Kelly's Directory (1886) - Shorwell

Shorwell is a parish in West Medina liberty and rural deanery, archdeaconry of the Isle of Wight, diocese of Winchester, 5 miles south-west-by south from Newport. The church of St. Peter is a very ancient stone building in the Norman style, having chancel, nave, aisles, square tower containing 3 bells and short spire; the south door is ornamented with the Norman chevron and nail heads: in cleaning the whitewash from the inside wall, over the north door, the workmen descovered a painting of a very early period: there are some monuments of the Leigh family, the former possessors of Northcourt House. The register dates from the year 1670. The living is a sinecure rectory, in the gift of the Rev. William Walsh, and a discharged vicarage, held with the rectory of Mottistone, in the gift of T.C. Baring esq. M.P., joint yearly value £474, and held since 1885 by the Right Rev. Francis Thomas M'Dougall M.A. of Hertford College, Oxford D.C.I canon of Winchester and Archdeacon of the Isle of Wight, foremerly bishop of Labuan and Sarawak. Here is a Wesleyan chapel. Bull and Bennet's charity of £83 yearly, derived form £2,790 Consols, is for clothing. Northcourt, the seat of Lady Mary Gordon, is a spacious mansion, erected in the reign of James I.; the grounds are beautifully laid out, and contain some fine timber: there are numerous rustic seats in various parts of the grounds, and an alpine bridge over the Newport road. Lady Mary Gordon (lady of the manor), Charles Seely esq. M.P., J.P. and Charles Wyndham esq. are chief landowners. The osi lis sandy; subsoil, clay. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area is 3,611 acres of land and 33 of water and foreshore; rateable value, £5,142; and the population in 1881 was 646. Atherfield is a tithing, 2 miles south, near the coast.

[Description(s) from Kelly's Directory of the Isle of Wight (1886)]