20 Years; 20 Places: No.19 Isle of Wight
Back to my list of 20 Places as I round out 20 Players and Places that have stuck with me throughout my life. In no order, all equally meaningful in different ways.
All this to commemorate 20 years of penning this Blog, and at no. 19 is the Isle of Wight.
My family holidayed in the Isle of Wight continuously throughout my childhood. We had holidays all over the island with aunties, uncles, cousins and grandparents. I have so many fond memories of carefree and happy summer days.
We used always meet other families on holiday, and would become instant friends playing from dawn to dusk. Then way before mobile phones, email and the internet our parents would keep in touch, and we’d see these families again back on the Isle of Wight the following year.
The Isle of Wight is known as ‘England in Miniature’ because it encaptures all of England on one island. From its stunning chalk cliffs, rolling downs and verdant woods to its golden sandy beaches and glorious seaside towns.
Place names like The Needles, Sandown, Shanklin, Cowes, Ryde, Yarmouth, Blackgang Chine, Ventnor, Bembridge, Osborne House, Godshill, Freshwater and not forgetting the capital, Newport are bonded in my memory like letters through a stick of rock.
Isle of Wight. Many, many family holidays in the 1970’s and early 1980’s plus a school journey in 1976.
The IoW had various sayings for a number of its place names but this is as far as l got:
Newport – you can’t bottle
Ryde – where you can only walk
Freshwater – you can’t drink
Needles – you can’t thread
Cowes – you can’t milk
There is also Lake where there is no water and Newtown that is very old.
We went on a coach holiday there last September, the first time we have tried such a holiday and we had a great time, especially Osborne House.
I think we only went there the once but I certainly remember, Sandown, Shanklin and Blackgang Chine( who were the blackgang?)
AI tells me:
It’s thought that the sides of the original chine were mainly black because of the mineral deposits, with ‘gang’ meaning pathway, possibly referring to the old smugglers’ paths!