Paul Erlam traces the Island’s astonishing development in the 19th century – from sleepy, inaccessible backwater to the country’s most fashionable holiday venue – the place where English society had to be and be seen.

Travel to the Isle of Wight is now easy and convenient – a quick nip across the Solent. But it was not always the case. Listen to Henry Fielding, author of the comic novel Tom
Jones, writing in the 18th century about the shallow waters at Ryde: ‘an impassable gulf
of mud and sand which can neither be traversed by walking or swimming so that for nearly half of the 24 hours Ryde is not accessible by friend or foe.’

Yet less than a century later, the town was one of the most fashionable resorts in the
country, with a regatta that rivalled Cowes. And, thanks to weather and tides, that mud
had been replaced by the soft sands familiar to today’s visitors. In Fielding’s day the beauty of the Island was famous and its mild weather well known after an eminent physician described its healthy climate. But the sheer difficulty of reaching it deterred many visitors. Ferries to Ryde had to anchor offshore and passengers were transferred to small boats which took them to shallower water. At low tide they then transferred to a horse and wagon or were sometimes carried to the beach by longshoremen.

So what changed the Isle of Wight from a sleepy backwater to a thriving resort? One of the first steps was taken by goahead local citizens at Ryde, who saw links to the mainland as vital to prosperity. They formed a company to build a pier, completing it in 1814. Ryde Pier was one of the first in the country and its primary function was to enable ships to dock alongside it.

Originally the pier was 1,740 feet long – later extended to nearly half a mile. It soon became popular for promenading, as somewhere for visitors to stroll and admire the view of the Solent. A ferry service from Portsmouth to Ryde Pier started as early as 1817, but lasted no more than a month. The vessel Britannia had been built for the Thames Estuary and could not cope with the sea conditions of the Solent.
By 1825 there were four regular sailings a day by the paddle steamers Union and
Arrow. The fare to the mainland was one shilling (5p). A third ship, the Lord Yarborough, also took tourists on trips around the Island and to resorts along the south coast.
Services became more frequent with rival companies vying for passengers. Steamer services had started to Cowes and by 1830 the towns of Lymington and Yarmouth were
also linked.

The Isle of Wight was firmly on the early tourist map, but its popularity was about to surge. Why? Royalty and railways. Queen Victoria had fallen in love with the Island in her youth. Once she had come to the throne and after her marriage to Prince Albert, the royal couple wanted a country home away from the public gaze and affairs of state, an alternative to Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. They bought Osborne House at East Cowes in 1845 and set about completely rebuilding it. In the Queen’s words: ‘It is impossible to imagine a prettier spot.’ It was her country home until her death. The arrival of the Royals established the Isle of Wight as the most fashionable of destinations. Cowes was already wellknown. The first official regatta was held in 1812, then, 14 years later, the Royal Yacht Squadron formally organised three days of racing – so began Cowes Week.

Foreign royalty were frequent visitors to the Island. The upper classes at first visited, then built their villas. The poet John Keats had been an early 19th century visitor to Shanklin and is still remembered in place names within the town. Other celebrities followed. Charles Dickens is said to have started David Copperfield during a stay at Bonchurch; the composer Sir Edward Elgar honeymooned at Ventnor. The mid-19th century railway building boom meant travelling to the south coast became easier. It also meant many parts of the Island were easily accessible and led to the transformation of sleepy fishing villages into booming resorts. A railway line opened between Cowes and Newport in 1862, followed two years later by one between Ryde and Shanklin, soon extended to Ventnor. There was quickly a network of lines – stretching from Freshwater in the west to Bembridge in the east, from Cowes in the north to Ventnor in the south. As an illustration of the boom, Ventnor was at one time served by two separate stations.
Regular rail and ferry services had made the Island accessible – and not only to the rich.

By the 1870s, Shanklin had more than 40 hotels. For most working people, the important changes were the cheap day returns that many railway companies started to offer. In 1871, Bank Holidays were introduced and so began the great British tradition of the trip to the seaside. Each Island resort had its own pier. Ventnor’s dated from 1872, after an earlier attempt had been wrecked by heavy storms. Sandown’s opened in 1879, and
Shanklin’s in 1890. More than merely landing stages for ships, each pier vied with the others to attract holidaymakers. Band concerts and entertainment shows were common. Sandown had a pavilion which could accommodate 400 people. Ashore there were attractions like the boating lake at Ryde, described by a visitor in the late 19th century as ‘a veritable aquatic Eden’.

Those visitors were also fascinated by the natural wonders of the Island, such as Alum
Bay and its coloured sands. This sand was once used in glass-making, and from early
Victorian times was also made into the souvenirs that are popular to this day.

Shanklin Chine, the deep fissure in the cliff with its tumbling waterfalls and rich variety of flora, was also highly popular and became a fixture on any tour. Once the haunt of smugglers, the picturesque gorge had first been opened to the public in 1817 and later in the century was highly popular with an entrance fee of six (old) pence. Nearby Ventnor, meanwhile, is described in a guide book of 1869 as ‘a kind of English Madeira’.

The Victorians also liked the thrills and spills of an amusement park. Probably the Island’s best known attraction, Blackgang Chine was established in 1843, making it the oldest theme park in the UK. One Alexander Dabell opened the attraction and his descendants have owned it ever since.

Visitors to the Island in Victorian times also took to sea bathing with enthusiasm, convinced of seawater’s medicinal and health qualities. But their enthusiasm was still tempered with due modesty. Hence the bathing machine – a hut on wheels in which swimmers could get changed and then step into the sea without being spotted by the opposite sex. At the end of the 19th century, three bathing machine companies were vying for trade on Sandown beach.

By Edwardian times, mixed swimming was no longer frowned upon, though getting changed on a beach was – hence the popularity of beach huts, which are still a familiar feature at many a resort. In fact, the Island’s holiday heritage can be seen at every turn – indeed, as you write that postcard home, you’re following a craze started over one hundred years ago.