National Gazetteer (1868) - Chale

CHALE, a parish in the liberty of West Medina, Isle of Wight, in the county of Southampton, 7 miles from Newport, 10 from Brading, and 20 from the Gosport station of the London and South-Western line. Chale is one of the most picturesque spots in the island, with its grey old church standing near the verge of a precipice, and overlooking a snug cove, known to sailors as Chale Bay, delightful in its aspect, but too often fatally dangerous to the shipping along the coast.

The living is a rectory* in the diocese of Winchester, value £334, in the patronage of James Theobald, Esq. The church, dedicated to St. Andrew, was built in the reign of Henry I. by Hugh Vernon. It possesses a fine square tower, and contains a monument to the late Sir Henry Worsley, who endowed the schools. In the churchyard lie the remains of the captain and part of the crew and passengers of the Clarendon, which was lost in Chale Bay. Blackgang Chine, about half a mile from the church, is a tremendous chasm, the sides of which rise nearly perpendicular, 500 feet above the bay. On its summit stand the Blackgang Hotel and Sealand Cottage; commanding a good view of the Needles and the Dorsetshire coast. Near the Chine is St. Catherine's Hill, 800 feet above the level of the sea, on the top of which are the remains of a tower built in 1323 by Walter de Godyton, and also a column erected on the brow of the hill, 72 feet high, by Michael Hoy, to commemorate the visit of Alexander I. of Russia to this kingdom in 1814. At the foot of the hill the Medina takes its rise.

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) - Transcribed by Colin Hinson ©2003]