Wheelers Bay is a small bay on the south-east coast of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It lies to the east of

Ventnor Ventnor () is a seaside resort and civil parish established in the Victorian era on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, from Newport. It is situated south of St Boniface Down, and built on steep slopes leading down to the sea. ...

. It faces south-east towards the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, its shoreline is in length. A section of the bay, to the side of the

slipway A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...

, is used as dry-storage for boats; in recent years this has been targeted by thieves. The bay is home to an open-air café known as ''The Seapot''. Wheelers Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, UK

Wheelers Bay, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, UK

The bay is accessed by a concrete slope from the road above the bay or by walking along the seawall either from Ventnor or Horseshoe Bay. The

Isle of Wight Coastal Path The Isle of Wight Coastal Path (or Coastal Footpath) is a circular long-distance footpath of 70 miles (113 km) around the Isle of Wight, UK. It follows public footpaths and minor lanes, with some sections along roads. Route The pa ...

runs the length of the bay along the seawall.

History

Leading up to the 19th century,

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

and wreaking was an island industry in which many families were involved. Wheelers Bay took its name from a notorious Isle of Wight family "the Wheeler's" known for their involvement in smuggling on the isle. In the 1800s Robert Wheeler had logged 70 wrecks, His father James wheeler was said to saved three souls from the sea when he entered the water tied only to a rope and carried the remaining survivors ashore. In the 19th century, Wheelers Bay and Horseshoe Bay beaches were used for unloading provisions, particularly coal. Boats would beach at high tide and the cargo off-loaded onto

horse-drawn cart A horse-drawn vehicle is a mechanized piece of equipment pulled by one horse or by a team of horses. These vehicles typically had two or four wheels and were used to carry passengers and/or a load. They were once common worldwide, but they have m ...

s. The boats would then be floated off again at the next high tide. The bay is famous for the looting of shipwrecks, where sometimes locals would kill survivors to claim the cargo, many families in the area made their fortunes this way. In the early 1990s, after a study by the former

Department of Environment An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of the Environment, ...

, the existing sea defences were improved at a cost of £1.6 million, to protect the cliff from

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

. This includes a revetment with an outer layer of rocks and 23,000 tonnes of

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

fill-material.

References

{{Bays on the Isle of Wight Bays of the Isle of Wight