Isle of Wight

Well we've changed our plans. This week we had an offer accepted on a house on the Isle of Wight. The plot is 150 foot long by 40 wide with 70 foot out the back. Very much looking forward to getting my spade dirty. I spent today dodging the showers to get some cuttings done of bushes and plants we can't take with us. Although if my last efforts are anything to go by I'll be re-doing it next week.

A nice end to an awful weekend (my girlfriend flew out to the Soloman islands to work in the hospital for 6 weeks and my choc lab got attacked by a dalmation.

If all goes to plan I'l be able to upload some pics for a before and after for you all to enjoy.

 

Sounds great Craig ,good luck.

 

Good luck with your move, Craig.

We can see the IOW from our house, but have only been over to stay once. (and a day trip with youngest horror to play rugby on a very, very cold wet and windy Sunday)
It is like going back a few decades over there!!! But lovely. If you are into Dinosaurs, you'll be in heaven and many beach walks can be turned into fossil hunts!!!
There are a regular band of hardened travellers who commute to London everyday (YES - EVERY DAY!!!) They catch the fastcat from Ryde to Portsmouth, and hop on the train at Portsmouth Harbour station.
It is beautiful over there, but the ferry can be very pricey - we found the Red Funnel from Southampton to Cowes the cheapest, but as a resident, you can get discounts. The climate is wonderful too - not quite as tropical as Cornwall, but a darned sight better than London!!!!
You are so lucky!!!!

 

Hate to be pendantic but The Isle of Wight gets it name from the Celts and it either means "what rises over the sea" or "Place of the division" (from its position on the Solent). Wight also has a rather spooky meaning from Anglo Saxon meaning a supernatural creature!

 

Sorry Antheus. You are nearly right. But 'Wight' simply means 'creature' in anglo-saxon. Thus it is the Isle of Creatures. Nothing supernatural about it.

 

Nice Fountain show in the IOW (behind Tesco, of all places. Honest)

You may like to go to Butterfly and Fountain world (its sign posted)

Then there is Alum bay with its coloured sand

and you can go on the chairlift (or walk down)



It really is the Alum bay chair lift)

Then there are the pubs, The needles you can not thread (see them from Alum Bay)Cowes (that you can't milk) Rhyde (where you walk)

The whole island is around 12 x 8 Miles, its a very nice place.

oh and you need a valid passport

 

I think the meaning is a bit flexible. It can also mean "man". Tolkien used the supernatural meaning to create the Barrow wights in Lord of the Rings

Incidently I think that the ISle of Wight is a very nice place and not at all spooky

 

Goodness, do I dare say anything having owned in Bonchurch an ancient property for eight years (former summer home of King William IV and Queen Adelaide) so have a wee bit of interest in the history of the island ...

Here's my input ... quoted from The Isle of Wight, Ward, Lock & Co Limited 1967 ...

"The Isle of Wight was originally called Ynys yr wyth "The Isle of the Channel". To the Saxons it was Whitland or Whit-ea. This name as well as the Greek name Ouichthis or Ictis, the Roman Vectis or Vecta and the English Wight, as well as such spellings as Wechts, are regarded to be attempts by various newcomers to pronounce or write the ancient name."

I'll stop there ... because I can't prove anything ... only book talk :rolleyes: but perhaps it sheds a different light on the subject.

PS Kandy, if you send me your address, I'll send you the book before you go there.

[ 16. April 2008, 10:11 PM: Message edited by: Lady of Leisure ]

 

Thanks for the etymological imput LL
I like the Ynys yr wyth explanation which seems make more sense than "that which rises from the sea" or "island that divides". I guess no one knows for sure but it is fun to speculate

 

So sorry for the delay everyone, i missed this thread after i had posted.

I had to laugh...what a twit i am, i meant to say my brothers' girlfriend. Case of the mind thinking too fast for the fingers :D

cheers