Ryde memories
Here are memories of Ryde and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Ryde or a Ryde photo.
My Old Gran, 1950s
My name is Peter Smith. I have some wonderful memories of Ryde. The flying boats in East Cowes is one of them. The trams that ran through Ryde, before the underground stock was bought in from London. I remember being severly told off one day for stripping naked and jumping in the boating lake, bear in mind I was only about 7 or 8 I think, lol. I don't know if others would remember my gran, she worked in the greengrocers in the high street, and I can picture her always stood outside the shop front in her white overall/outfit. She was a jolly old soul and very well known as I remember. She was originally Smith, then Pink, then Bartlett, as she was married 3 times lol. Her last husband, Gus Bartlett as I knew him, was a prison officer at one time in Parkhurst, then I believe he joined the British Rail in the Isle of Wight. They lived in Green Street, Ryde. I lived in East... Read more
View From my Balcony
The church was the view from my flat balcony in Lind Street 1983 and beyond was the sea.
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 been brought over to the Isle of Wight to run an electric train service from Ryde Pier to Shanklin. I took some colour photos which I still have all these forty years later and it looks to me as though the tube rains had been painted a sort of greeny-blue colour. It was an enjoyable short holiday mostly remembered for this odd experience of our journey on a tube train by the sea!
Memories of Isle of Wight
Youthful Pranks (in Binstead)! 1958 - 1962
I am a 67 year old British citizen and have lived for over 40 years as a rock musician in Germany. I went to Ryde School in the 60s. After I left I was lonely living in London and used come back to the island most weekends - to my friends in - wait for it! of COURSE....in Binstead. I used to stay at the parents of my schoolfriend Ian Squire, Mr & Mrs Holmes-White. Ian went to Australia later. Sometimes I stayed at Major Carleton's villa where us boys used to slip out in the night and have wild parties near the beach with the Au Pair girls from the villa. My friend Brian Read from Ryde had an old car - very old. He used to drive around in it with up to 9 passengers. It was a SMALL car! On one occasion we were caught by a bobby, not very difficult when we had two passengers riding on the foot boards on each side of the car... Read more
Lydia And Wendy
I worked in the big hotel in Sandown, and a couple of hotels on the very seafront with two girls from Binstead, what fun we had, laughter and tears went together. I've lost touch with them but would love to hear what they are up to now and where they live. I remember Browns boating lake in Sandown, and one of the hotel managers on the front named Ken, and Itl the chipl who worked in the kitchen. The stadd were a very happy lot, Lydia and Wendy were very good friends to me, Wendy's mother worked in a shoe shop in Ryde, they lived opposite each other in a close at Binstead in council houses. I also took holidays at Brambles Chine Holiday Camp when I was very young, and remember the rambles across the downs and walking to Freshwater, they were such happy carefree days. I've always thought what a pretty place the Isle of Wight is, also visits to Osbourne House. So please, Wendy and Lydia, if... Read more
Binstead in The 'Big Freeze' 1962-63
I was born in Newnham Road Binstead in 1955 and have happy memories of the freedom of living there. Being able to walk to Binstead school and walking alone to my godmother's farm (Newnham Farm) looking for bird's nests (quite legal then!) without a care. However the most distinct memory was waking up on Boxing day 1962 and seeing the snow. The lanes were completely blocked. Wearing short trousers in the freezing cold to school (Mr Shaw would not allow 'long ones') with a coke stove to heat the classroom. There was still snow on the ground on my birthday in February, it never seemed to go!
Binstead was so quiet then that we could hear the swings on the 'rec' creaking from our house, the sound travelling over the allotments and up Kings Road.
I have visited a few times and every thing seems so small and there are so many cars and our house in Newnham Road is no longer called 'Windward', but Badgers!
Happy memories!
The War Years
I was born in Ryde in 1938 and when war broke out, my mother and myself moved in with my grandparents, Laurence and Lucy Stroud (nee Meecham) into what is now Wellwood Grange but in those days was just Wellwood. It was the home of the Tattenhall family and my grandfather had been their butler, so when they nipped off to Algiers for safety (!) we had the empty house all to ourselves. It was like something out of the Munsters, huge, dark and frightening to a kid, every shadow cast by the gas light of candle was a monster. In addtion, the house was like a cross between the Royal Armoury and the Natural History museum. The walls were covered in things which killed people, guns, knives, swords and many other implements which I won't describe! Every flat surface had on it a stuffed bird or small animal in glass cases, it's a wonder that flora and fauna on the Island were not wiped out! The land on which... Read more
Catholic Boy Scouts of Ireland 1st Annual Camp in England
As a 12 year old boy scout from Dublin, Ireland I remember that our troop (the 26th St. Columba's) was the first from Ireland to hold our annual camp outside of Ireland. I remember camping at Quarr Abbey near the Solent. We swam in the Solent and I can remember one day swimming when one of the big liners passed by and we felt the swell from the ship. I remember the monks, who didn't speak to us and I thought that they were Cistercians. They worked in the garden and farm. Our scout master was a Mr. Hughes who had a connection with someone from the Abbey. If anyone has any memories of this time I would be delighted to hear. I am now 85 years old and recently visited Quarr but Fr. Luke was ill at the time and therefore I could not talk to anyone who could help me.
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