TALES FROM THE HILLS

(Ashmansworth and Crux Easton)

Can you see the Isle of Wight from here?

Ashmansworth is the highest village in Hampshire, and Crux Easton comes a close second; even so, it was difficult to believe Mr George Robins, the London auctioneer, when he claimed he could see the Isle of Wight from the windows of Crux Easton rectory.

After all, the Island is fifty miles away, and Mr Robins was a notorious puffer (an exaggerator). In fact, he was so notorious that he turns up as a puffer in one of MR James’s ghost stories.

Hilary du Pre recalled that, on her first visit to Ashmansworth, she had stepped out onto the terrace at Church Farm for tea with Joy Finzi, and could not help exclaiming, “What a wonderful view!”

“Oh it is, isn’t it?” said Joy. “On clear days we can see the Isle of Wight.”

You have to dig out the map, and the rules on ‘inter-visibility,’ and work out whether you can in fact see point A from point B, given all the hills in between.

If you can, you will find that George Robins and Joy were quite right. On a clear day you really can see the high ground on the Isle of Wight from the high ground of both Crux Easton and Ashmansworth, even considering the hills in between, and the curvature of the Earth.

Perhaps it was already obvious from the fact that many of our TV aerials were already aligned on the Rowridge transmitter on the Island. TV always needs ‘line of sight’ for decent reception.

However, if you gaze out of the windows of Crux Easton hoping to see, for example, the Grand Fleet at anchor during a review at Spithead, you will be disappointed. The only bit of the Island you ever see is a faint blue smudge on the very distant horizon, no more than the high ground behind Ventnor. You cannot see the sea or the ships, however clear the day, which is disappointing, and suggests that Mr Robins was trying a little puffing after all. At least he didn’t say he saw Stonehenge, just twenty miles away. That would be a sight worth seeing from your windows!

Agricola, November 2023