Langley & Lepe
Go right down the A326 Marchwood and Hythe Bypass through Hardley and Holbury and take the right fork at the Holbury Roundabout to Langley and Lepe. Today these two are virually one but Langley was a village on its own and the centre was at the Langley Tavern at the crossroads. The name comes from Long Wood and one of its most famous residents was T. E. Lawrence better known as Lawrence of Arabia he lived here i his childhood at Langley Lodge which has long been replaced by a modern housing estate. Lawrence worked at Calshot just down the road.

What remains of a Roman road passes down through Dibden Purlieu and Langley and this is thought to have carried on to Lepe and may have joined the Isle of Wight to the mainland by a causeway, local legend has it that there was a gap in the causeway which was just wide enough for a man to leap across thus giving the place its name.

At Lepe the road continues West and climbs up past the coastguard cottages and the Inshore Rescue Headquarters and past the Millennium lighthouse to Exbury and there are one or two places with views across to the Isle of Wight.

 
View of the Isle of Wight taken from Lepe Country Park
Right: The view east towards Stansore Point.
The anchor was presented by
 Fawley Parish Council and dedicated to the memory of those
who gave their lives on D-Day, when thousands of allied troops departed from these shores for Europe
The photographs above are copyright of
David Packman
 Hampshire Cam


IMAGES OF LEPE

 
The old Coastguard cottages   A view from the beach looking towards Exbury. the old coastguard
cottages can be seen just above the cars
 
The Millennium Lighthouse
The windswept trees of the country park. The building
on the right is the Solent Rescue watch tower

Lepe House has some lovely views and often Hurst Castle can just be made out in the west. In the 18th century it was a popular place for shipping and ships made at Bucklers Hard were floated down the Beaulieu River to Lepe where they were fitted out in the boatyards here, If you stroll along the beach eastwards towards calshot you will see some large lumps of concrete, there are the remains of some fortifications that were built in WWII where troops and landing craft were gathered ready to set sail for the beaches of Northern France.

Above the beach is Lepe Country Park which is managed by Hampshire Recreation Section of the County Council and is an ideal picnic spot.

 
The American aircraft carrier USS Enterprise leaving Portsmouth.
Taken from Lepe Beach		   The view across to Gurnard on the Isle of Wight