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This village seems to retain the traditional English village atmosphere with development being kept tightly under control. Newchurch stands on high ground and dominates the valley of the Yar river in the central eastern part of the island and is roughly the same distance from Ryde, Newport and Sandown. This has traditionally been the centre of the horticultural industry on the island and a lot of nurseries and garden centres can be found here. One famous tradition here is held on the third weekend of August and that is the two day Garlic Festival, the island is famous for its garlic and the festival is not to be missed.
The church of All Saints goes back to when the Normans arrived is fairly spacious inside and it used to be the only church of a parish that stretched from Ryde to Ventnor. A parish clerk sleeps by the pathway at the west of the churchyard and he was a clerk here for 54 years and a schoolmaster for 53 years, and the stone on his grave was bought by subscriptions from his old school pupils. His name was Richard Forward. The village of Niton with its ruins of the chapel built in the 13th century lies just over a mile away
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