The Secret Village

"Slip sliding away.."

Well, we chose somewhere that definitely wasn't going to be the same in ten years. Sadly, there has been some changes since I last went there too, about a year ago. We'll get to that in a minute...

It is hard to describe in words how unbelievably odd and cool this place is, and photo's don't really do it justice. I will try and explain: The Isle of Wight is slowly falling into the sea, I think that is what Islands do. The south coast does it in a particularly spectacular fashion. There is this area called 'The Undercliff' which is geologically peculiar because it has a cliff over it, then some lucious, hilly, tree covered land, then another cliff below with a precipitous drop to the sea. Most of it is quite unstable.

The Victorians, in their infinite wisdom, thought 'ooh, what a lovely landslide (the clues in the word 'landslide' people), how scenic, let us build expensive villas and cute little ornate cottages there'.
As you can imagine, it all went a bit wrong.

The Undercliff Road used to run all the way along the coast of the island and it was narrow and quirky with dry-stone walls either side, designed for horse and cart rather than cars, although some of the surviving bits are now used as regular roads. But two long sections have completely disappeared, slid into the sea, isolating a tiny piece of road and a few buildings. When I say isolating, I mean that from one end it is impossible to approach them at all and from the other you have to negotiate a narrow muddy path which is constantly shifting its way through new slides and collapses. The place has basically fallen off the map. Most people I have spoken to are not aware that there is anything there at all, as there is no official footpath going there and it has a steep cliff above and below it.

Until recently there have actually been people living down there. There are several small buildings and caravans as there was a holiday camp, and one grand old stone house. I have been visiting once every year or two for most of my life, watching bits falling into the sea. The little homes were really well looked after. Fed by a natural spring they had running water piped in and little woodburners puffing away, although I never actually saw any of the inhabitants. They were basically squatted. Nobody could have cared much that they were there. It is a beautiful place, although I wouldn't fancy finding my way back from the nearest pub after a few drinks and carrying your shopping home must have been a real bitch.

Unfortunately, on this visit, the place seemed different. We pushed one of the gates open, there was no sounds or woodsmoke or anything, and found the place trashed with all the windows broken and everything of value gone from inside. Every single building was the same, trashed and broken, and a lot of the caravans have been burnt, but the stuff tossed in the gardens hadn't been there for long, hadn't been weathered hardly at all.
Really sad. The place has always enchanted me and I kind of fancied living down there for a while.

You'll notice in one of the pictures there's a palm tree. The Isle of Wight is the same latitude as icy places like Newfoundland, but the Gulf stream keeps it warm, and the sheltered south coast seems to have its own magical micro-climate which is even warmer. The victorians who lived along there had fancy gardens with exotic imported plants from around the world. Now it has all gone wild again there is a mix of native English trees and plants and mouldering car wrecks and escaped fancy things growing all muddled up together.

I'm also going to include a couple of old pictures of the place as it used to be.

Oh, and we had a nice christmas picnic with christmasy cake. Yum.

I am going to find out what happened to all the people who lived there. It is my quest. I hope they weren't forced out. There are a few nice pubs in the area, we will have to go have drinks and chat with locals and find clues. It is very sad.

Pictures By Cookie, Text by Fiona