Bouldnor is a hamlet near Yarmouth on the west coast of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

in southern

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It is the location of

Bouldnor Battery Bouldnor Battery is a military Artillery battery, battery located in Bouldnor, Isle of Wight, Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight. It saw active service in World War II and was fully decommissioned in 1956. Today, it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. ...

, a gun battery emplacement. Bouldnor is located on the A3054 road, and public transport is provided by buses on Southern Vectis route 7. A soapbox derby was held in Bouldnor in 2005. It was a big success, so the event was repeated in 2006, though moved to Newport and renamed the Isle of Wight Soapbox Derby Challenge."May Date for Island's Soapbox Derby"
, Isle of Wight County Press, Tuesday, April 18, 2006

The Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Village seaport

The

Bouldnor Cliff Mesolithic Village Bouldnor Cliff is a submerged prehistoric settlement site in the Solent. The site dates from the Mesolithic era and is in approximately of water just offshore of the village of Bouldnor on the Isle of Wight in the United Kingdom. The preserv ...

is an internationally important archaeological site underwater off the coast of the Bouldnor Cliffs. Mesolithic flints and other items have been found. This material dates from 8000 years ago. During the

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, this was a seaport that supported trade with the Middle East (as wheat was present here 8,000 years ago, hundreds of years before wheat was grown anywhere in Europe).

Bronze Age Britain Bronze Age Britain is an era of British history that spanned from until . Lasting for approximately 1,700 years, it was preceded by the era of Neolithic Britain and was in turn followed by the period of Iron Age Britain. Being categorised as t ...

had large reserves of

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

in the areas of

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

and

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

Mining in Cornwall and Devon Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of Britain, is thought to have begun in the early-middle Bronze Age with the exploitation of cassiterite. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continue ...

was then of global importance. Tin is necessary to smelt

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

. At that time the sea level was much lower and carts of tin were brought across the

Solent The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and mainland Great Britain; the major historic ports of Southampton and Portsmouth lie inland of its shores. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit whi ...

at low tide for export from Bouldnor, possibly on the

Ferriby Boats The Ferriby Boats are three Bronze Age Britain, Bronze-Age British sewn boat, sewn plank-built boats, parts of which were discovered at North Ferriby in the East Riding of Yorkshire, East Riding of the England, English county of Yorkshire. Onl ...

and later on the Blackfriars Ships.

References

Hamlets on the Isle of Wight Shalfleet {{IsleofWight-geo-stub