Kelly's Directory (1886) - Newchurch

Newchurch is a village and parish, in the East Medina liberty and rural deanery, Isle of Wight archdeaconry, and Winchester diocese, about 5 miles south-east-by-east from Newport, and 6 miles south-west from Ryde, on the southern bank of the river Yar, which flows into Brading Harbour. The Newport Junction railway has a station here. Under the Newchurch Parish Act of 1866 (29 & 30 Vict. cap. cxi.) the ancient parish of Newchurch was divided into the parishes of Newchurch, Ryde and Ventnor, for all civil and ecclesiastical purposes. The church of All Saints, on the summit of a hill, is an ancient cruciform structure of stone, in the Early English style of the eleventh century, with a chancel, nave, aisles, and transepts, tower with small spire and 6 bells, and contains an organ and several ancient monuments of the Dillington and Bissett families. The church was reopened after restoration in Dec. 1883; the high pews have been replaced, several windows have been opened out; plaster has been removed from the roof, revealing the open timbers which have been repaired, and oak stalls have been placed in the chancel. The register dates from the year 1676. The living is a vicarage yearly value £328 with residence, in the gift of Gerald Campbell Dicker esq. and held since 1881 by the Rev. Alfred Cecil Dicker B.A. of Downing College, Cambridge. Here is a Congregational chapel. £10 from charities is distributed yearly, arising from various gifts. Ashey Down, partly in this parish and partly in Ryde, is chalk and is one of the highest hills in the island on which is an obelisk. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are owners of the manorial rights. The principal landowners are Sir Sebastian Gassiott, Richard E. Webster, Edward Carter and John Peter Gassiott esqrs. The soil is sand and gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley & oats. The area is about 4,524 acres; rateable value, £10,535; the population in 1881 was 1,356.

[Description(s) from Kelly's Directory of the Isle of Wight (1886)]