Totland: A Brief Guide

Until the mid-19th Century, this seagirt western peninsula remained a remote utterly rural finger of land pointing out into the English Channel. It has provided a look-out for the inhabitants – a tout – hence the name Totland to guard against marauders. Until the Tennyson Monument was erected in 1904, a beacon was maintained on the downs, guarded and manned to give immediate warning. In the mid 19C a line of forts was built on the northern coast from the Needles right round to Fort Victoria. This opened up this area to opportunistic Victorian developers.
Letter from WR Blackmore, Parish Archivist, 1991

In 1870, the Totland Bay Estate Company was formed with ambitious plans to create a new seaside resort. Jenkinson’s Guide to the Isle of Wight (1876) defined the Bay’s attractions as “beautiful smooth sands suitable for bathing and bathing machines”. To meet the anticipated demand in what was then a fishing hamlet, a new road was built connecting Totland Bay. Colwell and Yarmouth.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, the Complete Guide (Dovecote Press) 2006

A pretty watering place taken from the parish of Freshwater. The air of Totland Bay is peculiarly salubrious, and so health giving as to make it one of the best seaside resorts for invalids seeking perfect convalescence, eminent physicians agree as to the health restoring powers of the genial yet bracing atmosphere.
Stevens Directory, 1883

TOTLAND BAY
The Village is delightfully and pleasantly situated at the head of a fine open bay, the mighty ocean is seen in all its grandeur, while the sands are fine and clean, and well adapted for bathing, a splendid view is obtained from the beach and from the new hotel on the summit a grand scene as far as the eye can reach. Totland Bay is a Beach in reality as well as name, there is sand enough and to spare which is perfectly firm and of clean white appearance, the beach is not steep but slopes gently and safely, and the most timid may enjoy a dip with the utmost confidence. A row or sail from the beach is always accessible. Conways’ pleasure craft will be found all that can be desired.
Stevens Directory, 1883

(The young) JMW Turner’s pencil describes the arc of Totland Bay, duck-boards on the mud lead us into a foreground of fishermen and boats. Old people recall Totland as nothing much more than cottages, church, school and farm. From Cliff End, you can walk along the newly reinforced sea wall to Totland’s 1966 sea defences and the Lifeboat House.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

PIER
The pier is 450 feet long, built of iron and forms a pleasant promenade to the visitors, while a bazaar well stocked displays a choice collection of fossils, and ornaments made from the peculiarly coloured sands from Alum Bay.
Stevens Directory, 1883

By 1880, the company had erected a 450 feet long cast-iron pier. Overlooking it was built the Totland Bay Hotel, which proved so popular that five years later it had to be enlarged. Lodging houses and a bathing establishment with library and reading room were also built. Crowds of holiday makers landed from the steamers that once called. After the Second World War the pier was repaired and re-opened, though today it is in private hands and closed.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

BEACH AMUSEMENTS
There is a reading room and library situated on the beach. The bathing establishment attached is under good management and bathing here is greatly patronised.
Stevens Directory, 1883

LIFEBOAT STATION
Totland takes its name from “tout land” meaning “look out”, making it an obvious site for a lifeboat station. In 1870, after the money had been raised by local Sunday school children, one duly opened at the sound end of the bay. In 1915. the Totland Lifeboat Station was equipped with the Island’s first steam lifeboat. The station closed in 1924, but part of the 1884 boathouse still stands.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

The Lifeboat House sheltered gallant craft from 1885 to 1924. Earlier still the Little Dove, bought by public subscription, was on station here. It was a proud day when the Landward of Totland led the coffin bearing craft Havengore up the Thames for Winston Churchill’s funeral.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

HOTEL
The new hotel is a fine noble brick building of modern construction. It advertises itself as follows: its terraces and windows command full views of the Solent, and the Yachts and Steamers constantly passing by. It also boasts a large tennis lawn in front. an a ample supply of the purest spring water. The air is particularly bracing and dry, and the climate has been pronounced by distinguished Physicians to be unsurpassed by any in England. It is well adapted for winter residence. (The hotel was demolished in the late 1970s, and replaced by a block of luxury flats).
Stevens Directory, 1883

The Grand Hotel is now rubble … Councillors squabble over the merits of blocks or flats or bungalows to fill in the vacant lots. Mrs Hammersley’s grand house survives, just: decapitated, a bungalow with an interior like an elegant salon.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

HOUSES
These turned Totland into a flourishing little seaside resort, which together with the sheltered character of the area attracted wealthy Victorians to build red brick villas whose towers and gables remain a Totland feature today – there are several examples in Madeira Road.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

BUILDING BOOM
Building is now proceeding rapidly and pretty villas are springing up. The Totland Bay Estate Company offer great facilities to partners who wish to erect residences for themselves. Leases are offered for 999 years, as the estate commands a fine frontage to old ocean. So that before long very extensive building operations will be commenced.

Those interested are urged to contact Thomas Waterhouse at Manor Terrace. Buildings listed include the Reading Rooms and Library, Coast Guard Station. Iron Pier, Wilmington, The Chalet, The Hermitage, St Winifreds, Glen Headon and Weston Terrace. Hand drawn plans exist for many of these properties, designed by the likes of WB Haberason, architect, 38 Bloomsbury Square, London and John Giles and Gough, architects, 28 Craven Street, Charing Cross.
Stevens Directory, 1883

SHOPS
There is a terrace of good shops and an excellent Post Office well managed. Chas H Mallard of Weston Terrace is ironmonger, corn and provision merchant and in charge of telegraph and postal services. He also purveys Guinness’s stout in casks and bottles, Crosse and Blackwells pickles and Huntleys and Palmers biscuits. J Brewer is listed as is a livery stable keeper, WS Good as a draper, and C St John general builder.
Stevens Directory, 1883

CHURCHES
Christchurch, erected in 1875 (its cost raised by voluntary subscription) is a neat stone edifice in the early English style, having a spiral tower and one bell.
Stevens Directory, 1883

The large lychgate of Christchurch was constructed from timbers from HMS Thunderer, a veteran of Trafalgar. On Weston Lane, in red brick in the Italian Romanesque style, is the 1923 Roman Catholic Church of St Saviour. In the Avenue is Totland Bay Methodist Church, erected in 1904 as a memorial to Mary Toms and Williarn Bailey, the first Bible Christian missionaries to visit the Island (in 1823), The building to the rear is the Sunday School room.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

TRANSPORT
Brewer’s Omnibus runs three times daily to Yarmouth, to meet Steamers and every facility is given to the Excursionists by the coaches and carriages constantly running from all parts of the Island to make this rising watering place a pleasing holiday retreat.
Stevens Directory, 1883

COLWELL BAY
Good bathing is to be had, and those who like an unsophisticated and out of the world place might do worse than give it a try.
Ward Lock Guide, 1907

At sea level, freshwater limestones give way to blue clay and the sands of Colwell Bay, a mosaic of spread towels, wind-breaks, lilos, trunks and bikinis, from which bright fragments detach themselves and bob in the blue ground of the sea. Elegant Venus shells can be picked out of the landslips and Bramble Chine boasts a fossil oyster bed. In JMW Turner’s watercolour there is no sea wall, just a thatched buildings from which crumbling steps lead down to a beach strewn with lobster pots. Warden Point, then topped only with turf, rears behind in rumpled grandeur.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

FORT ALBERT
Fort Albert, a large square red brick fort was built in 1854-6 to defend the Needles Passage and today is divided into apartments.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

TURF WALK
Take that reminder of past gentility the Turf Walk amongst Scots pine and sycamore, willow and cherry plum, then climb up through a tunnel of hawthorn on to Headon Hill.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

HEADON WARREN
A high down, over 400 feet above the level of the sea, on which is a Fort mounted with guns for the protection of the western mouth of the Solent.
Stevens Directory, 1883

Near the top, limestone is cloaked with turf, but the summit is gravel growing heath, heather and sea buckthorn, and pungent on hot days with the coconut fragrance of yellow furze.
Paul Hyland, Wight, 1985

In late summer, the flowering heather covering Headon Warren is another attraction. The Warren is also the site of a Bronze Age burial mound, dating to about 1500 BC.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

ALUM BAY
A pleasing seaside resort. Excursionists who land here frequently from Bournemouth, Lymington, Southampton, Cowes and Ryde, as many as 800 having crossed the Pier from one steamer. A commodious pier has been erected and a Bazaar at the entrance affords plenty of scope for the juvenile portion to satisfy their utmost curiosity. James Cotton is pier manager and collector of fossils and maker of sand ornaments.

The ‘Needles’ in past ages formed the original headland but time and the violence of the mighty deep have separated them from the mainland and shaped them into fantastic shapes and ragged figures. The Lighthouse, which formerly stood on the highest point of the cliff is now located on the westernly of the rocks. During the foggy weather, a bell is constantly rung, the vibration being heard a distance of 5 miles. The ‘Royal Alum Bay Needles Hotel’ delightfully situated near the beach. is fitted up in the most complete style. Furnished apartments may be obtained.
The Shores of Alum Bay form one of the most curious and imposing scenes on the coast, the lofty chalk precipices of a pearly hue on the one side and the beautiful variegated and strangely formed cliffs on the other, with the various colours and peculiar nature of the layers of sand, intermixed with red and yellow ochre, fuller^s earth and black flints.

Another attraction is Scratchell’s Bay. Large flocks of sea birds resort here and are sought after by the inhabitants for their eggs and feathers which are sent to London and other markets. Samphire is also to be found growing on the rocks in clusters. There is an ample supply of pure water arising from the different springs in the neighbourhood. A pleasant stroll can be enjoyed either by the road or by the romantic cliffs, which in the summer is covered with heather in full bloom and the soft. velvety nature of the turf make the walk a pleasing one.
Stevens Directory, 1883

Geologically rich in the millions of years old cretaceious deposits at Alum Bay, these colourful sand cliffs have attracted visitors since the early 18C.
Letter from WR Blackmore, Parish Archivist, 1991

The Victorians used the sands to create pictures of Island scenes which are now collectable. The best way to see this remarkable phenomenon is to use the chair lift which runs between the cliff top and the beach. There is a memorial to Gugliemo Marconi (1874-1937) who set up the first permanent wireless station in the world here, in 1897. The principle tourist attraction is the Needles Pleasure Park, whose activities include glass blowing, sweet making and emulating the tourism of more than a century ago by creating a picture using coloured sands.

There is an open top bus service up to the Old Needles Battery which was built in 1861-3 to defend the narrow Needles Channel from attack by the French. The Battery is now in the ownership of the National Trust and is open in the summer. It gives wonderfully dramatic views of the Needles.
Roy Brinton, Isle of Wight, 2006

FORMATION OF PARISH
Originating as part of the ancient Manor of Weston Braybocuf in Freshwater, the western part of the Manor was consolidated in 1828 into the Ward Estate. In 1888, an independent ecclesiastical parish of Christ Church, Totland Bay was created from the ancient parish of All Saints. Freshwater. 1894 saw the creation of an autonomous civic Totland Parish Council.
Letter from WR Blackmore, Parish Archivist, 1991

PARISH COUNCIL ARCHIVES
December 4 h 1894 saw the first meeting of Totland Parish Council, called by Edmund Granville Ward. The following year. they called for Government sewer in Colwell Bay to be carried out below low water mark. It prepared to get Totland roads adopted by the Rural District Council. In 1896 TPC proposed that Yar Bridge be purchased and opened up to the public. Nine years later, it was suggested that a Mr Tankard hand over the Turf Walk to the Parish, which he did a year later. He also offered to sell the foreshore for £4,500 but this was refused. In 1903, the population was numbered at 1328. A rail tunnel from Totland Bay to Hurst Castle was proposed in 1913, but soon dropped.

Mr Aman suggested the construction of a war memorial in 1919. There were complaints about the speed of traffic coming down Church Hill, and charabancs using country lanes. In 1923 the council bought the sports ground, although there were letters opposing the plan to erect public conveniences nearby. The police were also notified when people played football on a Sunday morning. The Parish Council in turn complained to the Attorney General in 1929 about a big gun firing at Fort Warden which caused damage to property and upset visitors. There were also complaints about children singing carols, about excessive bus fares (4d from Totland to Moa Place), and about a lady seen cycling on the Turf Walk.

Air raid exercises were held in 1937, in preparation for another European conflict. In 1940 Colwell Bay was closed to bathers, signposts were taken down to confuse the enemy, and the War Office wrote to announce they needed to dig trenches and erect barbed wire along the Turf Walk. Peacetime saw the selling off of Fort Warden for either holiday camp or light industrial use. A sea wall was built at Totland Bay in the late 1960s. In 1972, British Hovercraft left the High Down Rocket Site. In 1978, the old Totland Beacon was reinstated, in miniature. Trees were planted along Summers Lane to replace the dead elms, and Totland Beach was sold to a private company. A reservoir was constructed on Headon Hill, the new tank flown in by helicopter. Turvills Field was given to the parish, to provide a green space.
From notes made by Cllr Audrey Smith, as part of Centenary Exhibition, 1994

Document compiled by Dr Brian Hinton MBE, Totland Parish Council Hon. Archivist, June 2006.