History of Shanklin
Chine
An old story has it that during the French invasion of the Island in 1545, when Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose, sank in the Solent without firing a shot, the French landed a watering party at the Chine. Not trusting his men to do the job properly, the galley captain climbed a hill to keep an eye on them. Here he was ambushed by the English and killed, the men having fled. The captain was buried at Bonchurch and his body later taken back to France. As the English were in considerable force at Shanklin at that time, it seems unlikely that the skirmish took place actually in the Chine; it was probably much nearer to Bonchurch.
In those days Shanklin was merely a small agricultural and fishing community, the latter nestling at the foot of the chine, and it was not until the early 19th century that it began to grow. The Chine was and remained for some time a favourite smugglers' haunt and a tunnel led from the Chine Inn into the Old Village. In fact, smuggling was so prevalent that Excise officers were based in the Old Village until the Watch House near the Chine was built in 1820.
In the 18th century, the Chine was a rough walk for the intrepid but the few who
struggled as far as the waterfall were deeply impressed by its beauty and grandeur.
Although reference is made to earlier efforts to open it up there were certainly
steps at the bottom and the Excise officers used them on horseback -
Keats found inspiration for some of his greatest poetry while staying at Shanklin
in 1819. "The wonderous Chine here is a very great lion; I wish I had as many guineas
as there have been spyglasses in it." It was a favourite subject for artists including
Thomas Rowlandson and Samuel Howitt. The Island's George Brannon, who rented a cottage
on the estate, dedicated many of his engravings of the Chine to the owner. Victorian
literary figures -
During the war the Chine was taken over and used as an assault course by the Commandos
whose HQ was at Upper Chine School. 40 Royal Marine Commando trained there in preparation
for the Dieppe raid in 1942. A plaque to their memory was dedicated on 6th June 1984,
the 40th Anniversary of D-
PLUTO (Pipeline under the Ocean) also ran through the Chine and there are still 65
yards of the pipe remaining. PLUTO, one of the great secret successes of the war,
was the idea of Lord Mountbatten. During the Normandy invasion in 1944, forked pipelines
from the Chine and Sandown carried petrol 65 miles under the Channel to Cherbourg.
the first taking only ten hours to lay. The pipelines delivered 56,000 gallons a
day until the Allies advanced so far that the line was transferred to Dungeness in
Kent. There a million gallons daily were piped to Boulogne and eventually as far
as the Rhine. A cross-