Queen Bower, 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]

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]

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]

Ventnor

I was born in Ventnor and although I have lived in Kent for many years Ventnor will always be "My home".

An underground train on the Isle of Wight

I went on a youth hostelling trip to the Isle of Wight in 1969 with my young brother Geoff and indulged our interest in trains by walking along the railway track of disused old steam train routes.

However one memory that sticks out is the strange but true experience of riding on old London Transport tube trains which had... [more]