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You may find this relevant information helpful when researching the area prior to your visit
Bonchurch
It looks out to sea from the slope of St Boniface Down, the noblest height in the island, rising 787 feet; the down and the village are both named after the Saxon saint to whom the tiny church is dedicated, a Devon man who was educated in Hampshire, evangelised Germany, and was murdered at Dokkum.
The old church, standing on a Saxon site, has been fashioned through the centuries and has a doorway believed to be made up with the curved stones of a Norman arch. The door itself is of very great age, studded with nails and built up of two layers of planks. The altar rail is made from the old roof beams. It is thought that the first church on the site was founded by Boniface before he left the monastery of Nursling for his lifework on the continent.
Church of St Boniface
In a new church on a site given by the wife of James White of Punch worshipped Elizabeth Sewell, whose tales for children were much read last century. In this church are six windows filled with old glass, painted with saints in rich robes by l5th century Flemish artists. There is also a charming little window with a figure of St Edith in memory of another worshipper, Edith Swinburne, the companion window with a figure of St Benet being to the memory of Admiral Swinburne. They were both friends of the church, and the most famous member of their family, Algernon Charles, the poet,lies in the churchyard, which is like a garden with little vales and hills among trees and flowers and shrubs. The Swinburne graves lie close by the path, all alike with grey stone; the poet had a home here called East Dene, the charming old white house backed by trees with the wide sweep of the lovely bay in front of it.
Every visitor to Bonchurch knows the beautiful water bordering the village street, and every bird knows it, too. It was part of the garden of Mr H. de Vere Stacpoole, the novelist, but its charm belongs to all who pass. It has an inscription to Margaret de Vere Stacpoole, and is a memorial to the novelist's wife which has now been presented to the village, and is to be kept, we hope, always as beautiful as we found it.
The history of Bonchurch is linked with a remarkable group of names. Here Macaulay lived for a time (at Madeira Hall on the Ventnor road). He would walk up this winding drive flanked by the rocks to which the coast here owes its rare beauty. Here Tennyson loved to come, though once he had the unpleasant experience of being set upon by unmannerly ladies who seized his hat and cut it into pieces—like rosemary, for remembrance. Here also is a hilltop which Mr Howard Whitehouse, the founder of Bembridge School, has given to the National Trust, naming it Nansen Hill. Here Scouts and Guides may camp, catching, let us hope, something of the indomitable spirit of the man whose name it bears. We must hope that the Isle of Wight is proud to have his name on its map.