The Dropping Rock

similar elsewhere

Another Blank, Missing and Empty Thing, and in fact another rock that's disappeared from history: the Dropping Rock, a spring that was formerly a fixture of St George's Down, near Blackwater, a couple of miles south of Newport, Isle of Wight. It's the subject of one of the poems in Albert Midlane's 1860 The Vecta Garland, and Isle of Wight souvenir.

THE DROPPING ROCK,
On St. George's Down.

"Nature, throwing aside
Her veil opaque, discloses with a smile
The Author of her beauties, who, retired
Behind His own creation, works unseen."—Cowper.

Dropping, and dropping, through fern and through heather,
E'en in the summer noon's sultriest weather;
Still the hard rock is its water bestowing,
Where the rank weeds germ, and the rushes are growing.

Gently and evenly falls the clear shower,
The work of a mighty, invisible power;
Streaming not, running not—dropping alone,
Through the centuries past, and the long ages flown.

It is as though Nature were shedding a tear,
Of sorrow o'er waste and o'er barrenness near ;
For Ceres has spread not her stores on its breast
With wild shrubs alone are its environs drest.

Like Horeb's famed Rock, which to Israel of old,
Its volume of water through desert lands rolled;
The rock of St. George's its moisture supplies,
Where a rude sterile landscape alone meets the eyes.

In the rambles of childhood I hither would stray,
To list in its shade to the thrushes' sweet lay;
And to view the loved songsters with gladsome wing haste,
In fancied seclusion, its waters to taste.

Still give of thy freshness, sweet Rock of the Down
Which ere long, peradventure, rich plenty may crown;
When thy drops shall be prized as the dew of the morn,
And thy rushes give place to the ripe golden corn.

- pages 22-23, The Vecta Garland, and Isle of Wight souvenir (London: Griffin, 1860, Internet Archive vectagarlandisle00midl).

This poem is actually quite enlightening in a geomorphological way; a spring high on a down on uncultivated heathland is not the usual 'spring line' spring at the base of the Isle of Wight's chalk downs. Midlane gives further detail in a prose description in the Baptist Children's Magazine:

But now I must come to the Rocks of my native Isle, and the first I shall describe to you is, the "Dropping Rock.'' It is situated on the declivity of St. George's Down, and is hardly discoverable from the large quantity of furze and rushes, which the continued moisture nourishes, and which grow so luxuriantly here.

Strange it is that, in the midst of so much barrenness, there should be such a source of refreshment, as it were, an oasis in the desert." It is not an impenetrable mass of stone, but of a gravelly nature, and its peculiarity consists in this, that, unlike other springs, it is continually dropping. It is a beautiful object after a hard frost; the icicles forming a sight of much interest.
- Remarkable Rocks, Albert Midlane, The Baptist Children's Magazine, ed. Joseph Foulkes Winks, 1853

I managed to find a precise location using the 1910 Ordnance Survey Map at the excellent Old Maps site (low-res image reproduced for non-commercial purpose). The location marked as Dropping Rock Well is at SZ 51350 86516. Dropping Rock Cottage appears on the 1938 map, but not the well; and neither are mentioned on the 1962.

The Isle of Wight Family History Society Newport page has a good image of Dropping Rock Cottage, and there's further confirmation of the details in the 1889 Geological Survey guide, which refers to the Plateau Gravels on St George's Down.

The cementing of the gravel into blocks by a ferruginous cement has already been noticed. These blocks occur in abundance all along the southern boundary of the outlier, and are found also in several distant spots, having probably been carried off for rockeries, or building. The rain which is absorbed by the gravel naturally travels down the northerly slope, and is given off in the springs previously alluded to, but there is one spring on the south side, close to the house which is so conspicuous on the brow of the hill, known as the Dropping Well. The water oozes from a layer of cemented gravel, and is never known to fail.
- page 213, The Geology of the Isle of Wight (HMSO, 1889, Internet Archive geologyofisleofw00bris).

The geological context made Midlane's hope that "thy rushes give place to the ripe golden corn" unlikely to happen. Plateau Gravels give poor acidic soils unsuitable for agriculture. See Hopson, P.M.; Farrant, A. 2009. The St George's Down : the plateau gravel : a preliminary discussion. In: ]Briant, R.M., (ed.) The Quaternary of the Solent Basin and West Sussex raised beaches. Quaternary Research Association, 145-160 (nora.nerc.ac.uk/14750/). The gravels, however, have been extensively mined, and the location of Dropping Rock now lies in the middle of an area of current and former gravel pits and sludge ponds.

This is SZ 51350 86516 now. If any trace of the feature remains, it'll be in this copse to the east of the cluster of buildings with the pylon:


View Larger Map

The track at top left is public footpath 39, which leads from Blackwater to join the Bembridge Trail (footpath 28). See the Isle of Wight Rights of Way map 39 (Blackwater Merston Manor St Georges Down).

- Ray