Shalfleet

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Shalfleet is a village on the Isle of Wight. it is located between Yarmouth and Newport in the northwest of the island.

It has a pub called the New Inn which dates from 1743.

The name "Shalfleet" means "shallow stream". The stream in this case is the stream passing through the village, the Caul Bourne. It was recorded as "Aet Scealdan Fleote" in the 838. In 1086, in the Domesday Book, Shalfleet was called "Selceeflet".

In Adam and Charles Black's guide book to the area published in 1870, there is a note that Shalfleet is "not too lively". It still has only one street with a traffic light at each end.

There is a church in Shafleet that was dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel in 1964.^[1] It has a tower that was built in 1070. It originally had no ground level door, and the entrance was through a door on the roof. Parishoners had to acces the room by climbing a ladder. The walls of the church are five feet thick and it was a refuge for residents during attacks by the French who had sailed up Newtown Creek. A "3 pound" parish gun which was inscribed 'Schawflet' was kept in the tower until 1779. The church had a steeple that was added around 1800, but the steeple was determined to be unstable and it was removed in 1912. The money for the steeple was raised by selling the parish gun and the church bells. This resulted in a local rhyme:

"Shalfleet poor and simple people

Sold their bells to build a steeple."

There is also a Baptist church in the Shafleet area, in the village of Wellow, which was founded in 1801. There were several Methodist churches as well, which have all closed.

Shafleet had a train station that was closed in 1953.

The Domesday Book noted the existence of the Shalfleet Mill. This mill was driven by a waterwheel. The associated bakery produced bread until the 1920s.

There are three manor houses in the Shafleet area that were mentioned in the Domesday book; the Shalfleet Manor House, Ningwood Manor, and Hamstead Manor.