when did the isle of wight become a county
Isle of Wight The Isle was owned by a Norman family until 1293 and was earlier a kingdom in its own right.[6] The island has played an important part in the defence of the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, and been near the front-line of conflicts through the ages, including the Spanish Armada and the Battle of Britain. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the growing affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically part of Hampshire, the island became a separate administrative county in 1890. It continued to share the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire until 1974, when it was made its own ceremonial county. Apart from a shared police force, there is now no administrative link with Hampshire, although a combined local authority with Portsmouth and Southampton was considered,[7] this is now unlikely to proceed.[8] Until 1995 the island had a governor.[n 1]
British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles.[7] Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have a total area of approximately 315,159Â km2,[5] and a combined population of just under 70 million. Two sovereign states are located on the islands: the Republic of Ireland (which covers roughly five-sixths of the island of Ireland)[8] and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The British Isles also include three Crown Dependencies: the Isle of Man and, by tradition, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands, although the latter are not physically a part of the archipelago.[9][10]