Battle of the Solent

The Motherbank is a shallow sandbar off the northeast coast of the Isle of Wight in England. It lies in the Solent between Cowes and Ryde.The Motherbank is located near historically significant ports and anchorages such as Portsmouth, Spithead, Southampton, and St. Helen's Bay, and has long served as an important anchorage itself. Merchant ships have anchored at the Motherbank for centuries. The Royal Navy for many years anchored old, decommissioned warships at the Motherbank while they awaited disposal. An old warship might be anchored there for anything between several weeks and several years before being sold, scrapped or sunk as a target.

Osborne Bay is a bay on the north-east coast of the Isle of Wight, England, in the eastern arm of the Solent. It lies to the east of East Cowes and is 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) from the entrance to the River Medina. Its shoreline is 3⁄4 mile (1.2 km) in length and is gently curving. It stretches from Old Castle Point in the west to Barton Point to the east. It is named for the neighbouring Osborne House estate on the shore, which owns the land facing the bay. The bay has a beach, which is privately owned, is open to the public. It is around 300 yards long, and predominantly consists of shingle and sand. The seabed is a mixture of mud and sand, and is shallow up to around a 1⁄4 of a nautical mile out. In the summer, the bay is popular for yacht anchorage, being sheltered from the prevailing south-westerly winds, and can become very crowded.

Lee-on-the-Solent railway station served the district of Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England from 1894 to 1935 on the Lee-on-Solent Line.

Elmore Halt railway station served the suburbs of Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire, England from 1910 to 1930 on the Lee-on-the-Solent Railway.

The Hovercraft Museum, in Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, England is a museum run by a registered charity dedicated to hovercraft.The museum has a collection of over 60 hovercraft of various designs. Situated at Solent Airport Daedalus by the large slipway from where many hovercraft have been tested, the museum collection includes SR.N5 and SR.N6 hovercraft. The collection also contains the last remaining SR.N4 craft, the world's largest civil hovercraft, which has been laid up in Lee-on-the-Solent since cross-Channel services ceased on 1 October 2000. The museum houses the world's largest library of documents, publications, film, video, photographs and drawings on hovercraft, all of which is available for research by prior arrangement. A number of hovercraft manufacturers have deposited their complete archives with the museum for safekeeping, thus swelling this important repository of information. The museum also contains a large collection of original manufacturers' hovercraft models including the world's first working hovercraft model built by Christopher Cockerell. The museum reopened in January 2016 after being closed for essential structural building work over nearly two years. Shortly afterwards the remaining SR.N4 craft came under threat of scrapping when the site owners, the Homes and Communities Agency, proposed the redevelopment of the land. The museum trust started a petition calling for one of the craft to be preserved.In October 2023 The Hovercraft Museum achieved Arts Council England Accreditation, joining more than 1700 museums also taking part in the scheme.

Lee-on-the-Solent, often referred to as Lee-on-Solent, is a seaside district of the Borough of Gosport in Hampshire, England, about five miles (8 km) west of Portsmouth. The area is located on the coast of the Solent. It is primarily a residential area, with an upsurge of mostly local visitors in summer, but was also the former home to the Royal Naval Air Station HMS Daedalus (renamed as HMS Ariel from 1959 to 1965).

Hill Head is a residential area and village on the coast of the Solent. It is located south of Stubbington, west of Lee-on-the-Solent and south east of Titchfield, in the borough of Fareham, Hampshire. Hill Head is in the Gosport parliamentary constituency. The MP is Caroline Dinenage of the Conservative party since 2010. Hill Head has a sandy beach with sailing, windsurfing, kitesurfing and fishing being the most popular pastimes upon its shores. There is also a small harbour, located where the River Meon enters the Solent. It is next to Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve. Hill Head has a substantial elderly population – 90.45% of its 7,121 residents are over 65, compared to an English average of 15.89%. At the 2011 Census the ward population had risen to 7,170.During World War II, Hill Head was one of many loading zones for the D-Day invasions and the area was inundated with allied troops. Along the coast here there are still many reminders of the war time activities including remnants of fortifications. Part of a Mulberry harbour broke away and was grounded at Hill Head beach. It remained there for many years. Seafield Park, a Royal Navy establishment was nearby. The Swordfish public house at Hill Head was demolished in 2004 to make way for a small development of beach-front homes known as Swordfish Close. The name Swordfish is derived from the World War Two bomber the Fairey Swordfish which flew from the nearby airfield at RNAS Lee-on-Solent (HMS Daedalus). Swordfish Close has been featured in the popular BBC television series Seaside Rescue. The pub was previously called the Marine Court Hotel. The only remaining pub along Hill Head beach-front is The Osborne View, so named as Osborne House (residential home of Queen Victoria) is visible on a clear day. Between 1985 and 1990, Hill Head's beaches featured in the BBC TV show Howards' Way, which was mostly filmed at nearby Bursledon, Hamble-le-Rice, Warsash and Swanwick. Bus services to and from Hill Head are provided by First, with a half-hourly circular service to and from Fareham. The area currently has a convenience store with a post office, a lighting shop, a door and windows shop, two hairdressers, a Chinese takeaway and a prep school.

The Defence School of Electronic and Mechanical Engineering (DSEME) is one of four Defence Schools within the Defence College of Technical Training (DCTT) of the British Ministry of Defence. It was formed on 1 Apr 2010 and comprises a Headquarters, the British Army's 8 Training Battalion of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), and the REME Arms School all based at MOD Lyneham, and the Royal Air Force's No. 4 School of Technical Training (No. 4 SoTT) at MOD St Athan.

The 1969 Isle of Wight Festival was held on 29–31 August 1969 at Wootton Creek, on the Isle of Wight. The festival attracted an audience of approximately 150,000 to see acts including Bob Dylan, the Band, the Who, Free, Joe Cocker, the Bonzo Dog Band and the Moody Blues. It was the second of three music festivals held on the island between 1968 and 1970. Organised by Rikki Farr, Ronnie and Ray Foulk's Fiery Creations, it became a legendary event, largely owing to the participation of Dylan, who had spent the previous three years in semi-retirement. The event was well managed, in comparison to the recent Woodstock Festival, and trouble-free.

Royal Naval Air Station Lee-on-Solent, (RNAS Lee-on-Solent; or HMS Daedalus 1939 - 1959 & 1965 - 1996 and HMS Ariel 1959 - 1965), is a former Royal Naval Air Station located near Lee-on-the-Solent in Hampshire, approximately 4 miles (6.44 km) west of Portsmouth, on the coast of the Solent. It was one of the primary shore airfields of the Fleet Air Arm and was first established as a seaplane base in 1917 during the First World War. The aerodrome being opened in 1934, it commissioned as HMS Daedalus on 24 May 1939, the day administrative control of the Fleet Air Arm was transferred to the Admiralty from the Royal Air Force and one of the four airfields in the UK that were transferred to the Fleet Air Arm. Many first line squadrons were formed here and it facilitated reserve aircraft storage. During the Second World War it was home to the office of the Admiral (Air) and was the main depot for Naval Air Ratings. In October 1959 it recommissioned as HMS Ariel as a ground training establishment. It again became HMS Daedalus in October 1965, and routine service flying continued until April 1993, including a helicopter SAR Flight of 772 Naval Air Squadron, the Southampton University Air Squadron and the Hampshire Police Air Support Unit. All RN Air Engineering training was conducted at Lee-on-Solent from September 1970. As well as the flying and AE training tasks, a number of technical and administration sections were based at Lee-on-Solent, including the Fleet Air Arm Drafting Authority, Naval Aircrew Advisory Board, Naval Air Technical Evaluation Centre, Naval Aircraft Maintenance Development Unit, Naval Air Trials Installation Unit, Mobile Aircraft Repair Transport and Salvage Unit, Safety Equipment School, Photographic School. The airfield closed for military use in 1996 and passed through several owners until 2014 when Fareham Borough Council bought the airfield and re-branded it as Solent Airport Daedalus. It hosts the Solent Enterprise Zone. The airfield is situated 4 miles (6.44 km) north west of the entrance to Portsmouth Harbour. Lee-on-the-Solent adjoins along the south east boundary, with the town of Gosport 2.5 miles (4.02 km) east and the port city of Southampton 8 miles (12.87 km) north west.

The River Meon () is a chalk stream in Hampshire in the south of England. It rises at East Meon then flows 34 km (21 mi) in a generally southerly direction to empty into the Solent at Hill Head near Stubbington. Above Wickham, the river runs through the South Downs National Park.

Wootton Creek is a tidal estuary that flows into the Solent on the north coast of the Isle of Wight. The estuary has also been known in the past as "Fishbourne Creek", "Wootton River" and "Wootton Haven". At the mouth of the estuary is the Wightlink car ferry terminal for connections to Portsmouth. On the west bank of the creek is the village of Wootton, whilst on the east bank is the village of Fishbourne. The estuary is bridged by the main Ryde to Newport road, where there once was a tide mill. The estuary is not navigable south of the bridge, and tide controls means that water is retained south of the bridge most of the time, in the old mill pond. To the south of the bridge, on the east side of the mill pond, is a Forestry Commission woodland called "Firestone Copse" which is about 30 acres (120,000 m2) in size. Since 1993 Wootton Creek and the adjacent Ryde Sands have been designated as SSSIs due to their wide range of intertidal sand flats.