when did the isle of wight become an island
During the last Ice Age
title: Isle of Wight text: named Isle of Wight. Other notable examples include: The Isle of Wight was: Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (; also referred to informally as The Island or abbreviated to IoW) is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the title: Isle of Wight text: Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (; also referred to informally as The Island or abbreviated to IoW) is a county and the largest and second-most populous island in England. It is in the English Channel, between 2 and 5 miles off the coast of Hampshire, separated by the Solent. The island has resorts that have been holiday destinations since Victorian times, and is known for its mild climate, coastal scenery, and verdant landscape of fields, downland and chines. The island has been home to the poets Swinburne and Tennyson and to Queen Victoria, who built her much-loved summer title: Isle of Wight text: Ships likely were important to the local economy. During the Dark Ages the island was settled by Jutes as the pagan kingdom of Wihtwara under King Arwald. In 685 it was invaded by Caedwalla, who tried to replace the inhabitants with his own followers. In 686 Arwald was defeated and the island became the last part of English lands to be converted to Christianity, added to Wessex and then becoming part of England under King Alfred the Great, included within the shire of Hampshire. It suffered especially from Viking raids, and was often used as a winter base by Viking title: Isle of Wight text: represented on the island by the Governor of the Isle of Wight until 1995. The island has played an important part in the defence of the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth, and been near the front-line of conflicts through the ages, including the Spanish Armada and the Battle of Britain. Rural for most of its history, its Victorian fashionability and the growing affordability of holidays led to significant urban development during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Historically part of Hampshire, the island became a separate administrative county in 1890. It continued to share the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire title: History of the Isle of Wight text: the last Ice Age, about 8–9000 years ago, as sea levels rose, and the land of southern Britain sunk due to the post-glacial rebound of the north that had been under the ice. This flooded the former river valley of the Solent to the north, and the future English Channel to the south, and cut Wight off from the island of Britain. Once open to the sea, tidal scouring widened the Solent. The first inhabitants are assumed to have been hunter-gatherers migrating by land during the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) period, as the ice age began to recede and the