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Historic Ryde Society

‘Giving Ryde’s Past to the Future’

Historic Ryde Society Quiz Night Thursday 27 November 2025 at Yelf's Hotel, at 7p.m. for 7.30pm.

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Oddfellows Images come to the Heritage Centre for a few weeks only.

Following further research, the photographs brought down last week relate to the Manchester Unity of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. This post should therefore read like this: In recognition of the 200th anniversary of the East Medina Lodge in September 2013, the Isle of Wight Heritage Service has kindly loaned some Oddfellows photographs to the Heritage Centre. These will be on display until the end of September. In 1876, the Annual Movable Committee of the Manchester Unity met in Ryde. Local photographer Charles Knight, the son of Henry Knight, who owned the Royal Victoria Arcade, took photographic portraits of 332 Oddfellows who attended this event. The portraits were mounted together in one frame, with the names and where the men came from written around each one.   Now sadly fading, Historic Ryde Society is delighted to be given this chance to show this wonderful artefact to the public for the first time. Don’t miss this opportunity of coming along to have a look, before it returns to the Heritage Service for safe keeping. The photograph shows John and Paul of the Heritage Service installing the photographs. The chat went along the lines of ‘We’ll have to get married if we get much closer……’ Return to

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25 July, 2013 No Comments

The Victorian Strollers come to town

On Friday, June 19, the Royal Victoria Arcade welcomed The Victorian Strollers – a national group from many parts of the country, who join together in Victorian costume for various events. The group was on the Island to take part in the Victorian weekend at Havenstreet Steam Railway, but visited Ryde some weeks ago, and offered to visit the Heritage Centre, and promote it and the Donald McGill Museum, in Union Street. Arriving a little early, and taking us by surprise! – the group toured the Heritage Centre and visited the ice well. They then wandered around the town, distributing leaflets for the Centre and the Orrery, before visiting the Orrery and the Donald McGill Museum, where they were treated to a cream tea, courtesy of James Bissell Thomas and Historic Ryde Society.   Queen Victoria even found time to honour a local businessman in the arcade. More pictures in the Events gallery, which is still a work in progress….

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22 July, 2013 No Comments

Volunteers’ soirée 2013 in Ryde District Heritage Centre

Volunteers’ Soirée 2013 – On Wednesday, June 5, as part of the national celebration , Volunteers’ Week 2013, the committee organised a social soirée for the volunteers in the Heritage Centre. Unfortunately, due to ill health, Historic Ryde Society Gloria Minghella, was unable to be present. Over twenty volunteers, old and brand new, arrived for a glass of fizzy and some nibbles. This was also a chance to catch up with other volunteers and meet some new volunteers for the first time. Read More…

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12 June, 2013 No Comments

Ryde District Heritage Centre

Ryde District Heritage Centre HRS has gone one better than last year and is the winner of the Arts and Heritage Category at the Community Action Awards 2013! Kerry Jackson, of CAA sponsors, Wightlink, presented HRS Chair Liz Jones with the certificate and a cheque for £250 at the ceremony at Riverside on Wednesday, May 23. The Isle of Wight’s Lord Lieutenant, Major General Martin White, and Deputy Lieutenants David Longford and Patricia Partridge, and Robin Freeman of the Isle of Wight County Press, all came to congratulate the team. They said how much they’d enjoyed visiting the Centre, and how blown away they all were by the Ice Well. The next move is to try and establish whether or not the well is unique in the British Isles, as it would seem to be, following recent research into the subject. A good day financially, HRS was delighted to receive £150 from Cllr Roger Whitby Smith as his contribution from his recent historic walks around Ryde. The Ice Well Fund is now in full swing! Over £850 has come in, but there are still plenty of opportunities to raise funds. £10 will see your name on a brick, or will sponsor a foot’s length of the

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1 June, 2013 No Comments

The Ice Well

The Ice Well The Newchurch Poor Rate Books, which are held in the County Record Office at Hillside, Newport, list the owners and tenants, rates, etc., of buildings and businesses from the early 1830s. The Arcade is rated as 14 separate retail units, a Large Room (now The Lanes), a Gas House, Wine vaults and Ice Well. This ice well served Charles Dixon in 1836, who ran The Soup Room from Number 8. (Turtle soup sold at 15 shillings (75p) a quart.) Another Union Street fishmonger leased the well for several years. The well later became an opportunity for Henry Knight and his family to attend to the increasingly popular demand for confectionery in early Victorian Ryde. In October 2012, the ice well was revealed in all its glory, having been bricked up and forgotten for the last fifty or so years. In remarkable condition, and with amazing brickwork, the well has been cleared of over 10000 litres of PH 7, so long-standing, stagnant water. A large pile of wood, rubbish and silt has been removed, as well as a large amount of metalwork. So far parts belonging to a Victorian range, tools and pipes have been identified. More images on the Ryde District Heritage Centre Gallery page. Recent research on ice wells has revealed the exciting fact that

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1 June, 2013 No Comments