History Of The Isle Of Wight
The Isle of Wight is rich in historical and archaeological sites. These range from prehistoric fossil beds which include dinosaur remains, to dwellings and artefacts of the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman period and beyond.
The island was formed at the end of the last Ice age. A rise in global sea level flooded the former river valley of the Solent to the north and the future English Channel to the south. This cut Wight off from the island of Britain and the Continental landmass. Once open to the sea, tidal scouring widened the Solent: the sequence of tidal ingress (whether from east, west or south) remains unclear. The English Channel may have been flooded later.
Read more about History Of The Isle Of Wight: Etymology and Early History, The Norman Conquest, Medieval, Early Modern and Modern, Caulkheads and Other Island Terms, Political History, Isle of Wight Disease, The Isle of Wight Festival
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“Modern Western thought will pass into history and be incorporated in it, will have its influence and its place, just as our body will pass into the composition of grass, of sheep, of cutlets, and of men. We do not like that kind of immortality, but what is to be done about it?”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“It is so rare to meet with a man outdoors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands. Behind every man’s busy-ness there should be a level of undisturbed serenity and industry, as within the reef encircling a coral isle there is always an expanse of still water, where the depositions are going on which will finally raise it above the surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Then think I thus: sith such repair,
So long time war of valiant men,
Was all to win a lady fair,
Shall I not learn to suffer then,
And think my life well spent to be,
Serving a worthier wight than she?”
—Henry Howard, Earl Of Surrey (1517?–1547)