Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is an island off the south coast of England, covering just under 150 square miles. It's a really nice place to visit and represents many people's idea of what is 'typically English'. I'm not going to tell you too much about it as you can discover it for yourselves when you come to visit, but I will give you one or two interesting facts about it.

Firstly, Queen Victoria fell in love with the island and ordered Osborne House to be built here. The architecture is in the Italian renaissance style and it was here, in 1897 that Marconi set up the world's first radio 'station'. Victoria's son was very ill and she wanted to have constant contact with the English mainland to hear news of his condition.

The next fact is also about Osborne house. Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany during the second world war, was a great admirer of it and he ordered that it was not to be bombed. He wanted to spend time there in the summer when the war was over.

The Isle of Wight wasn't always an island - it was part of the south coast of England with a large number of huge swamps and ponds. It was in these swamps that dinosaur fossils were very well preserved, making it today one of the best areas to find dinosaur fossils in the whole of Europe.

You might know about the Woodstock festival in 1969. No, Woodstock isn't on the Isle of Wight, it's in The United States. However, the following year there was a rock festival here - even bigger than the American version. As many as 600,000 people came to hear artists from all over the world. It was here that the legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix made one of his last ever public appearances.

So, this little island has quite a few surprises. If you come to visit you can get here easily enough. Indeed you can take the Hovercraft. And guess where the hovercraft was invented. Yep, the Isle of Wight! Many inventors previously tried to make it but it was Christopher Cockerell who finally succeeded in 1952. Seventeen years later Queen Elisabeth 2 made him Sir Christopher in recognition of his achievement.

There are very many more great things to see and hear about - the Steam Railway, the red squirrels, Cowes regatta, The Needles -  so if you're in England and you have a day to spare you should come here. You won't be disappointed.