Dean Crossing and the new Whitwell Road. The new Whitwell Road linking the village to Ventnor was opened in 1890, and seven years later the railway arrived in Whitwell as part of the Newport, Godshill and St Lawrence Company’s branch from Merstone. A photo from 1920 shows Dean Crossing, with the pedestrian bridge and the crossing-keeper’s… read more »
This month’s talk will feature Andy Butler and Alan Clark presenting The Almost Magic Lantern Show, using scans from our collection of glass slides accompanied by recent photographs of the same locations to create a journey through time along the Undercliff from Blackgang to Shanklin. (This is a slightly revised version of the Ventnor Fringe… read more »
Holy Trinity Church Ventnor, by Michael Freeman. The article includes a picture of the Church taken shortly after completion in 1862, showing its unusually narrow tower and steeple. The site of the Church had earlier been considered for the terminus of the planned railway line to Ventnor; at that time the intended route was via… read more »
The Buddle Inn, Niton Undercliff, by Michael Freeman. It is thought that the Buddle in was originally a farmhouse, but the photograph here shows it in around 1910 when it had been a drinking house for some three centuries, and the licensee was probably John Cotton. In the 1830s it provided contraband liquor from the… read more »
Buona Vista Road rubbish tip. By Michael Freeman. In December 1903 19 year old Wallace Lowe and his horse had an incredible escape when they fell down the cliff at the end of Buona Vista Road while tipping a load of rubbish into the sea. The article describes the history of the road, and the… read more »
Wheeler’s Bay to Monk’s Bay coastline, by Michael Freeman. An image from an Edwardian post card shows the coastline at Wheeler’s Bay and the cliffs beyond, the photograph taken from the site of Ventnor Gas Works. The view changed fundamentally with the construction of the revetment in the 1980s which extended to Horseshoe Bay and… read more »
Carfax Pension, by Michael Freeman. The Carfax in St Lawrence, next door to the St Lawrence Inn in this photograph, seems to have been built in the 1860s, probably as a hotel – the Inn was once described as the hotel tap. The French word ‘Pension’ means a boarding house, and may have been chosen… read more »
Updated: Ventnor Church of England Junior School Pupils 1961 or 1962 This article, by Michael Freeman, includes two photos showing boys and girls posed outside the school in 1961 or 1962 when Rene Howe and Dorothy Atkins were teachers there. Several of the children were unidentified when this article was published in August this year,… read more »
Ventnor Longshoremen, By Michael Freeman. The article includes a photograph of Ventnor beach in June 1985 and a description of how things have changed over the years, and the talents and work of longshoremen like including Jim and Fred Blake and the Spencer family. PDF of article available here: Ventnor Longshoremen
Avro Seaplane on Ventnor beach, By Michael Freeman. The article describes the short local pleasure flights popular in the years after the First World War, and includes a photograph of an Avro 504L seaplane, a WW1 wooden trainer aircraft, beached at Ventnor on 17 Oct 1919. PDF of article available here: Avro Seaplane on Ventnor… read more »