Site Introduction

In 2005 village residents Roy Murphy and Roy Richardson agreed that there was a need to record and preserve as much as possible of the historical information, both written and photographic, about the village of Wootton Bridge and the surrounding area, before the information was irrevocably lost with the passing of time.

So, where is Wootton Bridge? It lies on the North East coast of the Isle of Wight looking across the Solent towards Portsmouth,and is situated almost midway between the historical capital town of Newport and the Victorian gateway of Ryde. The village itself lies at the head of the tidal Wootton Creek and over the last 100 years has grown from a tiny hamlet of some 70 inhabitants to one of almost 4000 people.

Over time the village has been part of two adjoining parishes. Initially it was part of North Arreton. However, in 1906, as a result of a move by Newport Borough Council to improve public services, it was transferred to the Parish of Whippingham.This remained the case until the mid 1920s when Wootton became a stand-alone parish comprising of Wootton Common, Wootton,and Wootton Bridge. A decision in late 1980 by the Parish Council resulted in the formation of a single entity called Wootton Bridge.

So, what of the village? It is surrounded by several areas of special scientific interest in which a wide variety of wildlife can be found. It is also home to many red squirrels for which the island is well known. The old millpond is an ideal place to admire many different sea birds and is also a nice spot to sit and relax. To help the visitor, the village has produced five leaflets describing walks around the area. These can be found under the MAPS heading in the main index. The routes have been superimposed on the WALKS leaflets which can also be freely downloaded.

In 1969 the village became world famous for a weekend when the first major Isle of Wight Pop Festival was held in the village. 150,000 people descended on a then small village (which was totally unprepared) to see and hear Bob Dylan.

Picture of Aerial view of Wootton Bridge — *Aerial view of Wootton Bridge Isle of Wight, looking north. circa 1994*

The site now has a wide selection of topics including historical articles and pictures, an island tour of some 350 pictures dating back to the mid 1950s, buses of the 1980s and yachts on the Solent. There are also further sections covering old cooking recipes, village walks, amenity maps and businesses.

We would like to thank all those people and organisations who have permitted us to copy and display articles for the enjoyment of all. If you enjoyed your visit to our site and have any information or pictures which you are willing to allow us to display on the site, then please contact us.

We must also express our personal thanks to our web designer Tony Hudson (Web Designer IoW), without whose help and input we would have never achieved our goal.