St Catherine's Oratory

St. Catherine's Down is a chalk down on the Isle of Wight, located near St Catherine's Point, the southernmost point on the island. The Down rises to 240 metres at its highest point, between the towns of Niton and Chale. Upon the hill is St. Catherine's Oratory (known locally as "the pepperpot"), which is a stone lighthouse built in the 14th century by Walter De Godeton. It is the second oldest, and only surviving, medieval lighthouse in the British Islands: only the Roman lighthouse at Dover is older. Reportedly, de Godeton was found guilty for having plundered wine that belonged to the Church from the shipwreck of the St. Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay. He was ordered to make amends, under threat of excommunication, by building and maintaining the lighthouse. It was completed after his death, and staffed by a priest; fires were lit in the tower to warn ships of the coast. There was originally a chapel attached, which has since been demolished. A Bronze Age barrow near the Oratory was excavated in the 1920s. A replacement lighthouse was begun in 1785 but was never completed because the Down is prone to dense fog. Locally, the surviving foundations are known as the "salt cellar". After the wreck of the Clarendon in 1837, a new lighthouse, St Catherine's Lighthouse, was built to the west of Niton at the foot of the Undercliff. The River Medina, the main river of the Isle of Wight, rises at St Catherine's Down and flows northwards through the county town Newport, towards the Solent at Cowes.

Blackgang is a village on the south-western coast of the Isle of Wight, England. It is best known as the location of the Blackgang Chine amusement park which sits to the south of St Catherine's Down. Blackgang forms the west end of the Ventnor Undercliff region, which extends for 12 kilometres from Blackgang to Luccombe, also encompassing the town of Ventnor and the villages of Bonchurch, St Lawrence, and Niton. It also marks the edge of the Back of the Wight.

Blackgang Chine is the oldest amusement park in the United Kingdom, having opened in 1843. Named after a now-destroyed chine (a coastal ravine) in the soft Cretaceous cliffs, it is about 6 miles from Ventnor at the southern tip of the Isle of Wight just below St Catherine's Down. Blackgang Chine and its sister park Robin Hill are owned by the Dabell family. Blackgang Chine is home to many lands of imagination, including Pirate Cove, Restricted Area 5, Fairy Land and Village, and Cowboy Town. Owing to the unstable land on which the park is situated, landslides occur frequently, meaning that attractions have been moved further inland to safer ground on several occasions.

Chale is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Wight of England, in the United Kingdom. It is located three kilometres from Niton in the south of the Island in the area known as the Back of the Wight. The village of Chale lies at the foot of St. Catherine's Down.

Watershoot Bay is a bay on the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight, England. It lies 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) to the south-west of the village of Niton. It faces south out into the English Channel, and is one of the smallest and remotest bays of the Isle of Wight with a rocky shoreline only around 500 feet (150 m) in length. It lies to the west of St. Catherine's Point lighthouse and is surrounded by a 170-acre area of undulating grassland and scrub owned by the National Trust and known as Knowles Farm.The beach is composed predominantly of sandstone, chalk and chert boulders (which are around 90 to 110 million years old) which are rich in fossils.The bay is best accessed from the car park about 350 yards (320 m) to the north or from the road that leads to the lighthouse but will involve a hike over rough terrain.The name of the bay may have come from that of a sloop lost there in 1755. The bay was home to a boathouse from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century.

St. Andrew's Church, Chale is a parish church in the Church of England located in Chale, Isle of Wight.

The Church of St John the Baptist, Niton is a Church of England parish church in Niton, Isle of Wight.

Knowles Farm is the name of an area of National Trust land at the southern tip of the Isle of Wight located at St. Catherine's Point. It takes its name from a nearby farm which lies outside the NT area just along the southern edge of it. The area is 170 acres (0.69 km2) in total and was acquired by the NT in 1967 using its Neptune funds. The land is an area of undercliff and is a mixture of scrub, grass downland and woodland, spread over a rough folded and unstable landscape. The area includes a carpark in the centre, a section of gravel beach to the west, a rocky bay called Watershoot Bay. St. Catherine's Point lighthouse lies just outside the area to the south east.

St Catherine's Lighthouse is a lighthouse located at St Catherine's Point at the southern tip of the Isle of Wight. It is one of the oldest lighthouse locations in Great Britain.

St Catherine's Point is the southernmost point on the Isle of Wight. It is close to the village of Niton and the point where the Back of the Wight changes to the Undercliff of Ventnor. On nearby St Catherine's Down is St Catherine's Oratory, locally known as the "Pepperpot", a stone lighthouse built in the 1323 by Walter De Godeton. It is Britain's oldest medieval lighthouse.Reportedly, de Godeton felt guilty for having scavenged wine, destined for a monastery from the wreck of the St Marie of Bayonne in Chale Bay. He was ordered, on pain of excommunication, to make amends by building this lighthouse. Fires were lit in the lighthouse tower to warn ships at sea of the presence of the coast. There was an attached chapel at one time, but it has been long demolished. There is a Bronze Age barrow nearby which was excavated in the 1920s. A replacement lighthouse was begun in 1785. However it was never completed. Locally this half-finished building is known as the "salt pot". St Catherine's point is often foggy, so it is not the best location for a lighthouse, but as a weather station the location is fairly suitable. The weather station is one of the 22 locations whose reports are included in the BBC Shipping Forecast. LB&SCR H1 class 4-4-2 no. 40 (later no. B40 and 2040) was named St. Catherine's Point after this landmark.

Niton is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Niton and Whitwell, on the Isle of Wight, England. It is west of Ventnor, with a population of 2,082. It has two pubs, several churches, a pottery workshop/shop, a pharmacy, a busy volunteer-run library, a medical centre and two local shops including a post office. The post office includes a pub and café that serves as a local meeting place. The village also offers a primary school with a co-located pre-school and nursery.

Puckaster is a hamlet on the Isle of Wight, England. Puckaster is on the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, south of Niton , between St. Catherine's Point and Binnel.