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
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 Department Store: Sharpe’s department store in Ventnor High Street was founded in 1893 and continued to trade right up to 1982, by which time it occupied three sets of premises on Ventnor High Street, all extending over two floors, and a photograph shows staff posing for a photographer on the day of the Coronation… read more »
The Rugen, Park Avenue, Ventnor by Michael Freeman. ‘Park View’, the rather grand late-Victorian house that stands at the western end of Park Avenue in Ventnor, is familiar to many older residents as the building that was used to teach the children from Albert Street School during the 1939-45 war. It was built about 1890… read more »
Our new publication, ‘Oh Day of Days!’ has been produced to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June 1944, and is available in the Heritage Centre (price £4.50), and from our online shop (price £6.50 including postage and packing). Along with a new exhibition, which will be available in the Heritage Centre… read more »
The Central Kitchen, by Colin Beavis The Central Kitchen was built at the top of Lowtherville Road in Upper Ventnor in 1946. It adjoined St. Margaret’s School. A small army of cooks and support staff provided 500 meals a day to local schoolchildren. In the 1990s, the building was converted for community use as St. Margaret’s… read more »