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Select from our Offices

Waterside House
72a High Street
Cowes
Isle of Wight
PO31 7RE

01983 200880
cowes@spencewillard.co.uk

Charles Spence
Charles Spence
Spence Willard team
Emma Bradley
Tanya Hill
Tanya Hill
Zadie Margham
Philip Weeks
Gaynor Owen

Sherbourne Street
Bembridge
Isle of Wight
PO35 5SB

01983 873000
bembridge@spencewillard.co.uk

Spence Willard team
Sam Branston
Hannah Cook
Hannah Cook
Lauren Taylor
Charlotte Branston
Charlotte Branston

The Square
Yarmouth
Isle of Wight
PO41 0NP

01983 761005
yarmouth@spencewillard.co.uk

Spence Willard Yarmouth
Spence Willard team
Duncan Willard
Lesley Samson
Lesley Samson

The Old Bank
Tennyson Road
Freshwater
Isle of Wight
PO40 9AB

01983 756575
freshwater@spencewillard.co.uk

Jason Siviter
Jason Siviter
David Langford
David Langford
Cynthia Robertson

The Square
Yarmouth
Isle of Wight
PO41 0NP

01983 761005 opt 2
lettings@spencewillard.co.uk

Spence Willard office
Laura Homes
Alice MacNab
Alice MacNab
Henrietta MacLean
Henrietta MacLean

40 St James' Place
London
SW1A 1NS

020 7839 0888
london@spencewillard.co.uk

Spence Willard London office
Bob Bickersteth
Bob Bickersteth
Serena Winn-Darley
Contact
Island Living
Discover the Isle of Wight through those that live here

The Isle of Wight is enjoying a wonderful renaissance appealing to young families, those looking for a change of scenery or simply a weekend retreat to redress the balance of a busy life. The Spence Willard team have all chosen the Isle of Wight as their home, so you can rest assured that we know the community, all of the hidden gems and why the Island is so inherently charming as the destination to invest in a home.

Just over 60 miles from London, the Isle of Wight can be easily accessed via the A3 and M3, and you can proceed to travel across the Solent in as little as 10 minutes. There are a choice of six ferry routes arriving in either Yarmouth, Cowes, East Cowes, Fishbourne or Ryde so whatever your final destination once on the Island, you can access with ease.

With over half of the Island designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the recent UNESCO Biosphere status there is much to inspire and be enjoyed. 57 miles of glorious coastline range from sandy beaches to rugged cliffs meaning there is something for everyone. There are many outdoor pursuits such as paddle boarding, sailing, golfing, horse riding, surfing, mountain biking and paragliding so you’ll never be short of new experiences. For balance (and the less adventurous!), there’s a wealth of other activities including foraging courses, pottery classes, floristry courses and jewellery making.

Delightful restaurants can be found across the Island selling fresh, local produce and delectable local wines and spirits, so you can enjoy the stunning vistas and take in the fresh coastal air whilst dining in quaint, yet stylish eateries. For the nights at home, there are a number of local delicatessen’s, bakers, butchers and fishmongers so you can have the ‘farm-to-fork’ experience from the comfort of your home.

There are charming villages and picturesque harbour towns steeped in history with many gorgeous properties from rural cottages to Victorian Villas, country houses to waterfront wonders and those with architectural accolade just waiting for you to uncover…

A Dream come true by the Coast
Marc Thompson & Jack Rebours spent years travelling the world working in the cruise industry, however after a chance visit to some friends on the Isle of Wight they decided that they could not ignore the call of the Island, feeling it was one of the most special places they had visited. With huge changes in their careers due to the pandemic, Marc & Jack had a further lifestyle change moving from a large property on the outskirts of Cowes, to create the most gorgeous, bijou home in the heart of the town.
Making Wellness Your Business
Working and living in London, Jenny Stewart craved fresh coastal air and the opportunity to follow her dream of creating her own wellness business running wellness classes outside, yoga on paddleboards and weekend retreats to relax and unwind. Having no previous connection to the Island, it was somewhat a leap of faith - hear what the Island has offered her and her family, and how their move to the Island is one they haven't regretted for a single moment.
Destination: Home
After years of holidaying on the Isle of Wight, Lisa Henry came to realise the many benefits of Island living and two years ago, she and her family moved from London and now proudly call the Isle of Wight home. Having moved here, Lisa pursued her dream of setting up her own location agency for the film and photographic industry, which has proven hugely successful given the diversity the Island offers.
Escape to the Country
Having spent time visiting friends on the Isle of Wight, Mark Smith came to appreciate the diversity on offer - amazing coastlines, expanse of countryside and real foodie scene. With a subsequent desire to move out of the City for some real space, his Isle of Wight property search began. Since moving to the Island Mark, one of House & Garden 100 Leading Interior Designers, has completed a stunning renovation project in the country and is very much enjoying his life here.
Portraits of Island Life
Anna Stewart
Interior Designer

We came to the Island at Christmas 2014. We’re from South West London and it’s probably the usual story – we’ve got two children and my daughter Evie was getting to the age where we were considering secondary schools for her. Evie is creative, our son Sam is sporty, and we wanted them to be somewhere where there would be opportunity for them to experience more and also, because creative subjects are just as important to us as academic ones, we started thinking about where that somewhere needed to be’.

An opportunity for our children to experience more

Because both Anna and her husband needed to be in reach of London for work, they began thinking about areas that would work for them both as well as for them as a family. Anna is originally from Petersfield and so knowing the South Coast brought Jonny to the Island where, as a schoolgirl she’d come to play sports matches against Island teams and had day trips as a child. ‘There are always lots of amazing properties that come up for sale and we found our house in Bonchurch which was a quite different project to anything that we’d done before which were mostly Victorian houses. It had last been unsympathetically renovated in the eighties and latterly used as a holiday house and had been adapted in a very eighties’ way: reducing ceiling heights to avoid heating costs whilst windows had been concealed. The house is built into the rock and is two storeys at the front but one at the back, when we began to take out the lower ground floor ceilings, we found that the original ceilings were actually at rear ground level and taller than we had expected giving the house far more space and light. We reconfigured the whole house and replaced all of the plumbing and electrics and it’s taken us the best part of five years to get to where we are, but we wanted to make it right, restore originality back into the house whilst adding modern touches and hopefully it’ll go on for another hundred years’.

With a degree in Interior Design from Chelsea College of Art and Design and extensive experience designing not just residential properties but also hotels and offices, the house proved an interesting challenge for Anna. ‘We’ve completed the building works in four phases, I now have an amazing team of local people that I work with.’

As well as its stunning landscape, you simply can’t beat walks with the dogs, pubs with open fires, going to the festivals and doing all of the things that we can do as a family as well as it being a place to let the kids have their freedom

The Island offers us a hugely different lifestyle as a family to the one we had – I’m originally a country girl but we’ve both always wanted to live near the beach. We’re not sailors, I guess that’s what drew us to the Bonchurch side of the Island as well as its stunning landscape, you simply can’t beat walks with the dogs, pubs with open fires, going to the festivals and doing all of the things that we can do as a family as well as it being a place to let the kids have their freedom. Our friends visit and it’s wonderful for them to have somewhere to stay. There’s an amazing food scene here, real farm to table and it’s getting better and better here on the Island all the time. Whilst we still enjoy going up to London, it’s great to have the contrast that island life can give us’.

Molly Linton
Owner of My Funky Bags

Born in Australia and moving to the UK as a child when her parents bought a Cotswolds pub, Molly Linton has had a fascinating journey to the Isle of Wight following years of living and working in Asia.
In my late teens I went back to Australia for a holiday and didn’t come back, ending up with a variety of jobs across media and marketing with companies from Christian Dior to Virgin – helping set up a media group in Bangkok for Sir Richard Branson and launching Virgin Radio. I met my husband Eren and we decided to take a year out from our corporate lives and travel; we came to the UK and the Isle of Wight as my brother had a holiday house in Cowes and arrived during Cowes Week. We loved the busyness, the people and the Island itself and Eren turned to me and said, ‘wouldn’t this be a great place to live.’

So, we finished our travels and then had to decided what we would do in the UK on the Isle of Wight. We’d been working with a family in Asia who recycled plastic bottles which they turned into a tape which was then repurposed into bags and baskets. We had about 500 bags and baskets made, shipped them here, bought a house in Cowes and decided to do a pop up at the Cowes week regatta and sold out in a few days. They’re called My Funky Bags and everyone on the Island loves them because they’re made out of recycled materials, they’re unique and I think that’s what’s made our company stand out from the crowd. Although our products don’t originate here, the people who buy them, buy them on the Island from our beautiful shops in both Yarmouth & Cowes.

“It’s a little bit unique to anywhere else in the world and I love it”

This is home, and we have our two rescue dogs from Bangkok with us as well. My parents now also live in Cowes and my brother is now here full time, so it’s become a real family home. The whole of the Island has so many different aspects and after living in Asia and big cities as ex pats it’s such a change. It’s safe, clean with beautiful walks, fresh air and the people are friendly and helpful. It’s a little bit unique to anywhere else in the world and I love it.

 

Sam Morris & Alice Greenfield
Photographers & Filmmakers

For photographers and filmmakers Alice and Sam, the Island has become a natural extension of their business Adrift Visuals. Both freelancers, they decided to combine their skills and set their company up in September 2020.

‘We wanted to bring our work outdoors and focus on outdoor brands and events, particularly those that want to promote green, eco-friendly and planet positive products. Being by the coast, living simply and creating amazing pictures, videos and images of people having positive experiences outside was the ethos behind the company and a passion for us both’. The name of the business Adrift, came from the notion of moving around and being fluid. As filmmakers, they are constantly on the move and this is reflected in their website which uses the colours of sand, sea and sky  and imagery to promote not just themselves but also the Isle of Wight which is a big focus for both Sam, an Island native, and Alice.

There is also a strong community spirit here on the Island…we’ve been lucky to work with great brands

‘We look to work with brands and companies that have the same vision as we do – protecting the climate, environment and the oceans and that’s where we’re looking to use our skills: to build awareness of environmental issues, capture beautiful landscapes and show those landscapes to the world because we feel that people are more inspired to protect what they see, even when it’s through the small world of Instagram. Our work is our canvas, and we are both at our happiest when we’re outside, in the sea and in nature and we can see the sun rise and the sun set, and we have all of this right here on our doorstep. There is also a strong community spirit here on the Island, local businesses have been very supportive towards us and we’ve been lucky to work with great brands like Mermaid Gin and Rapanui’.

People are proud to be on the Isle of Wight and have what we have here

 
 
 
Getting Here