Alverstone

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Alverstone
Hampshire
Location
Island: Isle of Wight
Grid reference: SZ577856
Location: 50°40’0"N, 1°10’60"W
Data
Post town: Sandown
Postcode: PO36
Dialling code: 01983
Local Government
Council: Isle of Wight
Parliamentary
constituency:
Isle of Wight

Alverstone is a village on the Isle of Wight, Hampshire, two miles from the island's east coast, near Sandown.

History

There is evidence from an archaeological dig in Alverstone of a Roman military presence in the area.[1]

When Richard Webster became Chief Justice of England in 1900, he chose the title Lord Alverstone because it was the title he was permitted to choose which was "closest" to Sandown, one of his favourite locales.[2] It has ever since been the ancestral home of the Alverstones, the social wing of the Cambridge University Athletics Club, named after Webster a prominent figure in the club when a student there. Alverstone Manor is located here.

Prince Albert was instrumental in creating a 'model' brickworks in Alverstone in the middle of the 19th century (but that is a different 'Alverstone', east of Whippingham Isle of Wight, on the southern edge of QV's Osborne Estate).[3]

The Newport Junction Railway opened a station at Alverstone in the 1870s, and the station first appeared in a public schedule in June 1876. Alverstone railway station finally closed 2 June 1956. The original wooden station was replaced with one built with earth and clinkers, with wood siding.

About the village

There are many wetlands around Alverstone. Nature lovers enjoy visiting the Alverstone Marshes.

The Alverstone Mead is a 55-acre woodland and nature reserve about a mile from Sandown. Alverstone Mead is southeast of Alverstone, and south of the cycleway between Sandown and Newport. Since 1993 the lease is held by the Wight Nature Council. It was once part of the Lower Borthwood Farm.[4]

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about Alverstone)

References

  1. The First Evidence Of A Roman Military Presence
  2. Sandown Pier, Isle of Wight, UK, h2g2, BBC.co.uk, 17 January 2001.
  3. LIME KILN UNEARTHED AT WHIPPINGHAM, Archive of Monthly News Items, As previously featured in the History Centre, Isle of Wight History Centre, Online Island History, September 2000
  4. Isle of Wight: Alverstone Mead