Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CARISBROOKE

CARISBROOKE, a village and a parish in the Isle of Wight. The village stands on an affluent of the river Medina, 1 mile SW of Newport; was formerly the capital of the island and a market town; and has a post office under Newport. A Roman station seems to have been here; and previously, perhaps, a British city. The presence of the Romans hero, or even anywhere in the island, has been doubted; but was fully proved in 1859 by the discovery of a Roman villa of about 120 feet by 50, with two large halls, tesselated pavements, a semicircular bath, a hypocaust, some coins, and a few small articles. An early fortress crowned an adjacent hill, 239 feet high; and was taken, in 530, by Cerdic, the Saxon. A castle, on the site of this, was built by William Fitz-Osborne, the first Norman lord of Wight; rebuilt, in the time of Henry I., by Richard de Redvers, Earl of Devon; enlarged, in 1262-93, by Isabella de Fortibus; repaired and outwardly strengthened by Elizabeth; used as a state prison by Cromwell, and made then the prison of Charles I. and his children; used as a state prison also by Charles I.; long occupied by the governor and the garrison of the Isle of Wight; allowed eventually to go greatly to decay; and subjected recently to considerable restoration. The site is very fine; the appearance of the castle is picturesque; and a walk of about a mile goes round it, commanding delightful views. The encompassing bastions, faced with stone, are of the time of Elizabeth; the entrance, by archway stone bridge, and machicolated gatehouse, with flanking circular towers, is partly of the time of Edward IV., partly of the time of Elizabeth; the range of building containing Charles I.'s prison rooms, on the left past the gatehouse, belongs to the later years of the 15th century; the polygonal keep, on a moated mound, in the north-east corner of the inner court, was probably the work of Richard de Redvers; the great hall, now divided into two stories, and otherwise modernized, is early English, and was probably the work of Isabella de Fortibus; and the chapel, at right angles with the hall, seems to have been constructed along with it, and was long desecrated, and afterwards restored. The castle-well is a regular excavation through solid rock, and famous for its depth, reputed to be 300 feet, though really no more than 145; and is covered by a structure of the 15th century, recently restored. Sir William Davenant, the poet, was confined in the castle.

The parish includes also the hamlets of Bowcombe, Billingham, and part of Chillerton; Parkhurst forest, with part of Parkhurst prison; Albany barracks; and the Isle of Wight house of industry. Acres, 7,409. Real property, £24,734. Pop., 7,502. Houses, 1,196. The property is much subdivided. A priory was founded near the church by Fitz-Osborne; attached to the Benedictine Abbey of Lire; and given by Henry V. to his new establishment at Sheen. The living is a vicarage, united with the p. curacy of Northwood, in the diocese of Winchester. Value, £900.* Patron, Queen's College, Oxford. The church was built by Fitz-Osborne; deprived of its chancel and north aisle in the time of Elizabeth; has a fine tower, with pinnacles and an octagonal turret; and contains two interesting monuments of Lady Wadham and William Keeling. The p. curacy of St. John and that of St. Nicholas-in-the-Castle are separate charges. Value of St. John, not reported;* of St, Nicholas, £24. There are an Independent chapel and charities £30. A Dominican priory for eighteen nuns was built in 1867, at a cost of £12,000, defrayed by the Countess of Clare.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Carisbrooke AP/CP       Hampshire AncC
Place: Carisbrooke

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