History of Alum Bay
Alum Bay is probably best known for the coloured sands that are visible in the cliffs. Many homes in Britain, and no doubt
in other parts of the world, have a glass object filled with sand as a memento of a visit to Alum Bay. Perhaps less well known
is some of the recent history of the Bay and how it got its name.
Approximately 70 million years ago the sea bed rose, was eroded and then sank beneath the sea again. The new sea was shallow
and it laid down a series of sands and clays. Some 10 million years later movement in the bedrock caused these sediments to be
pushed nearly vertically to form the multi-coloured cliffs that are visible today. The sands are made of three minerals, quartz,
felspar and mica and in their pure state are white, the colours are produced through contamination by other minerals.
The name Alum comes from a substance that was very important to paper making, cloth dyeing and leather tanning. During the
medieval period it was imported from Spain, Turkey or North Africa. In the 16th century growing problems of supply and a break
with the Roman Catholic Church led to Britain searching for local sources from which to process alum. In 1562 a certain William
Kendall was given a patent to search for alum in the southern counties. Two years later this same patent was granted to a
Cornelius de Vos and shortly afterwards to Lord Mountjoy. Although there are no records of alum being produced at Alum Bay a
16th Century map names the Bay as "Whytfylde Chine". It is therefore unlikely a name change would have happened unless
substantial work to process alum had taken place there.
In the latter part of the 18th century the first tourists started to arrive at Alum Bay and during the early part of the 18th
century it became an essential place to visit during an Island holiday. It was at this time that shaped bottles were filled with
the coloured sands as souvenirs. Visitors were catered for by the Alum Bay Hotel and the Needles Hotel and a pier brought
tourists in from the mainland.
Alum Bay was the scene of many of Marconi's early experiments. In 1897 he set up an aerial and installed his wireless apparatus
in the grounds of the Royal Needles Hotel. The first successful communication experiments using this station were between the
Royal Needles Hotel station, the station at the Madeira House Hotel, Bournemouth and a hired ferry, 'SS Mayflower'. A
memorial commemorating this event is in the grounds The Needles Pleasure Park.
During the two World Wars the area was heavily militarised and access to visitors was barred. By the 1950's Alum bay had fallen
into serious decline, revived to a certain extent during the rocket engine test programme on West Highdown. From 1970 major
renovation work took place, a chairlift was installed and the ageing collection of huts was turned into a modern tourist
attraction with a bar, café, souvenir shops, glass blowing studio, sweet factory and amusements.
Source:
http://freespace.virgin.net/roger.hewitt/iwias/alum.htm
http://www.marconicalling.com/museum/html/archivehome.html
Alum Bay and The Needles by J. C. Medland (ISBN 1809 392 03)
