Around 70 people turned out to hear Bob Wealthy’s very interesting talk on the history of Ryde Airport and the Spithead Express, on Wednesday, October 22. With donations and the raffle, the evening raised over £100 for Historic Ryde Society. Many thanks to Molly for manning the door, to David for selling raffle tickets and to Ron and Brian for the introductions and general management of the evening. The next event is the monthly quiz at Yelf’s next Thursday evening, October 30. This will be followed by Martin Simpson – The Fossil Man, on Wednesday, November 12. Return to homepage.

Please note this event will now be rescheduled during 2015. More details in due course. On a date yet to be confirmed, Tracy Edwards MBE will give an after-dinner talk on her ground-breaking, all female, ‘Maiden’ voyage. 25 years after the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race, Tracy has recently launched a successful project to bring the yacht back to the UK from the Middle East. Tracy says: ‘Maiden transcended sailing because it wasn’t just about getting girls on the water. It was much more than that – it was about breaking moulds and proving that anything was possible.’ If you would like to come along and hear all about this wonderful project, which will be used to benefit children and sailing across the country, tickets for this event, @ £39, are now on sale at: Splash, Union Street, Ryde – 01983 616257 The Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Fishbourne – 01983 882325 Pascall Atkey & Son, High Street, Cowes – 01983 292381 Harwoods of Yarmouth – 01983 760258 Bembridge Sailing Club – 01983 872237 Return to homepage.    

Following on from a busy July, celebrating 200 years of Ryde Pier, the media frenzy has hit Historic Ryde Society once again! The BBC Countryfile programme contacted HRS a few weeks ago, as they’re filming on the Isle of Wight, and wanted to do a piece about the pier. Tony and Vic both have long associations with the pier, and were asked whether they would agree to be interviewed for the programme, which will air on November 2nd. Brian and Diana went along to record the process for the website, and to take photographs to put on Twitter. An lengthy process, it took about forty minutes to film something which will probably be cut to last about three or four minutes, but the weather stayed dry, and everyone seemed pleased with the end results. More images can be seen on the gallery pages. Return to homepage.

Marius and Claire have developed a special app so that when a new post is added to the website it will show up on Facebook.