Bill Bates was born in Birmingham in 1898 and came with his family to Ventnor in 1911. His parents had taken on the Globe Hotel in the High Street and Bill became an apprentice with Martins, the local coachbuilders. Returning from the War in 1920, he started up a road carrier business, running motor lorries… read more »
In the run up to Christmas 1952, the Isle of Wight Mercury reported how some traders in the town had made an excellent job decorating their windows in the Christmas spirit. Sharpe’s department store and Gibbs the outfitters were both noted, however, pride of place went to Spiller’s fruiterers. Another trader who had enlivened the look of the… read more »
Giles & Ponder established a music warehouse in Ventnor in the year 1881. Initially at 15 High Street, they moved to 3 Spring Hill and then in 1912 moved again to 95 High Street. The business was taken over after only 7 years by the Knight family and was run by Wavell Knight until his… read more »
Theodore Ridley Saunders designed many houses in and around Ventnor – probably the most impressive and recognisable being the terrace known as Alexandra Gardens (where Sir Edward Elgar, one of Britain’s greatest composers, spent his honeymoon in 1889). Many of his commissions were for Public Works, notably the water supplies for the Isle of Wight… read more »
Many locally well-known people are buried in our local churchyards and in the Cemetery in Upper Ventnor. One such grave (probably the largest plot in the whole of the cemetery) is that of Theodore Ridley Saunders, the architect of St. Margaret’s Church in Lowtherville Road, which opened in 1883. Theodore was born in Bethnal Green,… read more »
In the 1920s, Ventnor Council School produced a series of highly professional-looking school magazines, printed by the Romsey Press and with Miss R. Buckley B.A. as its ‘Editress’, Margaret Hadenham as its ‘Assistant Editress’, working within a committee that included Brenda Brigden, Maude Tyrell, and Dorothy Westmore, in turn supported by Manager Mr. S.J. Guppy… read more »
Speakers: Hazel Pullen and Sharon Beddard from the Isle of Wight Family History Society on The Voluntary Aid Detachment on the Isle of Wight, 1914-1918 The meeting will be in the Yarborough Masonic Hall on Grove Road, 7,30-9 pm. All welcome (attendance is free for members and £2 for non-members. Members please note: As there… read more »
In the last Century, there was a staggering range of nicknames for the people who lived in Ventnor. It was once common for almost everyone in the town to be nicknamed. Some names reflected what the individuals did, so ‘Fishy Frampton’, not surprisingly had a wet fish shop. ‘Sooty Humphries’, was predictably a chimney sweep,… read more »
In July 1965 Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh came on tour to the Isle of Wight, paying a short visit to Ventnor as part of it. Arriving in Ventnor, the royal visitors went first to Ventnor Park where the Queen planted a tree to commemorate the occasion and met Mr Frederick Yelf… read more »
Vivian Christopher Joseph Yorke was born in 1896 in Norfolk and, after spending his early years in India with his parents, came to Ventnor in 1907. In April 1909, at the age of just 13, along with Mr Alfred Du Feu, he founded the first ever group of scouts in Ventnor, named ‘Bull Patrol’. Mr… read more »