Rookley Parish Council

Welcome to the web pages of Rookley Parish Council. Until the 1970s the village was part of neighbouring Godshill Parish, but local government re-organisation at that time gave it its own Coucil. The Parish Council is the first tier of local government and the closest to residents.

Whilst the Parish Council is a separate organisation, it works closely with the Rookley Village Association  and is pleased to be able to use their website to meet its obligations under the Transparency Code 2015 and with web accessibility requirements. The menu tab at the top of each page enables visitors to easily access all relevant information. In the event of difficulty in locating information which the Council is obliged to disclose  any enquiries should be made to the Parish Clerk at parishclerk@rookley.org or any of the Councillors. 

The Parish Council normally meets at 7.30pm on the first Wednesday of each month (except August) in the Village Hall, Highwood Lane, Rookley, PO383NN. All meetings are open to the public who may ask questions at the beginning of any meeting. The Village Hall meets all accessibility requirements.

Some history

Most of the parish is farmland and many of today's farm holdings are first mentioned in the Middle Ages, although the farm houses and farm buildings are of later date. Rookley village seems to have grown up as a hamlet associated with Rookley Manor (earliest mention 1203) around the small green that forms a triangle of land between the Niton and Godshill Roads.

There was no church in Rookley as it lay in Godshill Parish. Non-conformism was important on the Isle of Wight from the 18th Century, particularly a sect named as the "Bible Christians" who later merged with the Methodists. The first meetings in Rookley were held in Holly Cottage, which survives next to the Old Post Office, until a Methodist Chapel was built opposite what is now the Village Green.

In the 1920s clay pits were dug north of the Godshill Rd and a brickworks was opened by the Pritchett family. This was the last brickworks to operate on the Isle of Wight, closing in 1974. The clay pits have now become lakes within Rookley Country Park.

Today

Rookley has to a large extent become a dormitory village, although the site of the brickworks, Pritchetts Way industrial estate, still accommodates small industries. The village enjoys its own shop and has a Post Office. The Country Park welcomes non-residents to its pub and restaurant, while the historic Chequers Inn on Niton Rd is a popular venue for eating and drinking. There is a village hall and recreation ground on Highwood Lane managed by the Village Association. Southern Vectis provides a good bus service, with route 3 operating from Newport to Ryde via Ventnor and Shanklin every 30 minutes for most of the day.