Isle of Wight Heritage

Island Echo dives into the news headlines from 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 90, 100 and 120 years ago, including a pair of identical twins from Brading who both broke their legs in the same PE lesson in December 1973....

What is believed to be the most commercially successful can opener of the 19th century was designed, made and patented by Ryde man Henry Knight in 1881. Henry was born in Worthing before moving to the Isle of Wight with...

Island Echo takes a look back at the local headlines from 30, 50, 60, 70, 90, 100, 110 and 120 ago, including the Isle of Wight man who created a synthetic lugworm half-a-century ago. 1993 (30 years ago) CHRISTMAS GIFTS DELIVERED...

Princess Alice – reputedly Queen Victoria’s prettiest daughter – died in Darmstadt, Germany on 14th December 1878. The 3rd child and 2nd daughter of Victoria, Alice was the 1st of her 9 children to die at the comparatively young age...

Father Jacques Kerssmakers The Catholic Herald reported the execution by the Nazis of Quarr Abbey monk Jacques Kerrsemakers in the Netherlands on 10th December 1943. Jacques was born on December 16th 1896 in Eindhoven, Netherlands. He expressed his desire to...

Calbourne & Shalfleet Railway Station had a tranquil, rural West Wight existence until closure, when mysterious happenings occurred halfway along Elm Lane... The official name 'Calbourne & Shalfleet' caused disputes between the 2 villages as the sign on the platform...

Local headlines from 30, 100, 110, 120, 130, and 140 years ago, including a 'disgraceful' paternity case in which a villainous Victorian impregnated his under age servant girl before returning her to the Workhouse. 30 years ago (1993) DANGEROUS TOP...

A Gloster Javelin jet fighter from the R.A.F. Armament and Experimental Research Station at Boscombe Down crashed at Rowborough Corner on 8th December 1955. The pilot - Squadron Leader David Dick - radioed that he was baling out over the...

What might have been... in this week's edition of Made on the Isle of Wight, Island Echo examines some of Saunders Roe's aircraft prototypes and designs that sadly never came to fruition. Most Islanders have heard of the gigantic Princess...

Island Echo takes a look back at the local headlines from 30, 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 years ago, including a Parkhurst prisoner who inherited his dying Canadian father's fortune. 30 years ago (1993) TYCOON FINDS MISSING SON IN...