NITON, a village and a parish in the Isle of Wight. The village stands 1 mile N E by N of St. Catherine's Point, behind the declivity of a sea-cliff, at the W end of the Undercliff range, 3¾ miles W of Ventnor; was anciently called Niton-Regis, from having belonged to Edward the Confessor; was afterwards called Crab-Niton, from the abundance of crabs and other crustaceans on the neighbouring coast; is a quiet and quaint place, very little affected by the influx of visitors to the surrounding attracting scenery, yet stands intimately connected with hotels to which the visitors resort; is the centre of many pleasant walks; and has a post-office, ‡ under Godshill, Isle of wight, and two small inns. The parish comprises 1, 337 acres of land, and 60 of water. Real property, £4, 672. Pop., 700. Houses, 135. The property is divided among a few. Several genteel residences, a hotel, and a number of lodging-houses are in the Undercliffseetion. Niton down rises to the N of the village; and St. Catherine's down, 769 feet high, rises to the W. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Winchester; and, from 1734 till 1867, was united with the vicarage of Godshill. Value, £400.* Patron, Queen's College, Oxford. The church was given, by William Fitz-Osborne, soon after the Norman conquest, to the abbey of Lire; went, at the dissolution, to the Crown; was given by Charles I., on the petition of Henrietta Maria, to Queen's College, Oxford; stands amid fine trees, oarising-ground, to the W of the village; shows some features of early decorated English; was restored in 1864; consists of two gabled bodies, with a stone-ribbed S porch, and with a W tower and low spire; and contains a piscina, and a monument, with medallion by Flaxman, to Mr. Arnold of Mirables. The churchyard contains the base of an old cross. There are a Baptist chapel, a Wesleyan chapel, and an endowed school with £27 a year. Charles II., when caught in a storm at sea in 1675, landed at Puckaster Cove. See Catherine's Down ( St.), Catherine's Point ( St.), and Under-cliff.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))