The 1st train departed from Ryde Pier Head bound for Ventnor on 12th July 1880 – 143 years ago today.
The steam train disappeared in clouds of smoke into the newly-built tunnel just beyond Ryde Esplanade station then remerging out of the tunnel before reaching Ryde St John’s station a mile-and-a-quarter away.
St John’s Road was the only railway station in Ryde prior to the building of the railway pier. Passengers would be conveyed there from the pier head by horse-drawn tram which would pass through a property at Cornwall Street.
The history of Ryde piers may be found in the following Island Echo article.
The line between Ryde Pier Head and Ryde St John’s was owned by the Portsmouth and Ryde Joint Railway. This company was a partnership between the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and London and South Western Railway and connected with their ship services to Portsmouth.
The trains were run by 2 separate Island companies: the Isle of Wight Railway (operating the service to Ventnor) and Isle of Wight Central Railway (operating the service to Cowes via Newport).
Not everyone welcomed the coming of convenient transport for Ryde, believing this would destroy the Island’s charm and beauty. Others also regretted that trains would bring the working classes to the Island, which had previously been the preserve of the aristocratic few.
On 17th July 1880, the Isle of Wight Observer reported:
“There are not a few amongst us who assure us that the Island is becoming gradually and surely spoiled. They contend that the increase of its population, and the consequent growth of its towns is gradually destroying its picturesqueness, and causing it to lose its chief charm.
“There was a time when the Island was accessible only for the upper ten, but this is a democratic age. The result has been that it was impossible long to preserve for such a charming spot aristocratic seclusion and hauteur.
“The number of visitors to the Island therefore caused the projection of the railway from Ryde to Ventnor, and its opening was the means of elevating the places at the back of the Wight into important and progressing towns.
“When that railway was commenced there were not wanting people to say that it would be the ruin of Ryde, and that all the visitors would be taken to the back. That prediction does not appear to have been verified up to the present time, if we may judge of the increase in the size of Ryde, which has doubled its population.”
Earlier this week Island Echo reported on the re-opening of the railway line up the Pier following improvements works which began last October.
The entrance to Ryde Pier in the photo looked lovely.
They knew how to do things in the Victorian age.
It really does look better without cars
Those days will son return when cars are banned in a desperate attempt to stop climate change
At least most would have been truly British coming back then. A really interesting article, thank you
Truly British coming back….what were they when they departed??
You went quick from “railway” to “racist” — I wonder if people in places invaded and colonized by Britain hearken back to a time when they had only their “true” inhabitants too!
And THAT’s about the last time the Island trains ran on time!!
Much better than the Interchange eyesore in Ryde 2023
Back in the Victorian times people had brains.
As a child my grandmother told me one of her brothers died while working in the single box next to Ryde Eastpanade Tunnel due to drowning at the sea at high tide flooded it and they could not pump the water out quick enough
My family have thought for a long time that preserving and running the old steam trains instead of electric would have been a real boost to the Island. I think the Victorians would be aghast at the size of the towns now. How right they were when they predicted the island would lose a lot of it`s charm.
What an inane comment. Just very odd and pointless things to write. “If only …”