January 1974
Isle of Wight County Press:
Jan 5th 1974: GOODS STOLEN – The Ryde High Street store of Woolworth’s was broken into this week and goods valued at £1101 stolen. A window was forced at the side of the building. Property taken included 26 wrist watches, 230 tape pre-recorded cassettes and cartridges, 30 gas lighters, and over 20 transistor radio sets.
Jan 5th 1974: BLEAK PROSPECT – The Island’s housing problems are likely to worsen during 1974 unless radical action on several fronts is taken. With about 2000 applicants already on the Island councils’ waiting lists, and more joining, the prospect for young couples is bleak.
Jan 5th 1974: CUTS TO SAVE FUEL – The Post Office will stop most second delivery and second collection services in rural areas from Monday in response to Government requests to save 10 per cent of fuel consumption. Nationally the Post Office uses 350,000 gallons of motor fuel weekly. Forty per cent of mileage is on rural services. To comply with the Trade Descriptions Act it will mean that the details of collections on nearly all of the Island’s post boxes be altered.
Jan 5th 1974: SINGING – Ryde Catholic Women’s League handed £24.18 to the Mayor of Ryde’s Goodwill Fund as the result of members singing carols at a live crib in Union Street.
Jan 12th 1974: ISLAND FERRIES – Sealink are raising their fares on the Island from January 27th. The increases have been approved by the Price Commission. Examples of single fares: Ryde-Portsmouth, 43p (40p now); season-tickets, one week, £2.60 (£2.45); one month, £9.40 (£8.90).
Jan 12th 1974: SOMETHING NEW – The Christmas festivities of the Bishop Lovett School provided a new feature for the Friends of the School. As well as a most enjoyable cheese and wine party and an entertaining two-evening concert of music and drama, an out-door tableau attracted a crowd of over 200 worshippers. The setting was the grounds of St. John’s House, and the tableau of the Nativity lit by flambeaux carried by 30 children.
Jan 19th 1974: SCHOOL ROOF – Seventy children aged four and five escaped unhurt when Wednesday’s hurricane force winds ripped the roof off a two-classroom building at St. John’s Road County Primary School, Ryde. There was a rending noise, and pieces of wood began flying up in the wind, several large sections came adrift and sailed away, and in seconds the whole pitched roof was gone. Mr. WATKIN, headmaster, said “We were very lucky indeed no-one was injured.”
Jan 19th 1974: HOVERCRAFT STORM DRAMA – At the height of a gale and stormy seas at Ryde in the early hours of Saturday morning a hovercraft was torn from its moorings at the Quay Road slipway and crashed against Ryde pier. Six police officers also went to give assistance. After attempts to secure the craft as it broke away from its pad, two police officers, Special Constable Dennis REED, and Detective Constable Roger HURST, on top of the craft, plunged into the sea, and a hovercraft captain, TARRANT, in the machine escaped by climbing on to the pier.
Jan 19th 1974: TERRIFIC GUST – Damage was caused to a large Victorian house, 45 The Strand, Ryde, where the outer skin of the flank wall crashed into the two passages between No. 45 and the adjacent house. Overhanging pieces of the outer wall remained suspended and corporation workmen roped off the nearby pavement to prevent any danger from possible further falls. The building is divided into four occupied flats, but none of the tenants were in any danger.
Jan 26th 1974: PANIC BUYING – Island shoppers were warned this week that panic buying of such items as toilet rolls was creating an artificial shortage in some shops. The manager of one Ryde supermarket said, “If only the public will just buy their normal supplies, I am pretty certain, from the information I have that the manufacturers will be able to meet at least 90 per cent of the demand.” Items said to be in short supply include toilet rolls, baked beans, and other canned foods, long-grain rice and soft brown sugar.