Features & Stories
Whilst the lady was all for the lower orders having a good time and enjoying themselves, she did wish that it was possible for them to take their pleasures a little more calmly.
The Ryde Temperance Society gave the town's residents a rich treat by securing the services of a highly talented amateur company.
Princess Alice, second daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, married Prince Louis of Hesse on 1 July 1862, in the dining room of Osborne House. Seven months had passed since the death of the Prince Consort and the Royal Family was still in deep mourning.
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.
It is always fun to record the funny things that children say and in March 1905 The Isle of Wight Observer printed a series of such amusing short tales. From the mouths of babes...
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.