Beach in Hampshire

Compton Bay on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight is one of the finest beaches on the island, a broad expanse of sand and low cliff backed by the distinctive coloured sandstone and clay cliffs of the southwest Isle of Wight coast where the Cretaceous and older geological formations are exposed in a sequence that makes this section of coast one of the most productive fossil localities in southern England. The bay is part of the Isle of Wight Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and provides excellent surfing in the Atlantic swell that reaches this exposed west-facing coast. The cliffs at Compton Bay and the adjacent Hanover Point expose a sequence of geological formations ranging from the Wealden clays of the earliest Cretaceous through various younger formations, and the coastal erosion that maintains the beach by supplying new sediment also constantly exposes new fossils from the Wealden. Dinosaur footprints are among the finds from the Hanover Point outcrops, and the beach is a well-known locality for Cretaceous plant fossils, wood fragments and occasional vertebrate remains. The beach faces west and southwest and receives swell from the Channel approaches that provides consistent surfing conditions, particularly in autumn and winter when the westerly weather systems are most active. The coast path along the clifftop from Compton Bay provides excellent walking with views of the Needles to the north and the west-facing coast of the island extending southward.

Freshwater Bay on the southwest coast of the Isle of Wight near Freshwater is a small chalk cove beneath the Tennyson Down that provides one of the most dramatically situated beaches on the island, the white chalk cliffs of the bay contrasting with the dark sea in a composition characteristic of the chalk coast of the island's southern shore. The chalk arch of Arch Rock at the eastern end of the bay and the smaller formations at the clifftop provide the geological features that have made Freshwater Bay one of the most photographed sections of the Isle of Wight coast. The association with Alfred Lord Tennyson, the Victorian Poet Laureate who lived at Farringford House above the bay from 1853 until his death in 1892, gives Freshwater Bay a literary dimension of considerable importance. Tennyson walked the chalk down above the bay daily for nearly forty years, his regular presence on the clifftop commemorated by the Tennyson Cross that marks the highest point of the down. Many of his later poems were written during these years at Freshwater and the landscape of the southwestern Isle of Wight provides the setting for his imagination throughout this period. The walk from Freshwater Bay along the Tennyson Down to the Needles at the western tip of the island is one of the classic Isle of Wight walks, the chalk ridge providing excellent views of the English Channel on both sides and the Needles chalk stacks visible from considerable distance as the walk approaches the western end.