Isle of Wight Heritage

Island Echo examines the history of Bembridge Fort, said to have been 'the most secret place in the British Isles' during World War II. Bembridge Fort was built between 1862-67 under the supervision of 2 Royal Engineers, who lived in...

An 'out-of-control floating bomb' menacing shipping off the Isle of Wight hit national headlines on 5th October 1974. The 'bomb' was a blazing cargo ship loaded with 150 tons of dynamite, drifting helplessly across packed English Channel shipping lanes. A...

The Daily Mirror reported that sharks had disappeared from around the coasts of the Isle of Wight on 3rd October 1974. In an article entitled 'The Last of the Big 'Uns', the Mirror claimed that the Isle of Wight area...

Mew Langton - probably the Isle of Wight's most famous brewery - had 144 pubs dotted around the Isle of Wight at its zenith, around 1 for every 1,000 inhabitants. It has even been claimed that Mew Langton produced the...

A Ventnor hotelier highlighted the 'evil' of Mods, Rockers and Leatherjackets in a letter to the Isle of Wight Mercury on 25th September 1964. That Saturday night, a fight had broken out near Alexandra Gardens, which resulted in several men...

Edwin Snow - who tolled the curfew bell morning and evening in Newport for over 30 years until he was incapacitated by illness - passed away on this day in 1899, 125 years ago. Until Mr Snow's death, a curfew...

Today Puckpool is a public park, but from 1865 to 1928 it was the strongest fortification protecting Portsmouth and the wider Solent. The name 'Puckpool' derives from a pool belonging to a 'puck', an Old English word for demon or...

Former Conservative MP Charles Harvey Combe - who lived in Bonchurch - was swindled out of £3, a court heard on 18th September 1924. Charles Combe was a very wealthy man, who had been a director of the brewery firm...

Did you know that the world's first ever tea packets were produced in Newport? The inventor of the tea packet - John Horniman - established the largest and most prestigious tea brand of the 19th century. The firm he created...

A Cowes inquest was unable to determine whether the death of the drowned 38-year-old man was accidental or otherwise on 13th September 1924. The body of the deceased – Charles Walter Morgan – had been found at Salt Mead in...