Isle of Wight Heritage

Sandown Barrack Battery - now Battery Gardens housing the Poo Museum - was yet another Island fort built to protect England from the French invasion that never came. This Royal Commission fortification was constructed in response to the 1859 Royal...

The Wheatsheaf Inn in St Thomas's Square, Newport is said to be haunted by the tragic figure of a beautiful young widow, Anne Blundell. It is claimed that the teenage ghost visits the hotel to mourn her husband, John, who died...

Fort Victoria near Yarmouth has a tragic history with at least 61 documented deaths recorded in its environs, despite it never having fired a gun in anger. On 25th April 1908 – in the midst of a terrific snowstorm –...

Garlic was first smuggled to the Isle of Wight from Nazi-occupied France in October 1942. In the first half of the 20th century, garlic was virtually unknown in English cuisine. This proved to be a massive problem for the Free...

John 'Jack' Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, was beaten in the General Election of 28th October 1924, losing to the Conservative candidate Sir Peter McDonald. What goes round comes round. A century on, his great-great nephew Bob Seely - standing for...

The Isle of Wight played a very significant role in the development of the hydrofoil in the 20th century. On 24th July 1968, The Times 'Hovercraft & Hydrofoils special' included the following statement: "The hovercraft and modern hydrofoil are both...

Steynewood (or Steyne Wood) Battery appears to be a comfortable detached house, no different to other expensive properties in East Wight - but it is actually one of the best preserved surviving Victorian batteries in England. Strangely, the battery was...

2 young women - Clara Green and Annie Morgan - were sentenced to terms of imprisonment by Newport magistrates for a series of audacious frauds, the Hampshire Advertiser reported on 18th September 1924. The pair - who were said to...

ORP Thunder (Grom) and ORP Lightning (Błyskawica) were the world's 2 fastest destroyers when launched for the Polish navy in Cowes in 1936. In Britain, shipbuilding is most associated with Newcastle. However, in the century between 1865 and 1965, J...

Popular Liberal MP Steven Ross was elected to the House of Commons for the Isle of Wight constituency for the second time on 10th October 1974. In a 3-cornered contest, Ross took 29,697 votes - 45% of those cast. The...