"To make the past present, to bring the distant near . . . to call up our ancestors before us with all their peculiarities of language, manners, and garb, to show us over their houses, to seat us at their tables, to rummage their old-fashioned ward-robes, to explain the uses of their ponderous furniture . . . " Thomas Babington Macaulay describing what the study of history can do (written in 1828)
Members of Ventnor & District Local History Society receive newsletters through the year. Past newsletters are available here.
You can join the Society at the Heritage Centre, or by coming along to one of our monthly meetings, or by post or bank transfer (please email us for details if you wish to use bank transfer). Please make cheques payable to Ventnor & District Local History Society.
Ventnor Fire Brigade in about 1905. The young lad second from the right is John 'Jack' Jenkins, who at the time of this photograph was the brigade's call-boy. He was killed in action in Palestine with the IW Rifles on 2 November 1917. The photograph, which belongs to the Isle of Wight Fire Brigades Federation, has a full list of the names in the picture, as follows: 'By the horses' - Mr Milligan and son, posting master. Back Row; Billy Atkins (driver), Bob Spencer, Harry Grey, Frank Beavis, Arthur Young. Middle Row; Jim Wheeler, George Pearson, Harber, Bill Bannister. Front Row; Stan Harber, Foreman Charlie Jenkins, Captain Pearson, Bill Pearson, Tom Coleman (caretaker), Jack Jenkins (call boy), Harry Humphreys (caller).