Shide is a small settlement 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 ...

, some of which is considered to be in the Newport conurbation. Shide Hill House, which was demolished in the 1970s, was situated with its back towards St. George's Lane and Pan Chalk Pit with the reception rooms looking westwards across the Blackwater Road, river and railway to the open fields on the other side of the valley. It was the home and workplace of

John Milne John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 July 1913) was a British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph. Biography Milne was born in Liverpool, England, the only child of John Milne of Milnrow, and at first raised ...

(1850–1913), inventor of the horizontal

pendulum A pendulum is a device made of a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate i ...

seismograph A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground displacement and shaking such as caused by quakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The out ...

after he retired from the

Imperial College of Engineering The Imperial College of Engineering (工部大学校, ''Kōbudaigakkō'') was a Empire of Japan, Japanese institution of higher education that was founded during the Meiji era. The college was established under the auspices of the Ministry of P ...

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

. Still left today is the Gatehouse to the estate at the bottom of St George's Lane and the Domestic Quarters, now known as Milne House, which were attached to the original building going up the lane. The Observatory, housed in the stable block, was dismantled and moved to Oxford in 1919 when Tone Milne returned to Japan and the estate was sold for development. However, the Laboratory Block still exists and is the building facing into the fields towards Blackwater. The Isle of Wight County Cricket Ground is just south of Shide. There is a cycleway between Shide and

Merstone Merstone is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight. It is located near the centre of the Island, roughly equidistant from Blackwater, Isle of Wight, Blackwater to the northwest, Horringford to the east, and Godshill to the south. According to the Post Off ...

, and public transport is provided by

Southern Vectis Southern Vectis is a bus operator on the Isle of Wight, founded in 1921 as Dodson and Campbell. It became the Vectis Bus Company in 1923. The company was purchased by Southern Railway before being nationalised in 1969. In 1987, the company wa ...

buses on route 2, 3 and 38. Shide railway station was opened in 1875 and closed in 1956.

Shide Quarry

Shide Quarry, located to the east of the village was quarried for chalk during the first half of 20th Century. The prominent west-facing slope is a major landmark on Newport's skyline. The site is now 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 ...

(SSSI) and Local Nature Reserve owned by the

Isle of Wight Council Isle of Wight Council, known between 1890 and 1995 as Isle of Wight County Council, is the local authority for the Isle of Wight in England. Since 1995 it has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority, being a non-metropolitan cou ...

. It is open to the public. The site was notified in 1971 for its biological features which show all stages of succession from bare

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. Ch ...

rock to Ash woodland.Shide Chalk Pit: IW Council page
It is one of 41 SSSIs on the Isle of Wight.

References

External links

Celebrating Professor John Milne
- information on the famous Isle of Wight Seismologist and the Shide Earthquake Observatory

Brian J. Mitchell, including a description of plaque honouring John Milne and photograph of monument. {{coord, 50.692, N, 1.292, W, type:city_region:GB-IOW, display=title Populated places on the Isle of Wight Sites of Special Scientific Interest on the Isle of Wight Newport, Isle of Wight

Shide Quarry

References

Further reading

External links