Cool Places
Arreton Old Village
Main Road Arreton PO30 3AA
Somewhat the archetypal country tourist attraction, with sprawling sheds and farm buildings housing a wildly varied assortment of local crafts and oddities, Arreton Old Village (‘100 years behind the times’) manages to stay on the fascinating side of quaint. The Vintage Penny Arcade, with its massed ranks of coin-operated amusement machines, is a big hit with kids. There’s also a forge, a brewery, a medieval carp pond and no shortage of antiques and arts, crafts and pottery shops, several with craftspeople demonstrating their skills. The Shipwreck Centre, houses a lifeboat museum and is crammed with an extraordinary selection of salvaged ephemera brought together by its curator (a wreck-diver).
