Wootton (St. Edmund)

WOOTTON (St. Edmund), a parish, in the liberty of East Medina, Isle of Wight division of the county of Southampton, 4 miles (N. E.) from Newport, and equidistant (W.) from Ryde; containing 51 inhabitants. The parish comprises 1023 acres, of which 688 are arable, 180 pasture, and 154 woodland. It is bounded on the north by the Motherbank, and on the east by an inlet of the sea, across which is a narrow causeway called Wootton bridge, upwards of 900 feet in length, on the road from Ryde to Newport. On an eminence south of the bridge is Fern Hill, the seat of Samuel Sanders, Esq., a curious edifice with a lofty handsome tower, having somewhat the appearance of a church; it was erected by Thomas Orde Powlett, Lord Bolton, when governor of the island, and commands a noble prospect of Spithead, and the adjacent parts of Hampshire. The living is a rectory, valued in the king's books at £7. 16. 0½.; net income, £240; patron and incumbent, the Rev. R. W. White. The church is in the Norman style; there is a grave-stone to the memory of Sir William Lisle, master in chancery, and father of John Lisle, the regicide. At Wootton farm was formerly an oak of remarkably large dimensions, being 47 feet in girth.