With some lovely views of Spithead, Binstead is situated in a lovely corner of the island and is known for its quarries that once took stone to the mainland for the construction of Salisbury and Winchester cathedrals.

The Abbot of Quarr built the Norman church and it is said that he "would not have all his tenants and the inhabitants of Binstead come to trouble the Abbey Church."

This 19th century church has retained its Norman chancel which has some 14th century windows and a mediaeval bell. There are also carvings of the old nave  built into the west wall of the new church. A gateway into the churchyard has been made out of the old south doorway (1150) and above it there is a little man with a beard sitting on the head of a strange creature. A grinning face with feathers is set below the bell turret and yet another beast, this time heraldic, is at the head of two lancet windows.

Quatrefoil panelling lines the chancel and stalls and this was once in the chapel at Winchester College, and a piece of Flemish woodwork that represents Aaron and Hur supporting the hand of Moses during the fight between the Amaekites and the Israelites can be seen between two upright posts of a reading desk.

In the graveyard there is a gravestone to a smuggler which has a scene depicting the smuggler fleeing from the revenue men, unfortunately it was he who lost as the officers shot him on board his ship.

Horace Smith who was the author of the famous Ode to and Egyptian Mummy in the porch of the church and on leaving the island he wrote:

Farewell, sweet Binstead! take a fond farewell
From one unused to sight of woods and trees,
Amid the strife of cities doomed to dwell,
Yet roused to ecstasy by scenes like these;
Who could for ever sit beneath thy trees,
Inhaling fragrance from the flowery dell.

Near the end of a lane there is a farmhouse that has lancet windows and a bell cot, a section of a ruined wall can be seen, this is all that remains of old Quarr Abbey which was consecrated in 1132 by Henry de Blois. Practically everybody on the island congregated here to mark the occasion as nearly every inhabitant on the island had helped in its construction. Baldwin de Redvers was the found and he now sleeps here with his wife Adeliza and the two sons Richard the Lionheart loved. Their graves are unmarked, though not forgotten as a new abbey was built by French monks in 1904 with pure red brick walls and pinnacled turrets. It has a short nave and long choir and a continuous line of arches lined west to east and is one of the most striking buildings on the island.

Text courtesy of: Southern Life (UK)