The Grade 2 Pavilion in Yaverland is a testament to engineering ingenuity. Constructed in 1936 as pumphouse for Browns golf course & power station for its club & café, it became part of the secret wartime PLUTO enterprise hidden across Sandown Bay.

The Pavilion building was nearing collapse, the roof and walls had slumped and one of its 3 rooms had filled with water. But its pumps and generators and switchboards remained intact along with so much of the workaday bits and pieces of its long history. Thanks to the support of funders, volunteers and local historians, a programme of careful repair and reconstruction began in 2016. Two years on and the building is once again intact and fit for the future! In 2017, Age UK, working with the Bay Coastal Community Team, recruited a group of fantastic and skilled volunteers through the Men in Sheds project. For the past 12 months the team has been painstakingly restoring the engines and machines within the Pavilion building, even making replica and replacement parts to the original specifications.

Come and meet the Men in Sheds, take a look inside the Pavilion and hear the story of its life and times including the Pipeline Under The Ocean that fuelled the D-Day landings and changed the course of WW2.

Celebrating Sandown is brought to you by The Common Space, the Bay Coastal Community Team, Wild About Wight, Down to the Coast, Isle of Wight Council Conservation Team, Arc Consulting, Browns Golf Course, Isle of Wight Men In Sheds, Age UK and Quay Arts. Look out for Heritage Open Weekend Activities celebrating Sandown from Browns to Battery Gardens!