Shanklin

Shanklin is what Sandown Bay looks like after it has put its slippers on, poured a sherry and stopped pretending it has anywhere to be. The Old Village does a brisk trade in thatched-roof Englishness for people who like their nostalgia served with a cream tea, and the seafront does the deckchair-and-arcade routine to a clientele who remember when it meant something. Salcombe it is not, and it has the dignity not to try. It is a town that knows exactly what it is, which is more than can be said for most of the people moving here.