Isle of Wight Heritage

An escaped convict's Christmas holiday came to a dramatic end at the Royal Marine Hotel in Cowes on 28th December 1924. William Whitworth Miller - a notorious international criminal and escapee - had escaped from a Parkhurst Prison working party...

In a one-off edition of Isle of Wight Place Names, Island Echo examines some of the curious monikers of locations in and around the county town of Newport. If you were born, brought up or live in Newport, have you...

A Ryde woman had a lucky escape when she opened her canvas holdall on 26th December 1994 to discover a live bomb inside. The 24-year-old woman, from Slade Road in Oakfield, had bought the bag in October of that year...

'Ghostly revels' at Knighton Gorges, near Newchurch, hit the national headlines over the Christmas period back in 1924 - 100 years ago. Partying at Knighton Gorges during the Roaring Twenties was a somewhat strange idea, as the manor house had...

For a little over half a century Whitwell Station acted as the main transport hub for Whitwell and the sparsely populated South Wight area. Many Isle of Wight stations - for example Godshill and Calbourne - were some distance from...

Private Peter Grundy, of Lower Highland Road in Ryde, was killed by an explosion in Forkhill, Northern Ireland on 16th December 1979 - 45 years ago today. Peter was born on the Isle of Wight in 1958 and enlisted in...

Island Echo examines 4 of the most famous tunnels burrowing their way through the Isle of Wight landscape. There are many tunnels on the Island - both rumoured and those we have concrete evidence for. Of course, we know of...

A Cowes mother was reunited with her 17-month-old baby - who had been kidnapped at gunpoint - on 9th December 1974. 32-year-old Rosamonde Heib had chased the man in her nightdress after he had snatched her baby Helmut, but the...

Wroxall Station was at the heart of village life for the 100 years it was in operation - from 1866 to 1966. The development of Wroxall owed much to the railway. Many of the houses in the main street were...

The last keepers at The Needles were evacuated from the lighthouse on 8th December 1994, bringing an end to 136 years of manned operation. On that day, the weather almost succeeded to keep the lighthouse keepers in situ as furious storms...