Isle of White

My first post since last week. We've been away for a long weekend on the Isle of White.

The reason for the visit was the occasion of my fathers 70th birthday. My brother and I tried to come up with an event to mark the occasion, and since my father took his apprenticeship there, we diceded that a return visit after 50+ years would be nice.

My father loved it! He had been indentured at J Samuel White, the shipbuilder, and had lived in a house directly opposite the landing point of Red Funnel Ferries (then Red Funnel Steamers). The house is still standing, though now sadly boarded up, and is still the first house seen by passengers leaving the Southampton to East Cowes ferry.

We stayed in a National Trust Cottage at the top of The Needles Headland, a very scary drive to the top with a 300 foot sheer drop on one side! Not much fun in the dark!

The cottage was lovely, with stunning views and a real log fire. Very cosy and welcoming.

We visited places that my father had remembered, especially the remains of J Samuel White's yard which is now part of a trading estate. Below is what remains of 'the long shop' with my father in the foreground.

And what it was like in its heyday ...

We walked over to look at the 'Old Battery' gun emplacements and the Needles, both the images below were taken only yards from our cottage..

Finally three images of our visit. My father in front of the gib crane in J Samuel White's yard, a view across the Medina river of the same crane some 60 years previously, and a sunset from the headland garden of our cottage.