Arreton
Arreton's history is a long one. To-day we can still see relics of Bronze Age men near Down End; the remains of a fairly extensive Roman Villa at Combley; one of the few Island churches still showing some remnants of Saxon work; a fine Jacobean manor and several other buildings of historical interest. The parish contained at least fourteen manors; these included Hale, Budbridge, Haseley and Standen, and it was part of the initial endowment of Quarr Abbey.
Arreton Manor was re-built between 1595 and 1612, and is typical of its time, with two projecting wings and a central porch; the entrance door may well be original.
The Church as it now stands dates probably from the 11th century. It was administered by the monks of Quarr until the Dissolution. Traces of colouring were once visible on parts of the interior, but have now all disappeared. The Church must have been enlarged and beautified by the monks, and about 1480, after some trouble with the tower, the enormous angle-buttresses were added.
There is a memorial brass to Harry Hawles, of Hale Manor, who is said to have fought at Agincourt. In 1684 the Register records the burials of three persons found dead' in the snow. Buried in the churchyard lies Elizabeth Walbridge, the young girl who was the subject of the Rev. Legh Richmond's 19th century best-seller, "The Dairyman's Daughter". She lived at Hale Common, and some of her devotional books are preserved at Arreton Manor.
At Haseley Manor, which was held before the Conquest by Earl Harold, is a square meadow which was once the "stewpond" where the monks kept part of their supply of fish. A road now called Shepherd's Lane, which runs directly up to the Down, is said to be exactly a mile long and is also known as the Straight Mile.
On the crest of the Down, by the remains of the Bronze Age barrows, is Michael Morey's Hump, where the said Michael was hanged in 1736 for the murder of his grandson.
Some distance along the Staplers (Newport) road is a sharp descent down a lane called Chokey Daniel's Shute. It seems that Daniel, having perhaps stayed too long at one of the local pubs, found he needed both hands to hold on to his cart as it ran downhill, and so slung the reins round his neck. Sad to relate, the horse bolted, and Daniel was strangled by the reins!
As in most villages today, the old crafts seem to be disappearing from Arreton - the forge floor is now the base of "Old Smithy" flats; only one wall remains of the carpenter's shop; and the saw-mill is now a garden. But new crafts are taking their place, and in the fields giant glasshouses produce quantities of flowers and vegetables, the air and light being unrivalled for horticulture.
Recently an even more startlingly modern feature of the rural landscape was a drilling rig rising from the fields of Perreton Farm, while exploratory drilling for oil was taking place.
