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Seaview memories

Here are memories of Seaview and the local area. You can start now: Add your own Memory of Seaview or a Seaview photo.

My Special Place

Yacht Club c1955
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My Seaview experiences started from shortly after I was born and go right up to the present day. I'm from Reading, Berks, but our whole family used to rent a big house somewhere in Seaview every summer for a holiday. I was born in 1962, so I joined the Seaview summer holiday scene shortly after that. The family started with my maternal grandmother and extended down to her four children and then all of their children (16 of us). For several years we rented a house called Windy Ridge in Ferneyclose Road (which drops right down to Seagrove Bay). Then, for another several years, we rented the Garnett's house, Horestone Point, further on up Ferneyclose Road. After that, the different chunks of the family split up to do their own separate holidays. But my parents carried on with Seaview holidays, renting a house on Seaview Duver for some years. Oh, and one year we rented either Salterns or Saltmeads Cottage at the junction of Bluett Avenue and the Duver!... Read more

My Second Home

I spent much of my childhood and teenage years staying at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Ryde Road as my gran lived there too and latterly my mum until 2002. The houses have not changed much over the years but there are a lot more cars parked there now in the summer months!

I have such happy memories of all my holidays spent there and would love to retire to the Island some day.

MY FIRST JOB

I worked at the Pier Hotel in the summer of 1960. It was my first job. I was a commis waiter ..didn't really like it at all...but I was billeted out at a nearby village.
I had my first drunk drinking scrumpy mixed with cheap red wine with Italian waiters from the hotel in the pub in Seaview..an experience which brought me great suffering and required my taking the next day off work in order that I would not die !

I also was fortunate to meet a lovely Dutch young woman,Riet Berendsen, 4 years my senior, who was an au pair girl at the hotel. We kissed and held hands on the sea wall. We saw each other briefly in London after the summer but I was too immature for things to progress any further...oh to turn the clock back !!

Memories of Isle of Wight

An Underground Train on The Isle of Wight

Railway Station c1955
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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!

View From my Balcony

The Town Hall 1892
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The church was the view from my flat balcony in Lind Street 1983 and beyond was the sea.

My Old Gran, 1950s

The Town Hall 1892
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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

Bembridge my Home

High Street c1955
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I was born in Seaview but my mother and grandparents lived at "erndene' Steyne rd.
I went to the Bembridge villiage school and attended the villiage church. I was free to roam the villiage aand beaches at will as the villiage was very safe for children.
I and my family would swim at Lane end and at Forelands and Howegate, We would look for winkles and crabs and also would go mushrooming on the downs. My father was a pilot so we spent time at the Bembridge airport. We lived part of the time on Toad Hall houseboat on the harbour. My mother taught me to love Bembridge and she knew it very well(as did I) She knew the names of all the wildflowers and where all the birdsnests were and she taught me to respect the sea and the tides. What an idealic upbringing it was, I have only the fondest memories.

Happy Days

The Royal Spithead Hotel c1955
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Seeing this picture of the Spithead Hotel has taken me back to my childhood in Bembridge. I have very happy memories playing with my friend Carola who was the owner's daughter. We would play for hours in this hotel making up endless games, hiding in all the rooms and having great fun although sometimes it was a bit spooky out of season when we had the whole hotel to our selves. Happy days.  

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