St Catherine's Oratory (former lighthouse), Catherine's Hill, Chale, Isle of Wight
This is a medieval lighthouse. It was completed by 1328. It was built by Walter de Godeton, a local landowner, who was condemned by the Church for stealing casks of wine from a shipwreck which had occurred in 1314 off Chale Bay. The Church threatened de Godeton with excommunication unless he built a lighthouse above the scene of the shipwreck, together with an adjoining oratory (prayer room). The oratory was to be endowed to maintain a priest to tend the light and to say masses for souls lost at sea. The duties were apparently carried out until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The oratory no longer exists, just the lighthouse. The remains of the oratory were excavated in 1891. This site is now in the care of English Heritage.
