there are about 130 places of worship in use on the Isle of Wight, England's largest island. A wide range of Christian denominations are represented, and Muslims have a mosque in the island's main town of Newport. The diamond-shaped, island lies in the English Channel, separated from the county of Hampshire by the Solent. Its population of around 140,000 is spread across several small towns and dozens of villages. Many of the island's churches and chapels are in the ancient ports of Yarmouth and Newport, the Victorian seaside resorts of Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor, and the twin towns of Cowes and East Cowes; but even the smallest villages often have their own Anglican parish churches and sometimes a Nonconformist chapel. Methodism has been particularly strong on the island for over 200 years, and two of England's oldest Roman Catholic churches are also located here.

Sixty-two churches and chapels have been awarded listed status by Historic England or its predecessor organisations in recognition of their architectural and historical interest. These range from the large and ancient parish churches in villages such as Arreton, Brading and Carisbrooke to the thatch-roofed St Agnes' Church at Freshwater Bay and the concrete-framed St Faith's Church at Cowes—both of the early 20th century—and from the simple and plain Methodist chapel at Godshill to the elaborate Castlehold Baptist Chapel in Newport. A building is defined as "listed" when it is placed on a statutory register of buildings of "special architectural or historic interest" in accordance with the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, a Government department, is responsible for listing; Historic England, a non-departmental public body, acts as an agency of the department to administer the process and advise the department on relevant issues. There are three grades of listing status. Grade I, the highest, is defined as being of "exceptional interest"; Grade II* is used for "particularly important buildings of more than special interest"; and Grade II, the lowest, is used for buildings of "special interest". As of February 2001, there were 26 Grade I-listed buildings, 55 with Grade II* status and 1,823 Grade II-listed buildings on the Isle of Wight.

Various administrative areas operated by the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the United Reformed Church, Baptists and Methodists cover churches on the island which are part of their denominations. These areas include dioceses, archdeaconries, networks and circuits.

Overview of the island and its places of worship Geography

The Isle of Wight is situated in the English Channel off the south coast of England. The Solent strait, generally wide, separates it from the mainland to the north. The island measures from east to west and from north to south at its extreme points; in total it covers . The resident population was estimated to be 139,105 in mid-2014, a slight increase on the 138,400 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011. Only seven towns have a population of 6,000 or more. Ryde, whose population in 2011 was approximately 18,700, developed from two villages in the late 18th century: Lower Ryde, on the seashore, was for centuries a landing point for boats from the mainland, and this was formalised when a pier was built in 1814. Upper Ryde, its inland neighbour, was connected to it in 1780, and rapid development ensued through the Regency and early Victorian eras. Newport, the county town, is slightly smaller (population 17,200) but much older: founded 1180 as a "new port" for the island, centrally located on the River Medina, it retains its medieval grid pattern of streets (although the oldest surviving buildings are 17th-century). Cowes and East Cowes, facing each other across the Medina estuary and connected by a chain ferry, have 14,400 and 7,800 residents respectively; they developed as industrial and port towns in the 17th and 18th centuries, and became fashionable residential areas in the 19th century. Stimulated by the arrival of the railway in 1864, Sandown (population 7,200) developed as a seaside resort in the last quarter of the 19th century, and the ancient village of Shanklin grew rapidly at the same time, reaching an estimated population of 7,100 by 2011. Ventnor (population 6,000) was already more developed by the time the railway arrived in 1866: early 19th-century visitors discovered the village's dramatic setting, and formal urban planning began in the 1830s.

Church history

The island was converted to Christianity in the late 7th century, although sources differ as to who was responsible: the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle identifies Wulfhere of Mercia, but Bede (writing in the 8th century) gives a date of 686 and names Cædwalla of Wessex. A series of parishes were later established, some very large and spanning the whole island from north to south. By the time of the Domesday survey in 1086 there were ten churches on the island, and some chapels originally associated with the island's many manors became parish churches in their own right later in the Middle Ages. Of the churches established in the Saxon era, only fragments remain: Arreton and Freshwater both retain structural features from that period. Likewise, Norman churches survive only in parts, as at Shalfleet (the massive square tower), Yaverland (a "remarkable 12th-century doorway") and Wootton (where St Edmund's Church also has an intricately moulded Norman doorway). More significant is the island's array of Gothic church architecture—particularly that of the Early English period. Notable Early English work can be seen in the parish churches of Brading, Calbourne and Newchurch. Decorated Gothic features survive at Arreton and Freshwater, and there are Perpendicular Gothic towers at Carisbrooke, Chale and Gatcombe, arcades at Brading, Brighstone and Mottistone, and porches at Arreton, Niton and Whitwell.

The 17th century was a period of church restoration and some new construction. Yarmouth (1626) retains much of its original appearance; St Mary's Church at Cowes dates from 1657 but has been rebuilt; and rebuilding of older churches took place at Newchurch, Shalfleet, Shorwell and Godshill. Monuments to prominent island families such as the Oglander and Worsley baronets and the Leighs of Godshill are another important feature of this era. At several churches, though, church architecture and fittings of this era and of the 18th century was swept away amid Victorian restoration, and the island's stock of Anglican churches grew substantially in the 19th century in line with urban growth and the splitting up of ancient parishes. New churches replaced smaller medieval buildings at St Lawrence (1878, by George Gilbert Scott) and Bonchurch (by Benjamin Ferrey, 1847–48) and the ruined chapel in the hamlet of Newtown (1835, by local architect A. F. Livesay). In St Helens, the ruined Norman-era church dedicated to St Helena was replaced further inland in 1717, but the new church was rebuilt in 1829 and substantially altered and extended in 1862. Many Anglican churches on the island were either built or reconstructed in the 1850s or 1860s, mostly in a range of Gothic Revival styles—some with distinctive features such as the tower at Whippingham, the tall spire at Holy Trinity, Ventnor and the interior of St Mary's, Cowes, where a new church with a complex polychrome brickwork interior was grafted on to the "remarkable" tower designed by John Nash. Thomas Hellyer of Ryde, described by Nikolaus Pevsner as a "very individualistic" and "remarkable" architect, was responsible for several churches in this era—both new buildings (at Bembridge, Havenstreet, Oakfield, Seaview, St Saviour's at Shanklin and the now closed Holy Trinity at Ryde) and rebuilding work (at Binstead and East Cowes).

Roman Catholic Roman Catholic churches are found in the island's towns and larger villages. Those at Cowes and Newport, both dedicated to Saint Thomas of Canterbury, are the island's only 18th-century churches of any denomination and are nationally important because of their early dates: the Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed in 1791, and Newport's church was built in that year, followed five years later by the Cowes church. Architecturally dissimilar, both churches were funded by Elizabeth Heneage. St Mary's Church at Ryde came next, designed by Joseph Hansom in the 1840s, and by the early 20th century Ventnor, East Cowes, Sandown and Shanklin had their own churches. St Patrick's at Sandown survives in its original condition, whereas St David's at East Cowes and the Sacred Heart at Shanklin suffered bomb damage in World War II were rebuilt after the war, and the Church of Our Lady and St Wilfrid in Ventnor burnt down in 2006 and was rebuilt in 2015. In 1965 a purpose-built Catholic church opened in Bembridge, which had a long history of Catholic worship in private chapels and a former Wesleyan church. Similarly St Saviour's Church at Totland (1923) succeeds a private chapel which had opened in 1871 in the nearby manor house. The chapel at St Dominic's Priory at Carisbrooke and a now vanished tin tabernacle at Appuldurcombe House were also used for public worship in the early 20th century and before, and chapels at Quarr Abbey at Binstead and St Cecilia's Abbey at Ryde are still registered for public worship. Nikolaus Pevsner, who was mostly dismissive of the island's 20th-century architecture, considered St Saviour's to be "the most striking" church of any denomination apart from Quarr Abbey and its chapel, which he identified as "the dominant architectural achievement" of the century.

Nonconformist