Wootton
Wootton, the village which has arisen at the head of Wootton Creek, has grown considerably in recent years. Like many places in the Island it is a centre for sailing, and has a Sailing School and boatyards.
Once held by Queen Edith, the wife of Edward the Confessor, it was recorded in Domesday Book as Odeton, later changed to Woditon. In 1331 it included a warren, and "a fishery in an arm of the sea", which was presumably Wootton Creek. In the 17th century the de Lisle family held the manor, and it was probably Edward de Lisle who sold it to James Burton, who was in possession in 1767. In the 19th century the owner was Mr. Nunn, who was responsible for introducing the manufacture of machine lace into the Island.
The little Church, of which the nave and chancel were built in the 1100s, may well have been a manorial chapel; it has been much altered and enlarged.
There were two Dame Schools before the village school was built in 1866. This is now a Youth Centre, and has been replaced by a modern school in Church Road.
A tide mill stood at the head of the creek, by the Sloop Inn, and the mill dam is the causeway now carrying the road. Until about 100 years ago there were daily boats from the old Mill Quay to Portsmouth. The mill had two undershot wheels contained inside the building; it was modernised in 1900. Twice weekly a barge, The Silent, brought corn to be ground from Southampton; the flour was sent by horse waggons, and later by traction engines, all over the Island. The mill ceased working in 1945, and, sadly, was demolished in 1962. Part of the old machinery, including a fine sack balance with its sack cage, is stored at Bembridge Windmill.
Wootton was one of the six or seven tidal mills in the Island, which were worked by penning the water at high tide; the "second tide" in the Solent was naturally of great service in giving a long period of working, and there was also a good deal of water coming into the creek from local streams.
The only mill which depended entirely on the tides was at St. Helens.
