Our next Society Monthly Meeting will be on 25 April 2025, when Andy Butler and Alan Clark will continue with Part 3 of their series Do you remember? An Isle of Wight Scrapbook. This final part covers 1970 to the present day. Andy and Alan’s talks are always popular, so we look forward to seeing… read more »
The first Independent or Congregational chapel was erected in Ventnor in 1836 at a cost of £500. It was located on the north side of the High Street in part of what is now the main shoppers’ car park. Sometime in the 1840s, the building was enlarged with the addition of a school room. A gallery… read more »
Our final monthly meeting for 2024 will be on 29th November, when Paul Thompson’s talk, ‘Nothing to see here . . . ‘ will be about the recent archaeological ground investigation into the emerging story of the possible WW2 raid on RAF St Lawrence in 1943. As always, the meeting is in the Yarborough Masonic… read more »
Myrtle Bay a postcard tale. By Michael Freeman.
250 Years of Undercliff Art, By Dr Robin McInnes Yarborough Masonic Hall, Grove road, Ventnor 7.30-9.30 pm, 25th October 2024 All Welcome Admission: Free for VDLHS members, £2 for non-members Image: Near St Catherine’s Point, Samuel McCloy, watercolour, 1882
Olivia: Portrait of a Life Olivia Parkes (1881-1962) was born in Walsall in the Midlands, but for many years lived a solitary life in a wooden hut in Myrtle Bay in Ventnor, where local people referred to her as ‘Britannia’.Her Her has been a constant source of fascination to local people and visitors, and this… read more »
We are very sorry to share the sad news that Janet Griffin, a loved and respected colleague, died on Friday 26th July in the Hospice after being diagnosed with cancer four years ago. Janet had been a member of the Ventnor & District Local History Society since the 1980s, and was our Chair for several years… read more »
To mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Normandy Landings we have a special exhibition which concentrates on the experience of the Island and Ventnor and the surrounding district in particular. The exhibition features the the log book from the St Boniface Down (Ventnor) Radar Station for the month of June 1944, and we… read more »
Ventnor’s Pier in the later 1950s: Ventnor’s pier was restored and refurbished in the early 1950s in a style that took inspiration from the 1951 Festival of Britain. Pleasure steamers once again began calling at the pier in the holiday season, with the new pierhead buildings including an avant garde ‘Calypso’ coffee bar as well as… read more »
The Enterprise Motor Launch: The Enterprise motor launch was the largest hand-crafted wooden boat constructed by local longshoremen. It was the work of Jim Blake and Viv Spencer, first taking to the water in the 1964 season. For ten years, it carried visitors along the Undercliff coast, as well as acting as a back-up rescue… read more »