Cecil Stanley Dennes (known as Tommy), was born in South Street, Ventnor in 1896 and began his working life as a fruiterer’s porter, according to the 1911 Census. A few years later, he had become a butcher, before enlisting in the 8th Btn Hampshire Regiment as a Rifleman in January 1914. He served for 3… read more »
Madeira Hall is one among many of Bonchurch’s finest mansions. Located down a long drive leading south off the easterly end of Trinity Road, it is thought to have been built by a Mr. Claxton sometime between 1800 and 1820. ‘The Hall’, as it was for many years once known, was briefly the home of… read more »
The west end of Ventnor’s Esplanade was a popular place for the middle-classes to promenade in the 1860s and 1870s. Walkers on the esplanade would have had clear views of Danebury House on the bend of Bath Road with just beyond it, but facing seaward, three further buildings: Landsdowne House, Brooklyn Villa and Milanese Villa, all… read more »
Just a quick reminder to all our members of our first 2023 meeting which is today, Friday 27 January. The speaker will be Alex Peaker, Collections Officer, Dinosaur Island Museum, on ‘The Geology and Paleontology of the Isle of Wight’. The meeting / talk is at the Masonic Hall on Grove Road at 7:30 pm…. read more »
Fred was born at 80 Albert Street in 1910 and attended the National School on that street, taught by F J J Macey. He was the son of Frederick Nobbs, a ‘four-in-hand’ coachman. Driving in some shape or form seems to have been in the blood, for the young Fred started driving a motor vehicle… read more »
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 »