Culver Down
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| Culver Down | |
|---|---|
| Elevation | 104 m (341 ft) |
| Location | Isle of Wight, England |
| Topo map | OS Landranger 196} |
| OS grid reference | SZ631856 |
Culver Down is a chalk down to the north of Sandown, Isle of Wight. It is belived that its name derives from "Culfre" - old English for "dove". The down has a typical chalk downland wildlife on the uncultivated areas (generally the southern and eastern slopes). This includes plants such as Small Scabious, Harebell, Cowslip and Lady's Bedstraw. The chalk cliffs to the north and east are important nesting places for seabirds. Historically Culver has been the source of commercial bird's egg collecting from ropes over the cliff. It was also known for breeding peregrine falcons.
The northern side is intensively grazed by cattle, so fertilization and poaching of the soil, not to mention a spell as an artillery training ground, have all but eliminated the natural chalk ecosystem.
On Culver Down a number of unusual ant species live, including the semi-myrmecophilous Solenopsis fugax (Latr.), a thief ant which was recorded there several times by Horace Donisthorpe. The ant Ponera coarctata has also been taken from this location.
The public parts of this prominent headland are owned and managed by the National Trust. Spectacular views of the English Channel can be had.
For many years the whole site was a military zone and not open to the public. There are several historic military features on the down, a number of private dwellings, the Culver Haven pub, and the very visible Monument. The military barracks which once adjoined the monument has been completed erased, but there is a substantial fort, now open to the public under the ownership of the National Trust, but previously a factory for Micronair, manufacturing crop-spraying and military equipment. It is a Palmerstonian Fort, constructed in the 1860s. At the end of the cliff is a coastal and anti-aircraft battery from the Second World War. In 1545 a French force was intercepted crossing from its beach head at Whitecliff Bay to attack Sandown by local levies under Sir John Oglander and a skirmish fought on the Down. The French were finally repulsed at Sandown.
The poet Algernon Swinburne climbed the cliffs in order to prove his manhood to his father and is said to have reached a cave possibly between the sandstone at Red Cliff and chalk cliffs.
There is a legend that a 14th century hermit lived at the end of the cliffs in a cave in a structure then known as Culver Ness. He is said to have predicted that the well at Wolverton would be poisoned. When a pilgrim from Jerusalem came to bless the well, the vigilant and pious villagers are said to have murdered him. Shortly after the French sacked the village and since when it has been lost beneath the trees of Centurion's Copse. They were repulsed from further mischief by Sir Theobald Russell. There was subsequently a great storm which destroyed the Ness and drowned the hermit. This was held to be divine retribution. The Hermit and this legend are depicted at Brading Wax Works Museum (aka "The Brading Experience").
[edit] The Yarborough Monument
The monument is a memorial to Charles Anderson-Pelham, the 2nd Baron Yarborough (later first Earl of Yarborough and also Baron Worsley), founder of the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes. It was originally erected in 1849 on the highest point of Bembridge Down, 3/4 mile to the west, and was moved to its present position in the 1860s when its former site was used for the construction of one of the Palmerston forts.
