A review of the news from past decades for the week ending 14th October from 30, 40, 60, 70, 90, 100 and 120 years ago.
30 years ago (1993)
RADIO BUFF WINS NATIONAL AWARD
15-year-old Tim Munn from Ventnor won the first prize of £250 from the Radio Society of Great Britain for ‘Young Amateur of the Year’. The purpose of the awards was to increase interest in and introduce more young people to amateur radio.
40 years ago (1983)
PLATE FOUND IN JUNK SHOP SELLS FOR OVER £8,000
A Wedgewood creamware dessert plate made around 200 years previously and bought at an Isle of Wight junk shop for £15 was sold for £8,640 at Christie’s. The plate was a prototype for a 952-piece dinner service made by Wedgewood for Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. Allowing for inflation, the plate would sell for £28,000 today.
60 years ago (1963)
BORSTAL BOYS RECAPTURED
3 15-year-old youths who had absconded from St Swithin’s Approved School in Yarmouth were recaptured 22 miles away in Ryde.
70 years ago (1953)
NEWPORT GASHOLDER EXPLODES
The main gasholder at Newport exploded leading to a column of flames described as being hundreds of feet high rising into the air. Police loudspeaker cars toured the County Town asking housewives to ensure any lights or fires left burning all night were still alight. Fortunately, no one was injured in the explosion.
90 years ago (1933)
RENOVATION OF MOTTISTONE CHURCH BAD NEWS FOR INSOMNIACS
The Ven. R. McKew, Archdeacon of the Island, congratulated the parishioners on having let in 2 of God’s best gifts – light and air – following the extensive renovations of the church. Prior to the renovation, insomniacs had been sent to the church, often with satisfactory results. The Archdeacon claimed that preachers had often been blamed for their congregations falling asleep, but believed they were more often victims of the bad ventilation and dim light of the church.
100 years ago (1923)
NEWPORT SUFFOCATED WITH UNPLEASANT SMELLS
Objectionable smells were brought up at a meeting of Newport Town Council. The smells were said to have emanated from Bone Mills from outside the County Town. Councillor Munden observed that when the wind was in a certain direction, the odour could be smelt at the other end of the town.
The Mayor said he had had numerous complaints from people living in Alexandra Terrace and Castle Road. The Council agreed that something needed to be done. A proposal was made to elect a sub-committee to look into the matter of unpleasant smells in the town.
120 years ago (1903)
SWANS STAND GUARD AT ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTRY HOUSE
Country Life magazine described an incident in which swans frightened off ‘burglars’ at an old country house, said to have been located on the Island. The residents had just retired to bed when they were disturbed by unusual sounds emanating from 2 tame cygnets which lived in the garden.
The female occupants of the house were particularly concerned as a local burglar had recently been released from a term of imprisonment, and traces of his presence had been noticed in the local village. They hastily aroused their male relatives to ascertain the reason for ‘the unwonted commotion among the birds’.
No burglar was found, but the sound of a rapidly driven horse and cart was heard in the distance.
The following day, a row of freshly baked household loaves were found in the porch, left by the local baker.
The stink from the bone mill in Newport was still in the air long after 1923 — I remember it from at least the late 1950s.
Where were the bone mills ??