Freshwater is a town and civil parish at the western end of the Isle of Wight. Freshwater Bay is a small cove on the south coast of the Island which also gives its name to the nearby part of the village of Freshwater. The "Arch Rock" was a well-known local landmark but fell down in 1994. The neighboring "Stag Rock" is so named because supposedly a stag leaped to the rock from the cliff to escape during a hunt. Another huge slab fell off the cliff face in 1968, and is now known as the "Mermaid Rock". The renowned scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) was born in Freshwater in 1635. His father John Hooke was the curate of All Saints, in Freshwater. When Hooke's father died in 1643, Hooke left Freshwater for London to be apprenticed to portrait painter Peter Lely. After that, he went to Westminster School and then Oxford. George Morland, a famous painter, lived in Freshwater in a structure known as the "Cabin" around 1800. More on Freshwater 

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