Nostalgic memories of Ventnor's local history
Share your own memories of Ventnor and read what others have said
For many years now, we've been inviting visitors to our web site to add their own memories to share their experiences of life as it was when the photographs in our archive were taken. From brief one-liners explaining a little bit more about the image depicted, to great, in-depth accounts of a childhood when things were rather different than today (and everything inbetween!). We've had many contributors recognising themselves or loved ones in our photographs.
Why not add your memory today and become part of our Memories Community to help others in the future delve back into their past.
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Displaying all 10 Memories
I stayed at the Glenavon Hotel in August 1980 with my Wife and two children for 9 nights at a total cost of £168.30 (I still have the hotels 1979 Tariff and my receipt), we had a lovely time and have been back to the Island on a couple of occassions and will be returning again in early July this year. Mr Keith Odgers Norfolk
We stayed in a hotel called Glenavon which we think is, or was, in Ventor in September
1961, this being our honeymoon. We have been back to Ventor several times, without any sucess in finding the hotel. We would be interested in hearing from anyone who knows if the hotel still exists as the Glenavon or any other name, or maybe it has been pulled down? We would appreciate if anyone has any information, so we could retrace our memories of our honeymoon.
I was at the home in 1946/7 and remember going on the Downs with the nuns, and the crashed plane from the war, up there.
Every summer in the 1980s I would pester mum and dad to play on the mini Island, I loved it. I loved the fact that it was a little bit scary when you lost your footing on the slippery mounds of the 'downs' and you would slide into the 'sea'. I could have stayed there for hours as a child, much to my parents' boredom! Ventnor will always be sharp stones in your feet on the beach, hopping over the hot road for a mint choc chip ice cream then into the Gaiety in the height of summer.
Sept 1971, and Ventnor became the place of our honeymoon. We had a fabulous week, the weather was good, a lovely hotel just up the hill from the beach. At the end of it, we were very brave and returned to the mainland by hovercraft - a really new form of transport.The large one's now in Ryde, well ours would have looked like a dinky toy next to them - six people and the captain filled the craft. Since then, we have ...see more
Sorry to see an apartment building on the site of the old Metropole Hotel. As a young lad from Scotland, around 1960, I took a job there as a waiter with a friend. I remember taking part in a waiters' race along the promenade. Wilfred Pickles and his wife Mabel stayed at the hotel whilst recording their radio show at the local theatre. I forget the name of the show. It was a quiz show and he would say if the contestant won: "Give 'em the money Barney."
Alastair.
I worked as a nurse at the hospital from 1955 to 1956 and went back for the first time in June of this year. It was really nostalgic to be there again, even though the hospital has long gone the Botanic Gardens are still as I remember some of them from being the hospital gardens. The car park is where the hospital used to be and I could still visualise the buildings, the lodge is now belonging to the ...see more
I well remember walking home past St. Catherine's one cold dark evening, prior to Christmas when the choir to be practising for the Christmas services. The lights through the beautiful stained glass windows and the sound of the choir was all the encouragement I needed to join and I subsequently spent an enjoyable few months, trying to sing, which ended somewhat abruptly, when they found out where the noise was coming from. Happy Days
We moved to Ventnor from Carisbrooke in 1947, when I was 6 years old, so my memory isn't too good, but I remember an Avro Anson, which was obviously carrying newspapers, as the Ventnor Mercury confirmed, to the Channel Islands, colliding with one of the Radar Station pylons. Wreckage was widely scattered and at least one engine and an undercarriage leg came to rest in Combe Bottom, in bushes adjacent to the small arms ...see more
I was born in Ventnor and although I have lived in Kent for many years Ventnor will always be "My home".
