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.
Geography 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.
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.
History Reportedly, de Godeton felt guilty for having scavenged wine, destined for a monasteryJ.C Medland "Shipwrecks of the Wight".Coach House Publications ltd, 2004 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.
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.BBC h2g2 - The Pepper Pot
A replacement lighthouse was begun in 1785. However it was never completed. Locally this half-finished building is known as the "salt pot".
LB&SCR H1 class 4-4-2 no. 40 (later no. B40 and 2040) was named St. Catherine's Point after this landmark.
Radio history The first effective demonstration of radio, from a boat off Sandbanks in Dorset, to here, occurred. It was known as Niton Wireless Station, next to the lighthouse.
On 23 January 1901, the first over-the-horizon radio transmission took place to the Lizard Wireless Station at Bass Point (England) in Cornwall.Lincolnshire Echo Tuesday 12 February 1901, page 3
Climate
See also Egypt Point
References
External links Weather station information at Met Office
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