3-052-581 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Land reclaiming works at Brading Haven, Isle of Wight, 1880. '...a view of the entrance to Brading Haven at low water, and a portion of the new embankment recently constructed to reclaim the Haven from the sea. It was until recently a large tract of marshy ground, with a bold inlet of the sea, at high water, covering all the low lands between Bembridge and St. Helen's, about eight to nine hundred acres being overflowed by the sea at every tide...In April 1877, the "Brading Haven Reclamation Company" accepted a tender of Mr. Frederick Seymour...for the construction of an embankment to reclaim the land contained in the Haven; which arduous work was successfully completed on Feb. 22 last, thus adding 800 acres of valuable land to the Isle of Wight. It is intended to continue the railway on the new embankment (which is one mile in length) from St. Helen's to Bembridge...To the north the eye looks over the gently swelling grounds of St. Helen's and sea view to Ryde...immediately below, the Yar winds its sinuous way through the green pastures of Brading Haven. Now that the land has been reclaimed and the facilities for reaching Bembridge are improved, in all probability this will become one of the favourite watering places in the Isle of Wight'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.