In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Newchurch like this:
NEWCHURCH, a village and a parish in the Isle of Wight. The village stands adjacent to the river Brading, 4¾ miles S E by E of Newport . is approached, onone side, by a road cut through an almost precipitousridge; consists chiefly of one clean and pretty street of cottages, with flower-plots before the doors; and has a post-office under Newport, Isle of Wight. ...
The parish, prior to 1864, extended from sea to sea; measured 13 miles in length, with comparatively narrow breadth; comprised 8, 730 acres of land, and 470 of water; and was cut into two divisions, N and S. The N div. included part of the town of Ryde, part of Haven-Street, and the places called Homelands, Haylands, and Holm-wood. Real property, in 1860, £57, 100; of which £700were in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 8, 484; in 1861, 10, 386. Houses, 1, 960. The S div. included the town of Ventnor, and the places called Wroxall, Whiteley-Bank, and Princelet. Real property, in 1860, £21,084; of which £54 were in quarries, and £200 in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 3,055; in 1861, 3, 622. Houses, 604. The pop.of the entire parish was computed at 1, 505 in 1780; and was 2,039 in 1801, and 8, 370 in 1841. But, under a private act of parliament in 1864, the parish was divided, forall purposes, civil and ecclesiastical, into the three parishes of Newchurch, Ryde, and Ventnor; and the curtailed parish of Newchurch includes only the rural tracts, extends from Ashey down to Wroxall, and had a pop. ofabout 1,000 in 1867. The surface is very diversified, and shares largely in the beauties and other attractions of theisland. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £420.* Patron, the Bishop of Gloucester. The church stands on the brink of a steep woodedbank; was given by William Fitz-Osborne, soon-after the Conquest, to his abbey of Lire; retains few marks of antiquity, and none of the Norman age, yet shows someearly English lancets, and has interiorly some rude decorated arcades; is plain and cruciform, with a wooden S Wtower; and contains, in the N transept, memorials of the Dillingtons. There are an endowed school with £9 a year, and charities £7. See Ryde and Ventnor.
Newchurch through time
Newchurch is now part of the Isle of Wight district. Click here for graphs and data of how the Isle of Wight has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Newchurch itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Newchurch, in The the Isle of Wight and Hampshire | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5937
Date accessed: 24th April 2024
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