Hurst Spit

Hurst Castle is an artillery fort established by Henry VIII on the Hurst Spit in Hampshire, England, between 1541 and 1544. It formed part of the king's Device Forts coastal protection programme against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire, and defended the western entrance to the Solent waterway. The early castle had a central keep and three bastions, and in 1547 was equipped with 26 guns. It was expensive to operate due to its size, but it formed one of the most powerful forts along the coast. During the English Civil War of the 1640s, Hurst was held by Parliament and was used briefly to detain King Charles I before his execution in 1649. It continued in use during the 18th century but fell into disrepair, the spit being frequented by smugglers. Repairs were made during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars with France, and the castle was modernised to enable it to hold 24-pounder (10.8 kg) guns. Fresh fears of invasion followed in the 1850s, leading to heavier, 32-pounder (14.5 kg) armament being installed and new gun batteries being laid out on both sides of the castle. Technological developments rapidly made these defences obsolete, however, and a fresh phase of work between 1861 and 1874 created sixty-one gun positions in two long, granite-faced batteries alongside the older castle. These held very heavy weapons, including massive 12.5 inch, 38 ton (317 mm, 39,000 kg) rifled muzzle-loading guns. As the century progressed, these too became outdated and lighter, quick-firing guns were installed at the castle to replace them. The castle formed part of a network of defences around the entrance to the Solent during the First World War, and was re-armed again during the Second World War. The military decommissioned the fort in 1956 and it passed into the control of the Ministry of Works. In the 21st century, it is run jointly by English Heritage and the Friends of Hurst Castle as a tourist attraction, receiving around 40,000 visitors during 2015. Coastal erosion has become a growing problem despite government intervention in protecting the spit. Four lighthouses have been built at Hurst from the 18th century onwards, one of which, a high lighthouse first opened in 1867, remains in active service. In January 2021, local media reported that the castle was in urgent need of repairs due to coastal erosion, and the wall of the eastern wing partially collapsed on 26 February 2021 as the sea cut into and compromised its foundations. The World Monuments Fund included the castle on their 2022 World Monuments Watch list of most endangered sites.In September 2022, it was one of six English castles included in a fundraising campaign by English Heritage to mitigate risks of destruction due to worsening coastal erosion. They hope to gather enough funds to repair and strengthen the sea walls around the castle.

Hurst Point Lighthouse is located at Hurst Point in the English county of Hampshire, and guides vessels through the western approaches to the Solent.

Warden Point Battery is a battery on the Isle of Wight begun in 1862, that was originally armed with 7-inch and 9-inch rifled muzzle loaders on barbette mountings. It was built in the 1890s for 9.2-inch breech loader guns. In use until 1936, and in World War II as a command post and searchlight battery. The battery was a regular polygon with central caponier on the landward side, and flanking caponiers at the North and South corners. The central caponier and North -East loopholed wall remain. The site spent a considerable number of years after the second world war as a holiday camp. Following the closure of that, the housing estate was started. Unconfirmed information from the builders on a visit to the site suggests that some of the historic features will be retained. These include the main wall and entrance arch to the battery and some of the concrete emplacements. The latter will be built over, but protected so that they can be "re-discovered" if and when the newer buildings are demolished. At time of writing, the building work has been suspended.It is now a Grade II Listed Building.

Fort Albert (map reference SZ330890) is a tower fort nestling under the cliffs south-west of Fort Victoria on the Isle of Wight, England. It was also known as Cliff End Fort, named after the Northern extremity of Colwell Bay (Cliff's End).

Keyhaven, Pennington, Oxey and Normandy Marshes, also known as the North Solent Marshes, are three areas of saltmarsh in Hampshire, England. The haven outpost of Milford-on-Sea, Keyhaven sits to the west, the village of Pennington to the north, and the town of Lymington to the northeast. The marshes lie behind Hurst Spit and fall within the Hurst Castle And Lymington River Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Cliff End Battery (map reference SZ333890) is a battery on the west coast of the Isle of Wight overlooking Fort Albert. It is one of the many Palmerston Forts built on the island to protect it in response to a perceived French invasion. Construction of the battery began in 1862 and was completed by 1868 at a cost of £32,714. No guns were mounted until 1877 when six 12.5-inch Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) Guns and three 10-inch Rifle Muzzle Loading Guns were installed. By 1899 the RML guns had become obsolete and were removed and replaced by four 6-inch Breech Loading (BL) guns and four 4.7-inch guns. The battery was used by volunteers and Territorial Force Artillery units for practice camps. It remained armed throughout the First and Second World Wars. The battery was disarmed in 1951 and the site sold by the War Office in 1951. Today some of the gun emplacements remain. Much of the land is used as a site for holiday bungalows. The six 12.5-inch RML guns which were pushed over the cliff when they were dismounted after 1899 have since been recovered, with one of them now outside of Fort Albert, and two at Hurst Castle on the other side of the Needles passage. One is located at Fort Nelson, Hampshire.

Colwell Bay (grid reference SZ323873) is a bay in the west of the Isle of Wight. It is located between the towns of Totland and Yarmouth. The bay's northernmost point is Cliff's End (Fort Albert) the closest point of the Island to the British mainland, with Hurst Castle lying at the end of a long peninsula just 1500 metres (a little less than a mile) to the northwest. The southernmost point is Warden Point. Colwell Bay has a popular beach, with two miles of sand and shingle, and facilities including cafes, shops and equipment hire outlets. An area of 13.56 hectares has been notified as a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, notification originally taking place in 1959. The site is significant for its Eocene geology and maritime vegetated soft cliff habitat.It is the location of three chines: Colwell Chine, Brambles Chine and Linstone Chine. Colwell Bay is on the A3054 road and near the western end of the A3055 road. Public transport to the area is provided by Southern Vectis route 7 and the Needles Tour.

Keyhaven is a hamlet on the south coast of England in the county of Hampshire. It is a fishing village, but the trade has been in decline for a period of years and its main draw now is tourism, especially sailing.

Medina was a non-metropolitan district with the status of a borough on the Isle of Wight in England from 1974 to 1995. The district was formed by the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the municipal boroughs of Newport and Ryde along with the urban district of Cowes. It was one of two districts on the Island formed in 1974 - the other was South Wight. "Medina" was an older name for Newport which has been preserved in the River Medina. Following a review by the Local Government Commission for England, the borough was abolished on 1 April 1995, when a single Isle of Wight Council replaced the Isle of Wight County Council and the island's two district councils.

Totland is a village, civil parish and electoral ward on the Isle of Wight. Besides the village of Totland, the civil parish comprises the western tip of the Isle of Wight, and includes The Needles, Tennyson Down and the hamlet of Middleton. The village of Totland lies on the Western peninsula where the Western Yar almost cuts through along with Alum Bay and Freshwater. It lies on the coast at Colwell Bay, which is the closest part of the island to the British mainland.

Totland Bay is a bay on the west coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies one-quarter of an mile (0.4 km) to the west of the village of Totland from which it takes its name. It faces north west and has a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) shoreline, which has a beach, concrete seawall, groynes and 450-foot-long (140 m) Victorian pier. It stretches from Warden Point in the north to Hatherwood Point in the south-west. The seabed is a mixture of mud and sand, clear of many underwater outcrops, this makes it a popular anchorage point for vessels. The beach is predominantly shingle. Since 2001 the quality of the beach has been high enough for it to be awarded the Seaside Award Flag. In the summer, litter and seaweed are removed each day, with the latter being composted by local farmers. Currently, the pier is being refurbished to re-open the cafe which was there before. The bay is best viewed from Headon Warren or anywhere along the concrete seawall. The Isle of Wight Coastal Path runs along the seawall from Warden Point to Widdick Chine. Weston Academy, which closed in 2015 is located in the bay area.

Lymington and Keyhaven Marshes is a 738-hectare (1,820-acre) nature reserve which stretches from Keyhaven along the south coast across the Lymington River in Hampshire. It is managed by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust. It is part of Solent and Southampton Water Ramsar site and Special Protection Area. Some areas are part of two Special Areas of Conservation, Solent and Isle of Wight Lagoons and Solent Maritime and Solent. It is also part of Hurst Castle and Lymington River Estuary, which is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and of North Solent Marshes Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2. Two areas are Geological Conservation Review sites, and two are Local Nature Reserves, Boldre Foreshore and Lymington-Keyhaven Marshes.This coastal site has saltmarshes and intertidal muds. Birds of prey include peregrine falcons, marsh harriers and merlins, while black-headed gulls and sandwich terns feed on fish in the marshes. Yellow-horned poppies, sea campions and sea aster grow in the salty mud.There is no public access to the site.