN (771 feet).
The CHINE is a deep fissure in the ferruginous sandstone caused by the
constant action of a small rivulet; one side is utterly bare and nude, the
other is clothed with masses of hanging foliage. From the shore its aspect
is very fine.
The glorious view of the white cliffs of the Culvers, of the
rolling crests of the
verdurous Downs, of the sweet copses of Shanklin, and the lovely bay of
Sandown, which, as the traveller passes along the cliff from Luccombe,
bursts at once upon his enraptured gaze, is a thing not to be easily
forgotten."
Black's
Guide to the Isle of Wight 1870 |
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Pathway across Luccombe Common, undated |
Luccombe Common looking across Sandown Bay,
from Nanson Hill, Bonchurch |
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Luccombe chine
and beach around 1910. |
Steps at the foot of Luccombe Chine to the
beach (Nigh) |
Ventnor
Shanklin
Freshwater
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Totland |
Alum
Bay and the Needles |
Yarmouth
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Shalfleet
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Newtown |
Calbourne
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Carisbrooke
Castle |
Newport
and Carisbrooke |
Cowes
and Gurnard |
Osborne
House |
Wootton,
Fishbourne and Quarr |
Ryde
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Seaview |
Bembridge
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Brading
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Sandown |
Shanklin
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Godshill
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Arreton
Valley |
Ventnor
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St
Lawrence and the Undercliff |
St
Catherine's Lighthouse's |
Niton
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Blackgang
Chine |
Blackgang
and Chale |
Brighstone
and Shorwell |
Mottistone
to Compton
Home page
5 November 2008 |