Cowes
Cowes is an English seaport town and also civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, dealing with the smaller sized town of East Cowes on the east bank. Both communities are linked by the Cowes Drifting Bridge, a chain ferry. The population was 9,663 in the 2001 census, which doubled during the regatta in early August. The population at the 2011 census was 10,405. Charles Godfrey Leland's 19th century verses explain the communities poetically as "Both great Cowes that in loud thunder roar/This on the eastern, that the western shore". Cowes has actually been viewed as a home for international yacht auto racing because the beginning of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1815. It provides its name to the world's earliest normal regatta, Cowes Week, which occurs each year in the initial week of August. Later, powerboat races are held. Much of the community's design is still heavily affected by the style of luxuriant building that Prince Albert popularised.