SHANKLIN HERITAGE
Your ‘Discover’ feature on the Isle of Wight (July issue) not only brought back many happy childhood memories but also solved a mystery. My mother died earlier this year and, at the recent memorial service, one of her neighbours presented me with a carrier bag full of pictures that they’d found in the loft while clearing out my Mum’s house. Most were family images but one is a photograph of a thatched cottage that meant nothing to me, as I did not recognise the location.
Imagine my surprise when I saw the very same cottage while reading your article on the Isle of Wight. I think, given the clothes the two walkers in my picture are wearing, it was probably taken in the 1930s or 1940s. But judging by the scene in your picture, clearly not much has changed since then.
Now my mum’s picture of the cottage makes sense. My maternal grandfather came from Shanklin where his family were longshoremen, catching herring during the season and renting out deckchairs when the fishing was quiet. I recall happy times as a child, boarding the train from Chichester to Portsmouth and then the ferry to Ryde, from where a single-track steam railway line took us to Shanklin. The highlight of the journey was looking out of the window of the moving train to watch the driver swap ‘keys’ with a guard standing by the line, thus preventing two trains meeting head-on.
I have not been to ‘the Island’, as my grandfather always referred to it, for more than 40 years. Perhaps it’s time to make another visit, especially with the chance of seeing a sea eagle!
Thank you for an excellent magazine – always entertaining, educational and sufficiently controversial… but only where appropriate.