Information about the Isle of Wight

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The Isle of Wight is an English island and county in the English Channel five miles from the south coast of England. It is situated south of the county of Hampshire and is separated from mainland England by the Solent. Popular since Victorian times as a holiday resort, the Isle of Wight is known for its natural beauty and for its world-famous sailing based in Cowes.

The Island possesses a rich history including its own brief status as a vassal kingdom in the fifteenth century. It was home to the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Queen Victoria had her much loved summer residence and final home Osborne House built in East Cowes. Its maritime history encompasses boat building and sail making through to the manufacture of flying boats and the world's first hovercraft. Its space history includes the testing and development of the Black Arrow and Black Knight space rockets, launched from Woomera, Australia. It is home to the Bestival and the recently revived Isle of Wight Festival, which, in 1970, was one of the largest rock music events ever held. The Island is also one of the richest fossil locations for dinosaurs in Europe.

In 686 AD, it became the last part of the British Isles to convert to Christianity, a century after the rest of Great Britain had done so.

The island has at various points in history been considered a part of Hampshire, however it became an independent administrative county (although still sharing the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire) in 1890. In 1974 it was reconstituted as a non-metropolitan and ceremonial county with its own Lord Lieutenant and the name was adopted as a postal county. The island is the smallest ceremonial county in England (not including the predominantly urban counties of Bristol and the City of London) at 380 km² (147 sq mi), slightly smaller than Rutland at 382 km² (148 sq mi). With a single Member of Parliament and 132,731 permanent residents according to the 2001 census, it is also the most populated Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom.

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