Ryde Social Heritage Group research the social history of the citizens of Ryde, Isle of Wight. Documenting their lives, businesses and burial transcriptions.
RYDE SOCIAL HERITAGE GROUP
Based at Ryde Cemetery Heritage & Learning Centre. Preserving, documenting and promoting the social history of Ryde on the Isle of Wight.
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May 1869

Isle of Wight Observer:

May 1st 1869:  NOVEL SIGHT – It is announced that the lifeboat will, after having been launched, be exercised by the crew.  We should have thought that it would have been better to have exercised the crew, instead of the boat.  However, the committee must know best.  We hope that if the boat shows that she appreciates the exercise, that she will be invited to the lunch.

May 1st 1869:  MAY IN THE ISLAND – This and the month of June may certainly be considered as two of the most pleasant and enjoyable of the year, when families would do well to leave the shores of the Thames for the healthy and invigorating breezes of the Solent.

May 1st 1869:  THE CROPS – Favourable reports are received from all parts of the kingdom respecting the growing crops.  The weather is all that can be desired, and we may therefore hope in good time to reap the fruits of the earth in rich abundance.

May 1st 1869:  FIRE AT THE ROYAL PIER HOTEL – Considerable consternation was felt in the town on Tuesday evening last, when it became pretty generally known that the roof of the Royal Pier Hotel was on fire.  The attention of the Coastguard men was directed to the fire, who lost no time in repairing to the spot, when they mounted the roof and did all they could to prevent the spread of the fire.

May 1st 1869:  VELOCIPEDE YACHTS – The last nautical novelty just patented by Mr. BONIWELL, who came over from Portsmouth to Ryde at the rate of nine knots an hour.  The advantage of this invention are the impossibility to upset or swamp and greater speed. This consists of two treadles, upon which two feet work and give motion in the usual way to cranks on the paddle shaft, and in using the feet as in walking.

May 8th 1869:  MR. HARRINGTON’S THEORY – For many years it has been the opinion of all nations that the sun was the great source of heat and light.  Mr. HARRINGTON comes, and with his theory bids us disbelieve the evidences of our senses, the opinions of antiquity, and the theories of modern men of science, and does his best to prove to us that the sun is neither the source of light nor heat to the solar system.

May 15th 1869:  ISLE OF WIGHT LACE – At the Queen’s Drawing room, at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday last, we read that Her Royal Highness the Princess Beatrice wore an Isle of Wight lace dress over a pink silk slip, trimmed with pink silk ribband.  Our readers are aware the Mr. FAIREY, of Union-street, supplies the Royal family with Isle of Wight lace.

May 22nd 1869:  THE PIER – A good band adds not a little to the attractions of this celebrated resort of beauty and fashion, we were, therefore, very glad to see the band of the 1st (Ryde) Isle of Wight Rifle Volunteers, which, under their present bandmaster, have acquired no inconsiderable knowledge of music, marching through the town on Tuesday evening for the pier-head, and waking up the echoes of the town with their charming strains.

May 22nd 1869:  WORKING MEN’S CLUB – It would seem that there is no need of such an institution in the Town of Ryde, for that founded by the late vicar, the Rev. W. H. GIRDLESTONE, some three or four years ago has been in languishing condition for some time.

May 22nd 1869:  IMPROVEMENTS IN THE HIGH STREET – For some years this street has presented a somewhat incongruous appearance.  Fine houses, resplendent with plate-glass windows, being seen side by side with thatched cottages built 50 years ago when Ryde was a little fishing village.  Much has changed, we were glad to see that the unsightly old blacksmith’s shop opposite St. John’s-road has disappeared.  Also, the row of dilapidated houses in front of Dore’s-row have given place to neat little modern shops.