A Conversation for The Pepper Pot, Isle of Wight, UK

St Catherine's Oratory, Niton, Isle of Wight

Post 1

rapidAnnieS

Just visited this site. dubious about its history. No lamp available in the Middle Ages would be visible from the sea and would be impossible to keep alight with so much ventilation. The Tower is too small to house four storeys and how were they accessed?

I believe the Church were miffed that the proceeds of the wreck were distributed before they got a look in. I think they used Walter de Godeton by blackmailing him into building a so-called Oratory and Chapel ostensibly to pray for the souls of the drowned but in fact to provide a look out tower for possible shipwrecks which might be pillaged. The Tower also provided a Visual Direction Finder for any booty to be trafficked over the Down for distribution.

Call me cynical but that's no lighthouse!smiley - ale


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St Catherine's Oratory, Niton, Isle of Wight

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