Magic lantern slide circa 1900.Victorian/Edwardian.Social History.Freshwater is a large village and civil parish at the western end of the Isle of Wight, England. Freshwater Bay is a small cove on the south coast of the Island which also gives its name to the nearby part of Freshwater..Freshwater sits at the western end of the region known as the Back of the Wight or the West Wight which is a popular tourist area.[6] Freshwater is close to steep chalk cliffs. It was the birthplace of physicist Robert Hooke and was the home of Poet Laureate Alfred Lord Tennyson.