Bonchurch

Bonchurch Bay

Bonchurch is on the eastern side of Ventnor.  It is a pretty village with a splendid pond that was donated by the author Stacpoole.   Charles Dickens spent some time here while he was writing "David Copperfield".

Bonchurch is one of the earliest settlements on the Island probably due to fact it has a spring. The first documented proof of its existence is 1066 in the Doomsday book although it is known that a prehistoric race and also the Romans settled here.

Present day Bonchurch is an excellent place to ramble with many interesting sites. It is best to begin your walk from the the pond. Walking in an easterly direction you will find a grotto and drinking fountain erected as a memorial to a Captain Huish. Opposite is Old Smugglers Cottage, once thatched but now slate roofed, it is the oldest building in Bonchurch. Carry on along this road until passing a mass of rock known as Hadfields Look Out. Walk uphill along Bonchurch Shute and you will pass the new St Boniface Church, the foundation stone for which was laid in 1847 and the church was built by voluntary contribution.

The road continues steeply uphill past Bonchurch Inn just beyond which is a footpath leading to a cleft of rock known as the Devils Chimney. Climbing the steps through the Chimney will take you to Leeson Road with its hotels and footpaths to St Boniface Down. Turn left and you will find an excellent viewpoint looking over Bonchurch and Ventnor. A little further takes you to the Chimney Steps which bring you down to the Pitts. Turn right along the Pitts and at the end of the road continue along Blaams Passage to the 101 steps which takes you back to Village Road.

From here you will find Shore Road which meanders down to the sea, with its coastal walk from Bonchurch to Ventnor. There is also a pottery workshop here and you pass The Lake Hotel on the way to the beach.

Walking in front of the cottages along the shoreline you will come upon a flight of steps leading to a footpath which winds along to the Old Church, recorded in the Doomsday book, and possibly existing 200 years prior to that as a wooden building. From the Old Church turn left and this path will take you back to the Village Road. This completes your ramble around Bonchurch and if you find it has not tired you too much try it the opposite way round!!