{"id":37728,"date":"2018-10-24T15:23:16","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T14:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/?p=37728"},"modified":"2025-02-17T10:57:01","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T10:57:01","slug":"10-weird-wonderful-isle-of-wight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/10-weird-wonderful-isle-of-wight\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Surprising Facts About the Isle of Wight"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are so many weird and wonderful, fascinating facts to discover about the Isle of Wight.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To most mainland folk, not much is known of the Isle of Wight, a relatively tiny island lying twenty or so miles off the Hampshire Coast. You\u2019ve probably heard about its annual music festival, which has drawn some of the world\u2019s biggest performing artists. They might have heard that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert used to spend their summers there, or that it\u2019s a haven for the endangered red squirrel. But apart from these few things, what\u2019s really known about the island of the Solent?<\/p>\n

Here are 10 of our favourite weird and wonderful things you didn’t know about the Isle of Wight…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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1. The Isle of Wight is the sunniest place in the UK<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Isle of Wight receives, on average, 1,800-2,000 hours of sunshine each year \u2013 more than some parts of Spain!\u00a0With this in mind, how could you not\u00a0take a holiday on the Isle of Wight<\/a> for a sunny summer break?<\/p>\n

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2. It’s all about garlic<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Garlic has been produced on the island for centuries and is one of the Isle of Wight’s most important exports. Islanders are so besotted with their crop of this wonderful superfood, they created the Isle of Wight Garlic Festival, a celebration of all things garlicky.<\/p>\n

\n

3.\u00a0The Isle of Wight has been home to several high-profile \u201ccelebrities\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Osborne<\/h2>\n

In Victorian times, many well-known characters from history, including Alfred Lord Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin and Queen Victoria, inhabited the Isle of Wight. Other famous faces who\u2019ve graced the isle include Winston Churchill and Karl Marx.<\/p>\n

\n

4. It’s the most haunted island in the world<\/h2>\n

\"Haunted<\/p>\n

Despite its relatively small size, the Isle of Wight is said to be the most haunted island in the world, with an assortment of spectres lingering amongst the living. Supernatural sightings that have been recorded include phantom monks, marching Romans and grey ladies.<\/p>\n

\n

5. The Isle of Wight used to be known as Vectis<\/h2>\n

\"Cockerel<\/p>\n

During the Roman occupation, the Isle of Wight was known as Vectis. Surprisingly, this name is still used widely to this day, despite being dropped after the Romans left in the 5th century.<\/p>\n

\n

6.\u00a0At high tide, the Isle of Wight becomes England\u2019s smallest county<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"needles<\/h2>\n

However, when the tide is low, the historic county of Rutland near Leicestershire reclaims this title.<\/p>\n

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7.\u00a0The Isle of Wight is home to the world\u2019s oldest amusement park<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Blackgang<\/h2>\n

Blackgang Chine was built way\u00a0back in 1843. The park was named after a former chine (coastal ravine) and provided entertainment for Victorian holidaymakers.<\/p>\n

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8.\u00a0The Isle of Wight receives over twenty times more overseas visitors than its permanent population<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"Shanklin,<\/p>\n

In 2011, for example, the population of the Isle of Wight was around 140,000, but the island received over two million visitors!<\/p>\n

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9. The Isle of Wight has housed some of the UK’s most infamous criminals<\/h2>\n

\"Carisbrooke<\/h2>\n

Due to its location, the Isle of Wight was considered an excellent location for housing some of the UK\u2019s most infamous prisoners. Notorious names incarcerated on the isle include the Kray Twins, the Richardson Brothers, and king of England, Charles I.<\/p>\n

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10. It’s home to the world’s first radio<\/h2>\n

\"Marconi<\/h2>\n

In 1896, Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi established the world\u2019s first radio on the Isle of Wight. His invention was placed near the Needles, and went on to be distributed throughout the world.<\/p>\n

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Image credits: Chris Downer<\/a>\u00a0<\/small>– CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>; Mike Licht<\/a> – CC BY 2.0<\/a>; Mark Hogan<\/a> – CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>; Nick Harris<\/a> – CC BY-ND 2.0<\/a>; Nilfanion<\/a>– CC BY-SA 3.0<\/a>; Martin Lewison<\/a>\u00a0– CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>; Martyn Wright<\/a> – CC BY 2.0<\/a>; DeFacto<\/a> – CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>; Bill Ohl<\/a> – CC BY-ND 2.0<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n

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Whether you\u2019re interested in renting a holiday cottage on the Isle of Wight<\/a>\u00a0or not, we hope this has shed some light on this wonderful isle. For more fascinating things to do in the area, view our Isle of Wight Travel Guide<\/a>. Did you also know that Scotland is full of fun facts<\/a> too?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are so many weird and wonderful, fascinating facts to discover about the Isle of Wight. To most mainland folk, not much is known of the Isle of Wight, a relatively tiny island lying twenty or so miles off the Hampshire Coast. You\u2019ve probably heard about its annual music festival, which has drawn some of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":37763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","location-isle-of-wight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sykescottages.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}