Shepherd's Chine

Shepherd's Chine with pumping house

Shepherd's Chine cutting through the cliff

Shepherd's Chine is a chine, which is to say a narrow cleft in the cliff, on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight, Hampshire. It lies to the west of the village of Little Atherfield.

This chine is one of the largest on the Isle of Wight. It starts at the side of the A3055 Military Road and runs west for about 500m to reach the beach at Brighstone Bay just to the north of Atherfield Point.

This chine has much shallower sides than other chines on the Isle of Wight and is extensively covered with hardy bushes, scrub and rough grasses.

The Chine drains water from the mainly flat agricultural land surrounding Little Atherfield. The resulting stream used to be collected behind a small dam and then pumped back onto the surrounding farm land. The remains of the reservoir and pump house, complete with pump, still stand about halfway along the chine. Similarly to Grange Chine and Marsh Chine, once the stream reaches the pebble beach, its waters are soaked in and disappear.

To the west of Shepherd's Chine is the Atherfield Bay Holiday Centre consisting of a campsite and chalets.

The Isle of Wight Coastal Path crosses Shepherd's Chine near the pump house.

Location

• Location map: 50°36’60"N, 1°22’8"W

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Shepherd's Chine)

Outside links

• Island Rivers: Chines

View down the chine to the beach