Yaverland

The first full day on the other island saw us at Yaverland, a fine beach at which have spent a lot of time over the years. Quite a bit of body surfing. And up top as well, on Culver Down. Not to mention the Yarborough Monument, celebrating the life of Charles Anderson-Pelham, 1st Earl of Yarborough, one of the founders of the Royal Yacht Squadron.

As it turned out, the heat on the beach - which faces a little east of south - was too much for me, there being more or less no shade, and this visit was our only visit of the holiday.

We started in the traditional way, taking tea and rock cakes from the fine café by the car park. The best rock cakes that I know of, although I prefer to take them with most of the sugar tapped off.

We then headed along the beach, getting as far as the red cliff. The monument is just about visible, above the chalk cliffs, middle right. While left, we had what looked like a fairly recent rock fall.

A sample rock.

A blue streak, looking vaguely metallic to me.

But quite wrong, at least according to Google Images. I counter with 'How does carbon oxidise to something lighter? I thought oxidised carbon was carbon dioxide'. He then goes into a more complicated story about the dark carbon blowing off, leaving the associated iron sulfides, now exposed, to degrade down to something yellow or red.

All of which ought to be fairly easy, if a little time consuming, to check. Maybe later.

Another more general view. A few gulls soaring along the edge of the cliff, but no hawks on this occasion.

After which we found the odd place to take a seat and admire the sea and the sand. Sundry dogs came to visit us. Little in the way of jet skis, which was nice.

We then tried for the church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, more or less tucked under the local manor house, once more or less the pocket church of the Lord of the Manor. Church closed, but we did take a look around outside.

While today, Gemini tells me something about the ownership history of the place, with the present owner appearing to have made his money providing some kind of business or consultancy services. Lots of documents to be seen at Companies House, but I came across nothing which tells a lay person what the company does. He must have been good at whatever it was. 

Plus, in the olden days the advowson of the church was attached to the title to the Manor House, but this was abolished in the 1920s.

He went a bit astray when it came to this cross, in good condition, in a bit of rough ground tucked in between the church and the Manor House, where the inscription on the base reads 'Lord we gave them into thy keeping'. I suppose no-one has bothered to tell the Internet what it is, so Gemini can't tell me. Although he did have a go anyway.

And while Google Images can describe the scene well enough in general terms, he can't say who or what the cross is for either.

And so home to escape the heat of the afternoon.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-passing-of-barchester.html. For advowson.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2010/07/good-and-bad.html. Which suggests that we first went to Brading, and so first went to Yaverland in 2010. Been going there ever since. But did I ever read Iris Murdoch again?