Shrewbert & Iris... A Sandown Bay Story Trail in Two Tales/Tails

Written by Claire Hector

Illustrations by Lucia Para

Sandown Bay is no ordinary seaside place!

It’s a Bay in a Biosphere – the Isle of Wight UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It’s home to one hundred million years of wildlife from fossils and dinosaurs to seagrass and sea eagles. Then there are Roman villas, piers (here and past!) and cliff lifts, pitch & putts, tales of shipwrecks, origins of Darwin, National Poos and wartime derring-dos!

What is the Isle of Wight Biosphere?

Our Biosphere Reserve celebrates Island nature and people. It covers all our land and water including the Solent and the Channel, reaching right out to touch Dorset and Hampshire. We are one of only 7 Biospheres in the UK!

Turn your book upside down to join Iris on her Trail with a Tail.

This Trail is one of a whole series of adventures set right here in the Bay.

All you need is beautiful sunshine/cloudygrey skies/a rainy day, and this handy book and your wellies or comfy shoes… we did say this has wild bits!

Winterroute

Browns Golf Course

Start: Blue Fountain 1, Browns Café, Culver Parade, Sandown, IOW, PO36 8QA

Finish: The Willow Walk

Time and Space: Shrewbert’s trail is about 1km long and will take you about an hour.

Part of the route is on a golf course so make sure to stick to the edges! It’s a bit bumpy for pushchairs and you’ll need appropriate footwear. If it’s wet, follow the Winter route (the blue path on the map).

Trail info... 1

Follow Shrewbert’s pawprints!

Share your adventure and photos on social media using #StoryQuest #IWBiosphere #TheCommonSpace

Collect your Next Adventures from Sandown Library!

Reed Bed Walk

Browns Café

Arc Buildings

Poplars and Wildheart Dome

The Narrow Escape

8

5 3 7 9

2 6 4

Hidden Willow

The Iris Garden

Browns Pavilion

The Willow Walk

Use the map and the bold words in the story to help you find your way!

Shrewbert the Shrew and Iris the Rock Pipit were old friends. Shrewbert was always on the move, squinting past his long nose through the grass for his next snack (one an hour!), while Iris swanned about by the sea, feasting on buffets between boulders or standing on rocks and shouting loudly. Shrewbert had never seen a beach and Iris had never seen a tree, until they decided to go on an… adventure!

Shrewbert had heard tales of science and discovery on the sands… Science Beach!

Iris had heard about a place where willows snowed in spring and you could doze all day on reedbeds… The Willow Walk!

“Shall we meet at the Blue Fountain of Browns Café?” suggested Shrewbert, a bit nervously as adventures were new to him and he didn’t want to get wet.

“Absolutely,” said Iris, who wasn’t really listening but thought she’d just wing it. On Adventure Day, Shrewbert hurried up to the Blue Fountain of Browns Café. He was relieved to see that this fountain wasn’t a wet one, sprouting not water, but blooming irises!

“Iris Gardens!”

Shrewbert peeped. “Wait ‘til Iris arrives… she’ll be thrilled!” And wait he did… Iris was nowhere to be seen.

This wasn’t unusual as like all rock pipits, Iris had probably stopped for some seafood. He’d just finished counting all the different irises at the fountain when his tummy started to rumble. “I’ll never find Iris on an empty stomach,” he worried, following a curvy path towards some square buildings.

As luck would have it, a Pied Wagtail pinged up, wagging his tail (obviously!). “Spot of birdseed?” he piped. “Every adventure needs a picnic!”

“Thanks!” said Shrewbert. Pockets filled with snacks, he felt INVINCIBLE!

Browns Golf Course

Browns Golf Course was built in the 1930s by Mr Kennedy, the London sausage and pie maker. His nickname was Browns and so the name stuck.

You can’t miss Browns Café’s blue and green terracotta roof – it matches the sea. Round the side is Blue Tiki graffiti inspired by Maori art.

The Arc buildings started life as the Browns Ice Cream Factory and the whole area hid the top-secret World War 2 Pipeline Under The Ocean!

Feeling fearless, Shrewbert strode around the corner following a line of tall, wavy trees known as Poplars, so-called because they’re popular with starlings who decorate the top branches like noisy baubles. The air was filled with gentle swishes and whistles from the leaves and

the birds, while the Wildheart Animal Sanctuary dome rose up behind filled with lemurs bouncing about inside.

“Ahhh…” sighed Shrewbert.

“GROAR!!!!!” said something enormous nearby.

“Arghh!!!” shrieked Shrewbert.

“Sorry!” said Casper, Wildheart’s resident lion, peering through the fence. “Just saying hello!” But it was too late… Shrewbert had shot round the edges of the golf course and had disappeared from view.

“Try a smaller Groar next time?” suggested Frosty, Casper’s flatmate. “This is Sandown not the Savannah, they can hear you all the way to Brading Roman Villa,” and they padded back off to stare at humans.

Shrewbert dodged a golf ball, shot over a log bridge and through a thin tunnel in the blackthorns.

“That was a Narrow Escape!” he said as he came out the other side. “Phew!” and feeling better, he stopped for a bite to eat… again.

It was then he discovered a whole new world ahead, one where the only human sound was the occasional faraway train.

Ways to Walk on the Wild Side with Shrewbert!

A wild world guarded by Gatekeeper butterflies, where the sky was full of orange-green reeds dancing in time to the breezes. And even though he’d never danced before and was wearing wellies, Shrewbert joined in!

“This is right up Iris’s street!” he said, as he did reedy-waving-dancing through the Reed Bed Walk.

Reedy-Wavy-Dancing in Breezes

Scoot

Groar!!!

Swish and Whistle

Schnuffle

Peep, Pipe, Ping

TummyRumble + Wag-Tail

A huge Hidden Willow with branches that spread wide to make a top-secret dell, marked the point where the reeds petered out into grass. Shrewbert searched high and low for Iris. High were big fluffy clouds, the far-off rooftops and chimneys of seaside Sandown and the see-it-from-everywhere spire of St John’s Church. But no flying Pipits!

Low was a bit trickier for supershort Shrewbert! He nosed his way through tussocks of spring cuckooflowers, summer silverweed and autumn pumpkins... and although he came across The Iris Garden with Bearded Irises, Yellowflag Irises, and even Siberian Irises, there was no sign of Rock Pipit Irises. He stopped at a pond where flashy damselflies were making of a show of themselves.

“Beware! Here Be Dragons. Er. Flies,” said a flat toad with an air of mystery.

“Dragonflies? Are they dangerous?” Shrewbert gulped.

“Well, not unless you’re a small flying insect,” admitted the toad, less mysteriously.

Being a mammal, Shrewbert went bravely forth. It was then that he heard a curious rumbling… not his tummy this time, but coming from a big brown shed! Rattle, hum, clunk and whirr… it was making a right racket… for a shed.

Suddenly (and every Tuesday morning) the doors flew open and some humans came out of the rumble for a tea-break.

“Excuse me,” shouted Shrewbert. “Is this the way to the Willow Walk?” He had to shout as the shed was REALLY LOUD.

“Pardon?” said the Men in Sheds. Inside he spotted the shiny brass pipes, pumps, dials and whirring wheels of ancient machines. Ah that explained it. It was the famous Browns Pavilion, home to the restored Browns pump engines and right next to… the Willow Walk. Found it! And off he scooted.

It was then that he bumped into an iron oak. Ouch! Shrewbert saw stars… or at least he thought he did. A glamorous Elephant Hawk Moth with bright pink and green wings swung sideways out of a willow and said, “I’m the only star you’ll see round these parts! Although,” it added with a waft of antenna, “if you come back to the Willow Walk at night, you’d think there was a whole GALAXY here! Gleaming glow-worm bottoms, bright-night eyes of foxes, badgers and rabbits.

Don’t forget to duck if you come across the bats. Newton the Noctule, and Pip the Pipistrelle are always hanging about.”

It all sounded so magical, and the Willow Walk so welcoming, that Shrewbert decided his next adventure would be an

Adventure Day-Night Safari! If he ever found Iris that was.

Shrewbert had just reached the end of the windy willow path when Ivy, an ivy bee, buzzed past his ear… “There’s an Iris over there looking for a Shrew… is that you?”

“There you are! I was waiting for you at the Blue Fountain of Browns but then…” exclaimed Iris and Shrewbert together.

“Ahem. There are TWO Fountains.” said a mole slapping his forehead with a muddy paw. “Tourists. Every single time!” he said, grumbling off down a hole home.

Off to Science Beach the adventurers went, slurping ice creams on the way. All this exercise had made Shrewbert really hungry.

“There’s the rockpools!” shouted Iris. “Quick! Let’s see what’s in them.” Iris and Shrewbert peered into the curious hand-made ‘Vertipools’, each fixed to the wooden groynes and each filled with seawater and wild things.

Baby limpets peered shyly back at them from under their cone-shells, tickled by seaweed, while titchy barnacles used their frondy feet to feed, stopping to wave at Shrewbert’s pokey nose.

At the end of the day, Shrewbert and Iris sat to watch the sunset. “I like this sandy stuff.” said Shrewbert.

“Yes, that’s called sand,” replied Iris proudly, “and there’s five miles of it in Sandown Bay!”

“Loads more Adventure Days to come then,” smiled Shrewbert. “What about a Night Safari?

I met this posh moth in the Willow Walk…”

The End

… or is it?

The Romans start building their villa at Brading!

Lewis Carroll pens nonsense poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ here.

The Pipeline Under The Ocean takes shape in the Bay.

The Isle of Wight becomes a UNESCO Biosphere

Charles Darwin starts writing ‘On the Origin of Species’ while staying at Sandown’s Ocean Hotel.

The Kennedys swap sausages for ice creams and build Browns Golf Course & Ice Cream Factory.

The first ever Discovery Bay & Hullabaloo celebrations take place.

Written by Claire Hector

Illustrations by Lucia Para

TheBackofBeyond

Sandown Bay is no ordinary seaside place!

It’s a Bay in a Biosphere – the Isle of Wight UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It’s home to one hundred million years of wildlife from dinosaurs to starfish and sparrowhawks! There are forts on cliffs and lions on hills,

Trail info...

Start: Blue Fountain 2, Browns Café, Culver Parade, Sandown, IOW, PO36 8QA

Finish: Science Beach

Time and Space: Iris’s trail is about 1km long and will take you about an hour (or less if you fly like a bird!).

It’s a bit bumpy for pushchairs.

It’s very wet in the winter so wear appropriate footwear.

lost landscapes and Pipelines Under The Ocean, buckets & spades, Boojums & Carroll, Carnivals and Hullabaloos.

This Story Trail is one of a whole series of adventures set right here in the Bay!

What is a Biosphere? Boojums

There are only 700 UNESCO Biospheres in the world and the Isle of Wight is one of them! These are places that are chosen for their amazing nature and culture and because the people there are trying to live in harmony with their environment.

Lewis Carroll wrote his famous poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ here in Sandown. Boojums are mythical monsters in the poem.

Iris and Shrewbert were old friends. Iris lived the beach life, hopping along the rocky shore of the Bay, stuffing her beak with bugs and seeds, while Shrewbert loved leafy woodlands where he’d scoot about at full speed, whiskers akimbo, snuffling berries. Iris had never been to the woods and Shrewbert had never been to the sea, until they decided to go on an… adventure!

Iris had heard about a place where willows

walked and the reeds were so friendly, they waved… The Willow Walk!

Shrewbert had heard tales of rockpools growing on trees…on Science Beach!

“Shall we meet at the Blue Fountain of Browns Café?” suggested Shrewbert a bit nervously, as adventures were new to him and he didn’t want to get wet.

“Absolutely,” said Iris, who wasn’t really listening but thought she’d just wing it.

On Adventure Day, Iris was just about to jump on a long-haul flight to The Blue Mountains of Sydney to meet Shrewbert, when she remembered they’re in Australia. Luckily, it was a short hop to The Blue Fountain in Sandown instead. Phew!

She tipped up late and landed right bang in the middle of a bunch of flowers. “Irises –my favourites!” she tweeped.

Shrewbert was nowhere to be seen but this wasn’t unusual as he was very small and good at hiding. Casting a beady eye about, Iris spotted what looked like the back end of a large, shiny bird labelled Dinosaur Isle… “Ah-ha! I bet he went that way,” exclaimed Iris.

Iris hopped off the fountain and pottered past the bird-bottom and round the corner. “Hmm, this is no ordinary bird,” she said, “it’s a Pterodactyl!”

At the peak of its beak lay a pavement of whopping footprints and fossils. “It’s not a bird at all but a flying reptile,” explained a

helpful fossil collector, who was heading off to the beach to look for bones. “And those are dinosaur feet!”

Iris had just jumped in all the footprints and was counting all the ammonites when she spotted flashes of speeding silver! She squeezed through a gap in the hedge and there, right next to busy Culver Parade was an even busier long sandy verge… The Lost Duver!

Ways to Walk on the Wild Side with Iris!

Silvery Leaf-cutter bees sped past, zipping and dipping into small holes in the sand among colourful wild coastal plants. “Excuse me, I’m looking for Shrewbert and the Willow Walk,” said Iris, politely.

“Sorry, we’re buzzy, I mean busy,” answered a Leaf-cutter bee, packing pollen in a hole where its egg waited patiently for lunch. “Head to the Canoe Lake and ask a duck – they’ve got nothing better to do,” and it nipped into its nest and shut a green leafy door.

The Lost Duver

A Duver is an Island word for low coastal land. This Duver was lost under boring grass but it’s not lost now! It’s coming back to wild life thanks to planting.

Can you spot 5 different native wild plants? Look out for Pink Thrift, Sea Campion, Wild Carrot, Yellow-horned Poppy and Rock Samphire.

The ducks were floating about on the lake, getting into rows with the wigeons and herons, so Iris collared a passing pigeon instead. “Excuse me, do you know the way to the Willow Walk?”

The pigeon was new to these parts and had no idea but didn’t like to let on.

“Erm, you’ll find it in the Back of Beyond!

Turn right at the lake, dash-fast-past the SkyNets, through the skinny grass path to the back of the Bowls. At the Brookside,

turn left past the Huge Holly Trees and on to Elm Street.”

Iris never dashed fast anywhere, but she thanked the pigeon and took a leisurely flight in completely the wrong direction… over Sandham Gardens to the Back of Beyond.

How to Make a Reed Boat

Sandown Lake was once filled with small pleasure boats. Nowadays it’s a top spot for wild birds. You can still float your own boat though… by making one from reeds.

Step 1. Pick a long leafy reed (don’t fall in) and pinch off the pointy end.

Step 2. Fold the reed into three and flatten it.

Step 3. Tear two slits in one end to make three sections. Fold the ends of the outside sections over the middle one and tuck one inside the other.

Step 4. Repeat on the other end of your reed.

Step 5. Float your boat!

Iris soared above Sandham Gardens’ elegant flower beds and high over some volcanoes. There was no sign of Shrewbert on the leafy green path of Elm Street. “Ooh… Rainbows and Skates!” she shouted, spotting the bright playground and the curly shapes of the skate-park. “Shrewbert will love it here!”

And even though she was late and lost, she couldn’t resist showing off with a scooping-fly up the curve of the skate park. Unfortunately, she misjudged it slightly and crash-landed into the nearby Crinkly Willow.

Ouch! Iris ruffled her feathers and hopped pink-faced out of the park, crossing the road to the sea.

Leaf Challenge!

Did you know that this curious path that once edged Sandham Gardens is part of a special tree experiment? Look for the leaves with the uneven edges… these are elm leaves. When the UK’s iconic elms got ill and disappeared, the Island planted new sorts and there are now Elm Streets all over the Island!

Can you spot five different types of leaves here?

Sycamore, White Poplar, Weeping Willow, Holly, Elm.

Sycamore Elm

White Poplar

Weeping Willow

Holly

Iris fluttered up to the Seawall and breathed in the crispy salt air. Ahhh. To her right, lay the Atlantic sea and ahead, the sweeps and ups and downs of Culver Cliffs.

Scratched into stone under her feet she discovered faint sandy graffiti, carved by men sent to build the wall over a century ago. She picked a smooth stone off a name and flipped into the sea.

“Oi! Watch out,” shouted a prickly Spider Crab. “This is a Marine Conservation Zone you know!”

“Oh sorry, I forgot,” said Iris. “You haven’t seen a shrew, have you?”

“No, it’s just us extraordinary

underwater species round here,” the crab answered, nose in the air.

“Unless he’s hiding out in the seagrass?” chimed a bunch of goose-barnacles, fresh in from France.

“No… he’d be walking on the water,” said Iris. “Some shrews do!”

She flopped down the sea-steps, pattered along the sand and up again. No sign of Shrewbert… but this was a fantastic way to get along the sea wall!

Suddenly, a black-headed gull called Gully, flew low overhead and squawked, “Yoo-hoo! Shrewbert’s looking for you-hoo!”

The Writing’s on the Wall Out to Sea

Culver Parade was built with the help of political prisoners. Can you spot initials and messages like ‘COSH1911’ beneath your feet?

The marine life here in the Bay is so important and the species often so rare that it is protected in law, a ‘Marine Conservation Zone’.

Explore here and look out for: Brittle stars, Ray egg-cases (Mermaid’s purses), Piddock shells, Sea Lettuce and Sugar Kelp (yum).

The rocks ahead of you are the oldest rocks in the Bay, and are 130 million years old.

“There you are! I was waiting for you at the Blue Fountain of Browns but then…” exclaimed Iris and Shrewbert together.

“Ahem. There are TWO Fountains.” said a mole slapping his forehead with a muddy paw. “Tourists. Every single time!” he said, grumbling off down a hole home.

Off to Science Beach the adventurers went, slurping ice creams on the way. All this exercise had made Shrewbert really hungry.

“There’s the rockpools!” shouted Iris. “Quick! Let’s see what’s in them.” Iris and Shrewbert peered into the curious hand-made ‘Vertipools’, each fixed to the wooden groynes and each filled with seawater and wild things.

Baby limpets peered shyly back at them from under their cone-shells, tickled by seaweed, while titchy barnacles used their frondy feet to feed, stopping to wave at Shrewbert’s pokey nose.

At the end of the day, Shrewbert and Iris sat to watch the sunset. “I like this sandy stuff.” said Shrewbert.

“Yes, that’s called sand,” replied Iris proudly, “and there’s five miles of it in Sandown Bay!”

“Loads more Adventure Days to come then,” smiled Shrewbert. “What about a Night Safari?

I met this posh moth in the Willow Walk…”

The End

… or is it?

The Romans start building their villa at Brading!

Lewis Carroll pens nonsense poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ here.

The Pipeline Under The Ocean takes shape in the Bay.

The Isle of Wight becomes a UNESCO Biosphere

Charles Darwin starts writing ‘On the Origin of Species’ while staying at Sandown’s Ocean Hotel.

The Kennedys swap sausages for ice creams and build Browns Golf Course & Ice Cream Factory.

The first ever Discovery Bay & Hullabaloo celebrations take place.