Alverstone Garden Village, Isle Of Wight

The Londoner rickt@pdq.net

I wonder if any one remembers the cockney kid Fred, who moved into "The Elms" back in 55 at the wonderful age of 15, went to school in Sandown for almost a year until graduation, ended up with the Royal Mail until I eventually returned to London went on to Manchester and then the rest of the world in the oil... [more]

Sandown Youth Hostel

It was 1969 and I had just come down from Manchester and was staying once more in my family home in Hatch End. My parents suggested that I took my younger brother away for a break following his "O" Levels so we set off for a youth hostelling trip to the Isle of Wight.

A ferry crossing from... [more]

Summer Holidays

Many of my childhood summer holidays were spent at Sandown.  We usually stayed at Mrs. Woodnutt's hotel in Carter Street.  Mr. Woodnutt hired out the deck chairs on Sandown Beach.  He also kept ferrets and I was allowed to go and help him look after them.  One of our family's favourite places was the miniature golf course pictured.  It was called... [more]

Grandad's war days and our family hols

My grandfather was stationed on the island "During the War"and was very friendly with a family from Arreton called Hendy. The mother's name was Lil and the father was affectionally called"Tit" (because he was quite small). After the war, my gramps and all the family visited Aunt Lil and Uncle Tit quite frequently. Tit grew his own veg in a back... [more]

An Arreton childhood

I lived in Arreton from birth until my marriage.  My family consisted of Dad and Mum, my sister Gill, my paternal grandparents and a retired infant teacher Miss Muskett. She taught me at home before I began school at the village CE school where I remained from 1936-1942.  Headmaster was Mr White known to us all as Skipper White. At school... [more]

Grandad's cement works

Mr grandfather owned the old cement works in Quay Lane (this picture shows the large building with the tall chimney, centre of frame) and his men used to make concrete roofing tiles there. In the late 1950's the chimney became dangerous and they used expolsives to demolish it. I have some very poor photos of this. His building company was so... [more]

Family Holidays in the 1950s

I was born in 1942 and brought up in Walthamstow in NE London. We were a working class family and Dad always managed to provide us with 2 weeks' holiday somewhere. How we came to holiday in Wroxall is still a bit of a mystery. Neither Mum nor Dad had ever been to the Isle of Wight before. In August 1952... [more]

Grandmother's abode

At the bottom of the hill on the right I believe that tall building belonged to the local bakers. The low building next to it - this side of the bakers - is a thatched cottage where my grandmother lived. My mother grew up here. The cottage housed around 3/4 families but it has now been made into... [more]