Monday May 5 – 3.30 pm – Start at Bonchurch Village Pond – Cost £3.50

About David White
David White is a well-known professional photographer living and working on the Island. He is also a longstanding member of the governing board of the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust at Dimbola Lodge and has helped over the years to guide it to its present success. A keen walker, knowledgeable local historian and engaging raconteur, he leads several of the Island’s Walking Festival walks each year.

About the walk
The first documented proof of the existence of Bonchurch is found in the Domesday Book.A pretty village, situated in the shelter of cliffs leading down to the sea, it has long been a place frequented by artists and writers. It has a charming old Church dating back to the 11th century, as well as a more recent one, built in 1848. Poet Algernon Charles Swinburne spent his boyhood years at East Dene and was buried at Bonchurch New Church. Celebrated Victorians Charles Dickens, John Sterling, Thomas Carlyle and Thomas Babington Macaulay also spent time in Bonchurch.

In a later era, Irish ship's surgeon and writer Henry de Vere Stacpoole retired to Cliff Dene in Bonchurch. A prolific and successful novelist, his best known work is The Blue Lagoon. He lovingly portrayed Bonchurch in The Story of My Village, and when his wife died he donated Bonchurch pond as a bird sanctuary to the village in her memory. He died in 1951 and is buried at Bonchurch cemetery.