Ventnor Heritage Centre

"To Collect, Record and preserve the rich heritage and history of Ventnor and surrounding villages, and share it with local and wider communities"

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Becoming a Member

Membership of the Ventnor & District Local History Society:

We welcome new members and encourage anyone who would like to support the Society’s work to become a member. Thank you to everyone who has currently joined or renewed their membership – we really value your support.

Becoming a member or renewing your membership for 2026:

Annual membership runs from January to December and costs £15.  Membership renewal normally starts in the last week of November.

You can now join the Society or renew your Membership for 2026:

Please contact membership@ventnorheritage.org.uk if you have any questions about how to join or renew your membership.

Gift Aid:

We are a registered charity, and you can boost your donation or membership subscription by 25p of Gift Aid for every £1 by completing this form: Charity Gift Aid Declaration.

Why become a member?

Society members have free entry to our popular monthly meetings with speakers on a wide range of local history subjects. We produce newsletters for our members, and a report on our annual activities and work is sent to all members each year after our AGM.

We are a registered Charity, run and managed by volunteers, and to pay our day-to-day expenses we rely on membership subscriptions, donations from visitors to the Museum and for research work, and income from sales of our publications . If you would like to support the work of the Society, please consider becoming a member.
[Registered Charity No 286848]

 

Exhibitions, stories, images . . .

Underley Shipwreck

The Underley was a full-rigged ship of 1202 tons built in 1866 in Lancaster.  She was owned by a  Captain Chambers who traded as the Liverpool and Lancaster Line between Britain and Australia. Under the command of Captain Tidmarsh, the vessel was outward bound from London To Melbourne when she came ashore between Bonchurch and Dunnose Point in a south-easterly gale on the night of 26th/27th September 1871. There were thirty passengers on board and a cargo of cotton, machinery and gunpowder. Passengers and crew were all saved except for a steward, Richard Tatton-Groves, who  reputedly re-boarded the vessel to save a pet bird and was swept overboard as the vessel started to break up.  Tugs stood by but they were unable to move her and she became a total loss. The Captain and the Pilot were both blamed for negligence at the Court of Inquiry. For many years a finely-carved name plate from the ship adorned a wall on the Landslip path.

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