Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
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Features & Stories

Quack medicines and their advertising were big business in Victorian times. Squire Knight's eye ointment claimed to cure all diseases of the eye, approaching even to blindness.


The Victorian cook looked upon the kitchen as her especial domain, a spot where she was "monarch of all she surveyed," and into which no lady "as is a lady" would intrude.


In Georgian times Assembly Rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes. In smaller towns they were often attached to the best inn or library, in Ryde's case, the Marine Library in Union Street.


Christmas cards tied up with pink wool; a drum addressed to "Ringo, London" and more than 2,300 parcelled poultry were some of the items which faced Ryde sorters and postmen at the Ryde Head Post Office, Union Street, over the holiday.


The young people of 3rd Ryde Girls Brigade and Year 6 at Greenmount Primary School have been sharing our research on Ryde men who lost their lives at Jutland and the Somme. They have made two Books of Remembrance with very thoughtful comments.


If you ask people about Royal visitors to Ryde in the past the first person they are likely to think of is Queen Victoria. When resident at Osborne, Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to Ryde, arriving at the Pier, driving through in her carriage, calling on aristocratic neighbours, attending events, even doing a spot of shopping.