July 1968
Isle of Wight Times:
July 4th 1968: FAT FLYING – At the Ryde Roads Committee meeting, held on June 6, the committee was told about a petition from 20 residents objecting to fish and chip and hot dog vans parking along the Esplanade in the evenings. Because of legal aspects, the rest of the discussion was in camera.
July 4th 1968: WRONG DIRECTION – A three-day exhibition by the Island Floral Club at Ryde House was dogged by misfortune. On Thursday the Island Governor, Earl MOUNTBATTEN, lost his way en route to open the event. He arrived telling spectators: “Sorry I’m late—the hovercraft from Southsea to Ryde was dead on time, but my driver went off course between the Ryde terminal and here.”
July 4th 1968: THIN AS PAPER – Supporting girders beneath the roof of a tunnel running under the pavement of one of Ryde’s main roads are literally as “thin as paper,” the Borough Surveyor disclosed on Monday evening. There was a gasp of astonishment when he told them the pavement was next to the site where a public shelter had stood until recently. The tunnel carries water from Monkton Mead Brook out into the sea near the Esplanade.
July 4th 1968: EDUCATION – The committee have pressed the Bishop Lovett project for many years, and it would now appear the Department of Education and Science are satisfied that an extension should be started to provide for 90 additional places.
July 11th 1968: WHAT-A-CARRY-ON – “I’ll have egg and bacon, please” said the woman customer on the pavement outside the half-flooded Ande Café at St. Thomas’s Street, Ryde, when the place opened at 7 a.m. for breakfast yesterday. “Right,” said Miss Janet BARTON, daughter of the proprietor. She swept the customer into her arms and waded through the water towards the nearest dry table. As passers-by looked on incredulous, the scene was repeated time and again.
July 11th 1968: REDUNDANCY – A. N. CLARK (Engineers) Ltd., the Binstead firm whose success story is soon to be featured in a B.B.C. documentary series, yesterday served redundancy notices to a fifth of its works staff. Thirty-three men at the firm, which produces telescopic radio masts, were told that they would have to leave in little more than a week.
July 11th 1968: SPARE THE NESTS – At this time of the year the hedgerows provide a haven for numerous nesting birds. It is also the time when farmers and local authorities embark upon hedge destruction. The R.S.P.C.A. pleads that the hedges should not be disturbed until after the fledglings have left the nest. For all of us birds provide an essential part of the country scene.
July 18th 1968: THE BELLS – The Vicar of Ryde, Canon Ronald GRANGER, announced that an invitation to learn bell ringing was being issued by the church to anyone interested. He explained: “There is a real shortage of bell ringers in the Island, and anyone interested should contact me. I will arrange training by Mr. A. REES, of 11 Victoria Street, Ryde, who is captain of the tower.”
July 18th 1968: OLD LOCOS – The Wight Locomotive Society has suffered a further loss in the theft of the nameplates from its 02 class tank locomotive, No. 24 “Calbourne,” at present situated at Ryde St. John’s prior to its removal to a site on the enclosed Smallbrook Junction-Cowes line. Their value is by no means high, but as they were specially fitted to the engines by Ryde Works staff for the summer of 1966, immediately prior to the closure of the works, they are of great sentimental interest.
July 18th 1968: HANGING AROUND – Whatever Ryde’s motorists may think of the newly-introduced equipment for 1s.-a-time use of the St. Thomas’s Street car parks, the town’s children love the idea. The long poles which bar the way at bonnet height need never lift as far as the youngsters are concerned—they are ideal for swinging on.