Back of the Wight

The area has a distinct historical and social background, and is geographically isolated by the chalk hills, immediately to the North, as well as poor public transport infrastructure.

Primarily agricultural, the Back of the Wight is made up of small villages spread out along the coast, including Brighstone, Shorwell and Mottistone.

The most obvious natural features on land are the downs that enclose the area and cut it off from the rest of the island; parts of these are protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest and large stretches owned by the National Trust.

During the 4th century the Empire broke up and the coast began to suffer from raids by Germanic tribes, which repeatedly laid waste to the area.

[citation needed] The Back of the Wight had a meagre and fragile economy at the time so this increased the hardships on the area by killing many of the population.

[citation needed] During medieval times the people of the Back of the Wight were very poor, particularly compared to the new prosperity of towns such as Yarmouth, Newtown and Brading.

As a result of this incident, the first lighthouse on Wight was built at Chale, the St Catherine's Oratory,[11] where the lord's family paid for a light and prayers for his soul.

They were hated because they fought the smuggling trade, although they were hardly saints; there is an interesting local tale about the commander of the Yarmouth station who "couldn't hear" the sounds of a raging gun battle going on at Alum Bay between smugglers and Coastguard.

When in 1892 the SS Eider,[13] a German liner, went aground on the Atherfield Ledge, it took "virtually the whole of the sparse human population of the 'Back of the Wight' to get them to sea".

[citation needed] The Back of the Wight has very little in the way of suitable shelter for sailing vessels and prevailing SW storm winds often forced ships onto the coast.

Several local books include detailed accounts of the lifeboat and coastguard rescues of the sailors of the many ships that have been wrecked on the area's dangerous coast.

MV Ice Prince, Vénus, SS Eider, the Sirenia and the Cedrine, whose timbers form part of Mottistone church.

[17] Today the region is popular with tourists with attractions such as Blackgang Chine, Isle of Wight Pearl and the picture-postcard villages.