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Quarr and BinsteadIsle of Wight |
Old postcards are sometimes poorly produced and grainy, I've done my best to scan them. Please click thumbnails for full size picture. Dates are from the card or my estimate (where possible). The manufacturer of the card is shown in brackets (where available).
Quarr
Abbey takes
its name from the once extensively worked quarries in the locality. The
original Abbey, of which a few ruins may still be seen, was founded in 1132
by Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon and Lord of the Island. Here he
and his wife and son, and a number of other distinguished personages,
including the Lady Cicely, second daughter of Edward IV and godmother of
Henry VIII, were buried. The abbey was tenanted by the Cistercians and was
the second house of the kind established in England. By careful
management and successive endowments, the property shortly became the most
valuable in the Island, and the Abbot was a person of so much consequence
that he was appointed Warden or Lord of the Island. In 1340
special licence was obtained to fortify the place against the attacks
of sea-rovers, and the remains of the stone wall, with sea gate and
portcullis, then erected, may still be traced. At the Dissolution of the
Monasteries the property passed into the possession of a prosaic merchant
of Southampton, by name George Mills, who promptly razed most of the
buildings to the ground for the sake of the materials and turned the land
to agricultural uses. Part of the ruins have now been restored and are
used as a farm.
A
quarter of a mile beyond the ruins the visitor turns to the right up the
drive leading to the New Abbey, a remarkable piece of modern architecture
erected in 1904 for the accommodation of a body of Benedictine monks expelled
from France in 1901.
They settled first at Appuldurcombe House, near Wroxall, and then
here. In 1922
they returned to France at the invitation of the French Government.
They, however, left a colony here, open to British as well as to French
recruits, keeping the same rule and life as the large community in France.
The Chapel, in the Byzantine style, is strikingly magnificent with its pointed arches over nave and chancel. The peculiarity of the very short nave and very long chancel is explained by the fact that it is a monks’ chapel.
Ward Locks Guide to the Isle Wight around 1930
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The abbey, Quarr 1936. (Valentines) |
An unusual card showing the entrance to the farm yard at Quarr, postmarked 1909. |
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The inside of Quarr Abbey (described as 'Church of Our Lady of Quarr'), probably from the 1930's. |
The Chapter House, Quarr Abbey. (British Publishing Co.) |
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The ruins of the old Quarr Abbey. (Photochrom) |
A closer view of Quarr old abbey ruins, undated. The existing Abbey may be seen in the background. |
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Artistic view over the ruins of the old abbey and Solent, about 1910. (Tuck) |
Binstead, Church of the Holy Cross, around 1905. |
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The picture, right shows the gravestone of Thomas Sivell in Binstead churchyard. The inscription reads: To the memory of THOs SIVELL who was cruely fhot on board his floop by fome officers of customs of the Port of Portfmouth on the 15th June 1785 at the age of 64 years leaving a difconfolate widow & family. All you that pafs pray look and fee How foon my life was took from me By those officers as you hear They fpilled my Blood that was fo dear But God is Good and juft and true And will reward each to their due Note: At this time an 'f' was often used in place of an 's' in the English language
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Freshwater | Totland | Alum Bay and the Needles | Yarmouth | Shalfleet | Newtown | Calbourne | Carisbrooke Castle | Carisbrooke | Newport | Cowes and Gurnard | Osborne House | Wootton & Fishbourne | Quarr & Binstead | Ryde | Seaview | Bembridge | Brading | Sandown | Shanklin | Godshill | Arreton Valley | Ventnor | St Lawrence and the Undercliff | St Catherine's Lighthouse's | Niton | Blackgang Chine | Blackgang and Chale | Brighstone and Shorwell | Mottistone to Compton