The villages of Bembridge and Yaverland were once a separate island, off the coast of the rest of the Isle of Wight. There was a channel of water called Brading Haven, which separated the two islands. Before the time in which Queen Victoria was the queen of the United Kingdom, the village of Bembridge only had a few huts and farm houses. It was only when a church was built in 1827 that the village started to grow.