Shanklin Esplanade c1910 - Project Gutenberg eText 17296.jpg
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Shanklin () is a seaside resort and civil parish on the Isle of Wight, England, located on Sandown Bay. Shanklin is the southernmost of three settlements which occupy the bay, and is close to Lake and Sandown. The sandy beach, its Old Village and a wooded ravine, Shanklin Chine, are its main attractions. The esplanade along the beach is occupied by hotels and restaurants for the most part, and is one of the most tourist-oriented parts of the town. The other is the Old Village, at the top of Shanklin Chine. Together with Lake and Sandown to the north, Shanklin forms a built up area of 21,374 inhabitants (2011).


Shopping

The main shopping centre consists of two roads, Regent Street and High Street, which together comprise the largest retail area in the south of the Isle of Wight; significant for tourists but also as an amenity for residents. Near Regent Street are the town's two main
supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...
, the Co-op and Lidl. In Regent Street itself are many local shops, including two arts and crafts shops, several clothing and sports shops, three newsagents and three bakeries. The High Street also has some local shops, but is dominated by tourist shops and restaurants.


Transport

Shanklin railway station is the terminus of the Island Line from Ryde, opened on 23 August 1864. The railway was extended south to
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. ...
in 1866, but this section was closed in 1966. The line from Ryde to Shanklin is now operated by former London Underground tube trains. In October 2004 a direct link was revived in the form of a bus service named the "Rail link". This was discontinued in 2010 but was replaced by the Southern Vectis number 3 bus. Bus services to nearby towns and suburbs are run by Southern Vectis, mainly on routes 2, 3, 22 and 24, principally from the bus stands at the Co-op supermarket. Destinations served include Newchurch,
Newport Newport most commonly refers to: *Newport, Wales *Newport, Rhode Island, US Newport or New Port may also refer to: Places Asia *Newport City, Metro Manila, a Philippine district in Pasay Europe Ireland *Newport, County Mayo, a town on the ...
, Ryde, Sandown,
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. ...
and
Winford Winford is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley, Somerset, England. It is within the unitary authority of North Somerset about south of Bristol. The parish has a population of 2,153. The parish includes the village of Felton whi ...
. In the summer, an open top bus route called " The Sandown Bay Tour" is run, serving the main tourist areas of Shanklin and running to Sandown.


Culture

Shanklin has one theatre, Shanklin Theatre, which is just off the top end of the High Street. In July and August 1819 the poet
John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...
lodged at Eglantine Cottage in the resort's High Street, where he completed the first book of ''Lamia'' and began a drama, ''Otho the Great'', with his friend Charles Armitage Brown. In July 1868 the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow stayed at the Crab Inn in Shanklin's Old Village during his last visit to Europe and left a poem about it on a stone by the pub. It is not generally held to be amongst his best work.. The 1980s indiepop band Trixie's Big Red Motorbike were from Shanklin, and recorded some of their records there. Victoria Cross recipient and Deputy Governor of the Isle of Wight, Colonel
Henry Gore-Browne Colonel Henry George Gore-Browne (30 September 1830 – 15 November 1912) was born in Newtown, County Roscommon and was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that ...
retired to Shanklin before his death in 1912. According to Joseph Jacobs's influential 1890 version of '' The Three Little Pigs'', the ''Three Pigs and the Wolf'' live near Shanklin. In
Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
, season 4, "Mr Neutron", Michael Palin plays a US commander who calls upon "Moscow! Peking! and Shanklin, Isle of Wight!". A voice over continues "And so the Great Powers and the people of Shanklin, Isle of Wight, drew their net in ever-tightening circles around the most dangerous threat to peace the world has ever faced."


Beaches & Esplanade

Shanklin is on the coast of Sandown Bay, and therefore is part of the long beach which spans between Yaverland in the north to Luccombe in the south. The section of beach situated next to Shanklin is split into Small Hope Beach and Hope Beach. Above Hope Beach is the esplanade which boasts some traditional seaside attractions including an
amusement arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as cl ...
, a crazy golf course, and a children's play area, with slides, ball pools, bouncy castles, rigging, swings etc. available to be hired for a child's birthday party. There are several seafront hotels, a cliff lift from the seafront to the top of the cliff, a putting course, several cafes and restaurants and pubs, and a large, clean beach. Shanklin used to have a pier, but this was destroyed in the Great Storm of 1987. The pier formerly had a theatre at which many famous performers appeared, including Paul Robeson, Richard Tauber and Arthur Askey (whose daughter attended a local boarding school called
Upper Chine School for Girls Ryde School with Upper Chine (referred to as “Ryde School”) is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight. The school, founded in 1921, is a member of the HMC (Headmasters’ and Mistresses’ Confer ...
). The Summerland Amusement Arcade on the seafront was formerly a seaplane hangar positioned at Bembridge where it housed Fairey Campania seaplanes of the Nizam of Hyderabad's Squadron. Large areas of the seafront were severely damaged or destroyed during the
Bombing raids Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale, its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematica ...
of World War II, but were quickly rebuilt after the war, causing the current seafront to be a varied mixture of Victorian, inter-war and post-war architecture. Shanklin Sailing Club is situated at the North end of the Esplanade. Founded in 1931 as 'Shanklin Amateur Sailing Club', the club has a fleet of Sprint 15 catamarans and holds races three days a week during the season. Further along the beach is the Fisherman's Cottage pub. This is at the bottom of Shanklin Chine, from which the town takes its name, historically "Chynklyng Chine" and in the Domesday Book of 1086 Sencliz (held by William FitzAzor; Jocelyn FitzAzor) from "Scen-hlinc". The Chine is open to the public for a small fee and continues up to Rylstone Gardens in the Old Village. It contains a small section of the pipe of the "
Operation Pluto Operation Pluto (Pipeline Under the Ocean or Pipeline Underwater Transportation of Oil, also written Operation PLUTO) was an operation by British engineers, oil companies and the British Armed Forces to construct submarine oil pipelines un ...
" pipeline which ran across the Isle of Wight and out from Shanklin and another branch from Sandown to supply fuel to the
D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...
beaches.


Nature

America Wood America Wood () is a 21.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a Counties of England, county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by th ...
is a
Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...
located between Shanklin and Whiteley Bank. It is owned by the Woodland Trust It takes a bit of stamina and determination to get into America Wood, on the outskirts of Shanklin, since it has little accessible parking. However, the more active Isle of Wight visitor can make use of public footpaths and bridleways that lead into the wood. There is an ‘open’ feel to the site with storm damage during the Great Storm of 1987 and the
Burns' Day storm The Burns' Day Storm (also known as Cyclone Daria) was an extremely violent windstorm that took place on 25–26 January 1990 over North-Western Europe. It is one of the strongest European windstorms on record. This storm has received different ...
of 1990 felling trees and creating many open sections. There is one particularly large glade which is gradually recovering from the storms. The wood is situated just west of
Ninham Ninham is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight in the parish of Newchurch, and about 2 miles (3.3 km) away from Shanklin, the nearest tourist town. It is about 7 miles (12 km) away from Newport, the island's capital. It is the location of Ni ...
. Dunnose is a large cape which is situated southwest of the town. An imposing and high geological feature, it has served as a triangulation point for maps of the United Kingdom, and has also been the site of several shipwrecks, most infamously that of HMS ''Eurydice'', which sank with the loss of 300 people aboard. Shanklin is also the location where Charles Darwin wrote his Origin of Species during an 18-month-long visit to the town.


Climate

Shanklin has an
oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
( Cfb) with mild summers, cool nights, rainy winters and average temperature nights. Shanklin is one of the sunniest villages in Great Britain.


Churches

There are three Anglican churches in Shanklin. St.Paul's Church in Regent Street has the bell from
HMS Eurydice (1843) HMS ''Eurydice'' was a 26-gun Royal Navy corvette which was the victim of one of Britain's worst peacetime naval disasters when she sank in 1878. Origins of ''Eurydice'' Designed by Admiral the Hon. George Elliot, the second ''Eurydice'' w ...
, which sank off
Dunnose Point Dunnose is a cape on the Isle of Wight in the English Channel. The headland is visible from well out to sea, and is used in navigation. It has twice been used as the base point for a triangulation of Great Britain. The line of accurately survey ...
and is the subject of a poem by
Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innovato ...
.
St. Blasius Church, Shanklin St. Blasius Church, Shanklin is a parish church in the Church of England located in Shanklin, Isle of Wight. The church is medieval but was largely rebuilt in 1859. It is also known as Shanklin Old Church. The bell ropes hang down into the nave ...
– better known as Shanklin Old Church – is to the south of the town and has bell ropes hanging in the nave and a fine lych-gate. The
Church of St. Saviour-on-the-Cliff, Shanklin The Church of St. Saviour-on-the-Cliff, Shanklin is a Grade II Listed parish church in the Church of England located in Shanklin, Isle of Wight. History The church dates from 1869 to 1905 and was designed by the architect Thomas Hellyer.The ...
is the biggest in the town and is in Queen's Road. The Isle of Wight United Reformed Church is situated in Shanklin.


Twin towns

Shanklin is twinned with Coupvray, a town in the Île-de-France region of France.


Gallery

File:Shanklin beach and esplanade.jpg, The seafront at Shanklin, 2003 Image:Shanklin Esplanade c1910 - Project Gutenberg eText 17296.jpg, Shanklin Esplanade circa 1910 Image:Shanklin old village.JPG, Shanklin old village Image:Clock Tower, Shanklin Esplanade, Isle of Wight UK.jpg, Clock tower


References


External links


Shanklin Town Council

Shanklin Town, Accommodation Guide and Photo's

Luccombe Hall Hotel
{{authority control Seaside resorts in England Beaches of the Isle of Wight Towns on the Isle of Wight Civil parishes in the Isle of Wight