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The 'Solent' is a stretch of sea separating the Isle of Wight from the mainland of Britain. It runs through and greatly affects the character of the South Hampshire region, which consists of Greater Portsmouth, Greater Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
Hampshire's Solent is a great centre for yachting and is renowned as one of the most expensive waters to cross by ferry in the world. It is sheltered by the Isle of Wight and has a very complex tidal pattern, which has greatly benefited Southampton's success as a port. Portsmouth lies on its shores. Spithead, an area off Gilkicker Point near Gosport, is renowned as the place where the Royal Navy is reviewed by the monarch of the day.

Contents

History

Geology

Other uses of the name

See also

History

Originally a river valley, the Solent has gradually widened and deepened for many thousands of years. The River Frome was the source of the River Solent and two other rivers called the Itchen and Test were tributaries of it. Remains of human habitation have been found from the prehistoric, Roman and Saxon eras, showing that humans retreated towards progressively higher ground over these periods.
The Purbeck Ball Clay contains kaolinite and mica, showing that in the Lutetian stage of the Eocene water from a granite area, probably Dartmoor, flowed into the River Solent.
There is an early Norman period report that much land on the south of Hayling Island was lost to sea flood. South of Hayling Island in the Solent is a deposit of stones, which scuba divers found to be the remains of a stone building, probably a church. There is an old report that this church was formerly in the middle of Hayling Island. If similar amounts of land have been lost on other parts of the Solent shore, the Solent was likely much narrower in Roman times, and it is possible to believe Julius Caesar's report in ''De Bello Gallico'' that in his time men could wade to the Isle of Wight at low tide. Similarly, it is known that Selsey was once a port town, with an Abbey and Cathedra recorded until 1075, when the see of the Diocese of Sussex was moved inland to Chichester.
The southeast of England, like the Netherlands, has been steadily slowly sinking through historic time.
During the late Middle Ages, Henry VIII of England built an extensive set of coastal defences at each end of the Solent, part of his Device Forts, effectively controlling access to east and west. More forts were built on land and at sea in the 19th century. These were generally known as Palmerston Forts

In 1982 Henry VIII's flagship, the ''Mary Rose'' was lifted off the sea bed of the Solent, 437 years after it sank.
A bank in the centre of the Solent, Bramble Bank, is exposed at low water springs. This, combined with the unique tidal patterns in the area, makes navigation challenging. There is an annual cricket match on Bramble Bank during the lowest tide of the year - although it usually ends fairly quickly when the wicket is flooded!
Sea bed survey shows that when the sea level was lower in the Ice Age the Solent River continued the line of the eastern Solent (Spithead) to a point roughly due east of the east end of the Isle of Wight and due south of a point about 3 km west of Selsey Bill, and then south-south-west for about 30 Km, and then south for about 14 Km, and then joined the main river flowing down the dry bed of the English Channel.

Geology

Ten thousand years ago a band of relatively resistant Chalk rock, part of the Southern England Chalk Formation ran from the Isle of Purbeck area of south Dorset to the eastern end of Isle of Wight, parallel to the South Downs. Inland behind the Chalk were less resistant sands, clays and gravels. Through these weak soils and rocks ran many rivers, from the Dorset Frome in the west and including the Stour, Beaulieu River, Test, Itchen and Hamble, which created a large estuary flowing west to east and into the English Channel at the eastern end of the present Solent. This great estuary ran through a wooded valley and is now referred to as the Solent River.
When glaciers covering the north of Britain melted at the end of the last ice age, two things happened to create the Solent. Firstly, a great amount of flood water ran into the Solent River and its tributaries, carving the estuary deeper. Secondly, post-glacial rebound after the removal of the weight of ice over Scotland caused the island of Great Britain to tilt about an east-west axis, because isostatic rebound in Scotland and Scandinavia is pulling mantle rock out from under the Netherlands and south England. Over thousands of years, the land sank in the south (a process still continuing) to submerge many valleys creating today's characteristic rias, such as Southampton Water and Poole Harbour, as well as submerging the Solent. The estuary of the Solent River was gradually flooded, and eventually the Isle of Wight became separated from the mainland as the chalk ridge between The Needles on the island and Old Harry Rocks on the mainland was eroded. This is thought to have happened about 7,000 years ago.
The process of coastal change is still continuing, with the soft cliffs on some parts of the Solent, such as Fort Victoria, constantly eroding, whilst other parts, such as Ryde Sands, accreting.

Other uses of the name

The 'Short Solent', often simply called a 'Solent', is a type of flying boat.
A Solent 'jib' is a non-overlapping jib, smaller than a genoa.

See also

★ Southampton Water

★ Portsmouth Harbour

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★ Solent Forum [1]
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