An undersea telephone cable between Stone Point in Hampshire and Gurnard Bay – connecting the Island with the mainland – was laid on 30th June 1897.
The Isle of Wight has its place in telephone history as the 1st long distance telephone calls in the United kingdom were made here on 14th January 1878, when Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone to Queen Victoria at Osborne House in East Cowes.
Queen Victoria apparently liked the telephone so much she wanted to buy one.
The 1st Public Telephone Office on the Isle of Wight opened in Lind Street Ryde on 28th February 1897.
By March, a further office was opened on the High Street in Shanklin. At that time, the seaside town had as many as 5 telephone subscribers.
The telephone reached the County Town by 16th October when a Post Office telephone exchange was completed.
It was reported in The Vectis of 30th October 1897 that:
“The system of telephonic communication throughout the Island is now on the eve of completion.
Article continues below this advertisement “The towns of Ryde, Cowes and Newport are already in telephonic communications with each other and the trunk system throughout Great Britin and Ireland.
“We are informed that all the work remaining to be done at Shanklin will be completed early next week, and at Sandown and Ventnor only a few days later.”
By March 1900, there were around 280 subscribers for the whole Island, with the main centres being Ryde with over 60 numbers, Newport with more than 50, Cowes 37, Ventnor 34 and Shanklin 28.
Where would the Island be without the mainland.
How many persons do you know who are living on the Island have parents or grandparents
who were born on the Island!, majority of persons I know have been born on
the mainland and moved to the Island.
Some children may have 1 parent who was born on the Island and 1 parent
who was born on the mainland.
(Maybe they are a Groc/caulk
What has that got to do with the article or indeed anything?
Rob It would be nice to know how many persons from the mainland
make up the population of this small island 126 years later.
Good point Nigel
My Father was born in London and his family moved to the Island many
years ago, my father met an Island lady and tied the knot and had 2 children on the
Island, myself and my brother .
When I bought my house, there was an old newspaper in the loft from the sixties that said a diver salvaging metal cut through the mainland/Island phone cable. It took him a week to find the ends it said.
Around 2010/2011, one of the three subsea telecom cables linking the island to the mainland was damaged in a similar way. BT didn’t have sufficient spare capacity to make up for the damaged cable, so ended up installing additional microwave links from Ryde exchange to Thornhill near Southampton to carry narrowband traffic until the cables were replaced in 2014.
fascinating info is that …cheers
And 126 years later nothing has improved . Cant get a phone signal from my house to my workshop 25 yards away .