Hayling Island - St Mary's Church 03

Hayling Island is an island off the south coast of England, in the borough of Havant in the county of Hampshire, east of Portsmouth.

History

An Iron Age shrine in the north of Hayling Island was later developed into a Roman temple in the 1st century BC and was first recorded in Richard Scott's ''Topographical and Historical Account of Hayling Island'' (1826). The site was dug between 1897 and 1907 and again from 1976 to 1978. The remains are now buried under farmland. The first coin credited to Commius that was found in an archaeological dig was found at the temple. This Commius was probably the son of the Commius mentioned by Julius Caesar, although it is possible the coin was issued by the same Commius.

Salt production was an industry on the island from the 11th century, and the Domesday Book records a saltpan on the island. This industry continued until the late 19th century.

The monks of Jumièges Abbey, Normandy, began to build Northwode Chapel about 1140; this became the site of the present St Peter's Church, now the oldest surviving church on the island. St Peter's three bells, cast in about 1350, are one of the oldest peals in England. St Mary's Church is a standard design for the churches of its era, but the walls were built with a mortar of local shells and beach pebbles. The ancient yew tree in the churchyard is believed to be the oldest yew in the country, with a girth of some . Estimates of its age range from over a thousand to nearly two thousand years old.

The grave of Princess Catherine Yurievskaya (1878–1959), a daughter of Alexander II of Russia, who lived in North Hayling for many years, is in St. Peter's churchyard; and that of George Glas Sandeman, nephew of the founder of Sandeman Port and second head of that company, is prominent in the north-east part of St. Mary's graveyard.

In May 1944, the island was the location of a mock invasion during the military Exercise Fabius, rehearsing the preparations for D-Day.

In 1982, the English Court of Appeal recognised prior art by Peter Chilvers, who in 1958 as a 12-year-old boy on Hayling Island assembled his first board combined with a sail. It had all the elements of the modern windsurfer. The court found that later innovations were "merely an obvious extension" and upheld the defendant's claim based on film footage. This court case set a significant precedent for patent law in the United Kingdom, in terms of Inventive step and non-obviousness. The case, Chilvers, Hayling, and a replica of Chilvers's original board were featured on an episode of the BBC
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