St Catherine's Point is the southernmost point on the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
. It is close to the village of
Niton and the point where the
Back of the Wight changes to the
Undercliff of Ventnor.
On nearby
St Catherine's Down is
St Catherine's Oratory, locally known as the "Pepperpot", a stone lighthouse built in the 1323 by Walter De Godeton. It is Britain's oldest medieval lighthouse.
Reportedly, de Godeton felt guilty for having scavenged wine, destined for a monastery
[J.C Medland "Shipwrecks of the Wight".Coach House Publications ltd, 2004] from the wreck of the ''St Marie'' of
Bayonne
Bayonne () is a city in southwestern France near the France–Spain border, Spanish border. It is a communes of France, commune and one of two subprefectures in France, subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques departments of France, departm ...
in
Chale Bay. He was ordered, on pain of excommunication, to make amends by building this lighthouse. Fires were lit in the lighthouse tower to warn ships at sea of the presence of the coast.
There was an attached chapel at one time, but it has been long demolished. There is a
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...
barrow nearby which was excavated in the 1920s.
A replacement lighthouse was begun in 1785. However it was never completed. Locally this half-finished building is known as the "salt pot".
St Catherine's point is often foggy, so it is not the best location for a lighthouse, but as a weather station the location is fairly suitable. The weather station is one of the
22 locations whose reports are included in the
BBC Shipping Forecast.
LB&SCR H1 class 4-4-2 no. 40 (later no. B40 and 2040) was named ''St. Catherine's Point'' after this landmark.
Climate
See also
*
Egypt Point
References
External links
Weather station information at Met Office
__NOTOC__
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Catherines Point
Headlands of the Isle of Wight
Nature Conservation Review sites