The Sun Inn, Hulverstone

The Sun Inn is set in beautiful countryside near Brook Chine on the South-West coast of the Isle of Wight. It has a huge beer garden and an outstanding sea view.

The Sun Inn has had a somewhat chequered past over the last 600 years. Hearsay has it that it was used many years ago by smugglers to trade their ill-gotten gains otherwise its early history is unclear.

We know for sure that an ale house was on this site in 1816 owned by a William Cooke. It was sold that same year to Benjamin Mew, a brewer of Crocker Street, Newport. The 1841 and 1851 censuses mention an elderly man, John Moorman, as the innkeeper. By 1852 the Sun Inn was run by James Jacobs and by 1855 by Charles Wolfe, who was also a leather collar and harness maker. In 1860 it was sold by W B Mew to Charles Seely who promptly leased it back to W B Mew.

According to David Seely, Lord Mottistone, his great grandfather approved of the pub being in Hulverstone as: “it meant the men would be sobered up by the time they got home, having walked in the fresh air back to Brook or Mottistone.” We hear that the walk was also an opportunity for a good singsong. At that time the Sun was run by Henry W Mussell.