Originally Posted by echinosum

Be careful with random Eucs, because many of them will grow a lot more than you were asking for, especially somewhere with mild winters like IoW. For some reason, that kind seems the easiest to get. Though there are more suitable types. I see the particular link Sasha has given you does (unusually)admit to what is large and have some of the smaller ones. I wouldn't say they have the nicest ones though. I'd be looking for E. crenulata, gregsoniana, or pauciflora for choice, though of course we all have our taste in these things.

There's a lot of evergreen trees when you look into it, broadleaf as well as coniferous, including some truly wonderful things if you go look for them. Surely you can find something more interesting than laurel or holly. Unfortunately quite a few lovely things for which you have the climate, such as Gevuina avellana, the Chilean hazelnut, or Crinodendron hookeriana, the Chilean lantern bush, etc, won't grow in your chalky IoW soil. I wonder whether Maiten (Maytenus boaria) would grow for you? They do notably well at Porthmadog.