Isle of Wight Heritage

A travelling oculist who preyed on the credulous poor of Freshwater was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment for fraud on this day in 1906 - 120 years ago today.

Up until the dawn of the 20th century, Islanders still kept seasonal customs that bound neighbour to neighbour through the turning of the year.

In the long memory of Islanders, few winters have been as stark or as formative as the great freeze of 1962–63.

Blanche Coules Thornycroft, the Isle of Wight’s trailblazing woman naval engineer and marine designer, died in Bembridge on 30th December 1950 - 75 years ago today.

Alverstone Station on the Isle of Wight remains a well-preserved reminder of the Island’s rural railway past. The station opened on Monday, 1st February 1875, as part of the Newport to Sandown line, serving 19th century farmers, residents and day-trippers....

80 years ago, Islanders greeted Christmas Day 1945 with gratitude, relief and a heartfelt sense of returning normality.

Thieves staged a real-life Grinch-style raid on Newport Football Club on Christmas Eve 1995, stealing its safe and thousands of pounds. As festive lights twinkled across the Isle of Wight, criminals were at work at St George’s Park. Under the...

A chain once synonymous with quality fish and chips across the Isle of Wight, Tony’s became a household name through the hard work and vision of local businessman Tony Oatley...

The Ryde–Newport line carried its first passengers on 20th December 1875 - 150 years ago today.

Born into poverty in an Isle of Wight fishing village, Sophie Dawes died a baroness at the centre of a royal mystery.