At the beginning of the last century. Stokes Bay with its fine uninterrupted view of the Solent and the Isle of Wight, its beach and its good fishing became recognised as a most desirable place to live. It attracted people like Lord Ashburton, the Marchioness of Bath. the Rt. Hon. John Wilson Croker who built the Alverbank, senior naval and military officers and many distinguished people. In 1826 the Marquis of Anglesey laid the first stone of what later became the Village of Anglesey or Angleseyville. The village boasted a commodious Bath House, Reading Room, bathing machines, a pier built by the London & South Western Railway from which passengers embarked for the Isle of Wight ferryboats, terraces and villas, and rapidly developed into a flourishing and fashionable watering place. In 1840 Mr. Robert  Cruickshank expressed the wish to build a Church in Anglesey Village.