Isle of Wight Heritage

The Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital in Ryde - now sadly demolished - was the Island's first genuine hospital. There had been a Leper Hospital in Gunville in the 13th century, but it is unknown when this closed. Until...

The Sun at Calbourne has had a remarkable and varied history, having been immortalised in a best seller, then burnt down and rebuilt. It is thought an earlier pub existed in Calbourne on Barrington Row (Winkle Street), complete with its...

Television and radio personality Barbara Kelly opened Sandown Zoo (now Wildheart Animal Sanctuary) in the former Granite Fort on 9th July 1955. The opening was delayed for an hour due to the large number of holidaymakers who were travelling to...

Isle of Wight Steam Railway has launched a new exhibition telling the story of Newport Station, now open at the Newport and Carisbrooke Community Centre. The display will run until November 2025 at the Newport & Carisbrooke Community Council's Community...

33-year-old Ryde man Glen Pelmear was electrocuted when sitting on a stainless steel public toilet on 8th July 1995. A live wire had been left dangling from the ceiling making the entire cubicle - seat, bowl and fittings - 'live'....

An inquest held on 7th July 2005 failed to determine that a body washed up on a Brighstone beach was that of missing peer Lord Lucan. The disappearance of Old Etonian ex-banker Richard John Bingham (Lord Lucan) - known to...

What is now Ventnor Botanic Garden was once the Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest for close to a century. The hospital was the brainchild of Dr Arthur Hill Hassall - who suffered from tuberculosis himself - and...

There is just a single public house in Brighstone today, but historically, 4 pubs and nightclubs have existed in and around the village. The Five Bells Inn: The Five Bells inn was a thatched pub in the rural village that...

Queen Elizabeth II - in her position of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom - reviewed 167 ships of the Royal and Merchant Navies, and those of over 30 other nations, off Ryde on 28th June 2005. Around 40,000...

Frank James Hospital in East Cowes - which sadly fell to rack and ruin at the turn of the century - served the communities of the twin towns at the mouth of the River Medina for over a century. The...