Features & Stories
Silks, satins and wispy shawls were very popular in the mid to late 1830s, where better to buy them than at S. Stephens' in Union Street, Ryde. Their range of Parisian goods were particularly desirable.
Another year when families in Ryde suffered great loss. All adding to the continuing death toll of war and those left, wondering,
" When will it end and what is it all for?"
A newspaper advert from 180 years ago praises Arenean Soap, which is the result of chemical and geological research in the Isle of Wight, among whose enchanting cliffs a substance of a saponaceous nature has recently been discovered.
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.