Isle of Wight - Day 7, Thursday, 12th July - IofW Lavender, Arreton Craft Barns and Brading Down lnr

On the Thursday we decided on a trip to the Lavender Farm. What we didn't realise until we arrived was that the farm no longer grows lavender - the plants all died a few years back in a very wet summer.

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Horsetails by the car park

There is still an antique shop and a tearoom on the site. I bought a lovely old honey pot shaped like a beehive and covered in bees from here.

Although there is no longer a shop selling their own lavender products (which were lovely) there is still a lavender garden you can walk round.

A short journey then to Arreton

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The Arreton Hare (with two Magpies) is carved from the stump of a fallen Macrocarpa tree. Ian Boyd from the Island 2000 Trust proposed a carving by Paul Sivell, a chainsaw sculptor and you can see the result in the photo below.

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While we were eating lunch in the car park at Arreton Barns B spotted this moth - a Jersey Tiger Moth. I was thrilled as it is a new species of moth for me.

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Arreton Barns has a shipwreck museum, gift shops and lovely craft shops of which my favourites are a pottery and Sculpt glass where you can see the craftsmen at work producing pieces. There is also a pub - "The Dairyman's Daughter" and Farmer Jack's shop which sells much local produce.

Sculptglass - craftsman at work

Another icecream

Medieval Fish Pond

The church of St George - I do wish I had had time to look round the interior again as apparently there is an interesting carving of a small dragon. Sadly, there wasn't time although I have been inside before and from memory it is quite dark and photography difficult.

"The Dairyman's Daughter" is a book written by the Reverend Leigh Richmond. It is a religious book describing the religious experiences of Elizabeth Wallbridge who was born, lived and died in Arreton. For the first 26 years of her life she lived in a worldly manner and was apparently quite a selfish, wilful and proud person. After hearing a sermon her life changed dramatically and she became very devout and devoted her time to bible studies. She died at the young age of 31 from consumption in 1801. She is buried in the churchyard (at the back of the church I think) again I didn't have time to look.

The church is one of the oldest on the island and dates back to the late Saxon period - it was first built as a private chapel for Arreton Manor. Monks from Quarr Abbey help to extend it in 1299.

After Arreton we had planned initially to go to Newtown Nature Reserve which I love. There are several walks here one takes you the estuary and has 3 hides - another passes through meadows and woodland (great for butterflies) and eventually comes out at the sea. There is also the Old Town Hall to explore. But it was decided we didn't have time (I fear my family do not share my love of Newtown - if we ever do move to the island I would go there every week). So we drove up onto Arreton Down and onto Brading Down where we went a walk at a local nature reserve. The habitat here is a mix of acid and chalk grassland with some woodland and scrub. We saw quite a few Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns and Marbled Whites. Other butterflies found here include Common and Chalkhill Blue and Small, Large and Dingy Skippers.

The views are stunning

Blackberries are ripening and

D picked a few.

Bench with a view :)

In the evening we had another meal at the White Lion and did some packing as we had to leave the cottage by 10.00 a.m. the following morning.


B and D went a walk down to the lighthouse

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In the top left of the photo below you may be able to make out a bat.

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Old postcard in the cottage showing Ye Olde Cottage in times past.

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D stocked up on pickles bought at Farmer Jacks - we also took lots of Isle of Wight Cheese home with us.

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I just have 2 more posts to do on the holiday - one on Niton Church and another on the final day when we visited Yarmouth Castle (this year I finally got to visit). But the next post I will leave the holiday and post some photos of the Dippy on Tour event we visited last weekend at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Dippy is a Diplodocus skeleton which used to hang in the Natural History Museum London (we have seen it several times there) but for the time being it has been replaced by a whale skeleton and is touring the country. There was also an excellent exhibition on bird evolution.


*D - photos taken by D with the Canon SX50hs bridge camera
Rest of photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera