Tower of St Catherine's Oratory
TOWER OF ST CATHERINE'S ORATORY, ST CATHERINE'S HILL
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1218168
- Date first listed:
- 22-Nov-1993
- List Entry Name:
- Tower of St Catherine's Oratory
- Statutory Address:
- TOWER OF ST CATHERINE'S ORATORY, ST CATHERINE'S HILL
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 1999-10-11
- Reference:
- IOE01/00239/09
- Rights:
- © Rev Robert Rudd. Source: Historic England Archive
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Official list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1218168
- Date first listed:
- 22-Nov-1993
- List Entry Name:
- Tower of St Catherine's Oratory
- Statutory Address 1:
- TOWER OF ST CATHERINE'S ORATORY, ST CATHERINE'S HILL
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- TOWER OF ST CATHERINE'S ORATORY, ST CATHERINE'S HILL
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Isle of Wight (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Chale
- National Grid Reference:
- SZ 49364 77278
Details
CHALE
SZ47NE ST CATHERINE'S HILL 1353-0/5/81 Tower of St Catherine's Oratory
II
Former lighthouse, now Ancient Monument. Early C14. Built as a penance by the local landowner Walter de Godeton for disposing of the cargo of Church wine belonging to the monastery of Lives in Picardy, when the Saint Marie was wrecked on Atherfield Ledge in the Parish of Shorwell in 1314. The tower was built as a lighthouse to prevent further wrecks and there was originally an oratory chapel with a monk whose job was to trim the light and say masses for those lost at sea. After the Reformation the church fell into ruins and had disappeared by the C18, but buttresses were added to the tower then to keep it standing as a seamark. Restored by P G Stone in 1891 and by the then Ministry of Works in 1950. Built of ashlar. 4 storeys, octagonal without and square within with 4 buttresses and a pyramidal stone roof, domed on the inside. Pointed doorways on ground and first floors which originally communicated with the Priest's dwelling and the Chapel respectively, and loop lights on ground, first and second floors. The top storey has 8 windows splayed outwards to emit light from the brazier which formed the beacon. Stairs and floors now missing. A rare survival of a medieval lighthouse. Locally nicknamed "the Pepper Pot " because of its shape and its conjunction with the remains of the C18 lighthouse to the south east in the adjoining Parish of Niton which is known as "the Salt Cellar". (see item ) Scheduled Ancient Monument. (V.C.H.: 235).
Listing NGR: SZ4936477278
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 392680
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Doubleday, AH, The Victoria History of the County of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, (1912), 235
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jul-2026 at 14:09:50.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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