life
ISLAND HISTORY
1836 and still used today (you can see the old
bell tower) but with modern additions. The
village’s first school was built in 1815 for 20
poor children when the Reverend Noel Digby
gave a “messuage, tenement and lands, known as
Brook Side Farm” for the purpose of founding
a school that cost £390 to build. Digby Cottage
still stands on the land at Brookside and here’s
a snippet from the school’s history - in 1940
when the children were not allowed on the sea
shore, a load of sand for them to play in was
deposited in the school yard.
But moving on, I returned to the main road to
take a look at ‘The Three Bishops’ public house.
The building next to it, now a hairdresser’s
salon, was ‘The Five Bells’ in the days when
the village had two pubs. Earlier the village
inn had been a thatched cottage (now the
Brighstone Newsagents and Store) before it was
moved to a modern building and renamed the
‘New Inn’. Venerables in 1860 advised a visitor
in his ‘Guide to the Isle of Wight’ that “The
New Inn is a comfortable place of refreshment
for himself, where, if he wishes to investigate
the vicinity, he may pass the night not
disagreeably.” Eventually the pub was renamed
‘The Three Bishops’.
Today the pub’s landlords, Chris and Helen
Hessey, have made the ‘Three Bishops’ a warm
and relaxed atmosphere where you’re spoilt for
choice when you see the menu of home-made
food. Outside there’s a notice saying dogs are
welcome and a covered patio area for smokers,
inside the spacious main room has a selection of
pictures of Island scenes on the walls.
Someone else who bakes every day is Dougie
Gulliver at the Brighstone Store. I caught a
whiff of freshly baked bread and pies when I
went into the shop, amazed by the selection
of stock for sale. Dougie’s speciality is his
breakfast pie but they’d all gone by the time
I arrived so I chose a paperback by Wendy
Harris, a local writer. Dougie told me you can
get your TV licence at the store and I noticed
a selection of cures for colds and coughs – no
need to travel to Newport when you can pop
into Dougie’s or The Mace Shop.
Incidentally, I should mention there’s a bus
service from the village to Newport, Freshwater
and Yarmouth. Years ago people in rural areas
relied on the local carriers to bring goods from
Newport – remember 'Put out the flag’? The
Shotter family lived in Moortown and their
history as carriers spans from using a horse
drawn van to motor vehicles.
The next day it was pouring with rain as I
crossed the main road to North Street to look at
a row of cottages given by a Mrs. Lloyd in the
early 1990’s to the National Trust. One is now
a private house, the others a sub-post office,
‘Ye Olde Shoppe’ the National Trust shop and
next-door, the village museum. Sheila Collinge
was in the shop and stowed my dripping
umbrella by the fire extinguisher.
In the museum the exhibits and clear labelling
are impressive. Opened in 1994 through
voluntary effort and the Village Museum Trust,
it is a miniature picture of village life during the
Victorian era with a cottage tableau, the history
of the school, agriculture, the lifeboats and the
church.
The stone outside the museum dated 1860 was
Photo: Wood carving of The Chine Walk
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