Isle of Wight history: 5 things you didn't know
A hovercraft, a wireless station, a royal telephone call, a rock legend and a drowned prehistoric site, all within a short ferry ride.
Saunders-Roe, an Isle of Wight company, built the world's first hovercraft, the SR.N1, which crossed from Calais to Dover on 25 July 1959. The island also has Marconi's Needles wireless station, Bell's 1878 telephone demonstration to Queen Victoria and a 1970 Hendrix festival.
The Isle of Wight's best-known claim is that Saunders-Roe, an island company, built the world's first hovercraft. Wikipedia says so, and the Science Museum Group's collection records the SR.N1. The hovercraft is only the start of what happened on the island, so here are five stories that are worth the crossing.
The hovercraft that crossed the Channel
The SR.N1 crossed from Calais to Dover on 25 July 1959, fifty years to the day after Blériot's flight, as told in The Engineer's account and the Science Museum Group collection. It is a neat bit of timing for a machine that was built on the island, and the crossing is one of the best-dated moments in the island's story.
Marconi at the Needles
Guglielmo Marconi ran a wireless telegraph station at the Needles from 6 December 1897 to 26 May 1900. A memorial at Alum Bay marks the spot, according to the Alum Bay memorial's details. Sources disagree on the building. Wikipedia places it at the Needles Battery, while local sources say the Royal Needles Hotel above Alum Bay. We haven't claimed it was the world's first station of its kind, because we couldn't confirm that.
Bell and the Queen
On 14 January 1878 Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone to Queen Victoria at Osborne House. The calls were to London, Cowes and Southampton, according to Victorian Trail. The Science Museum Group notes that the Cowes line failed at the crucial moment, which is a nice reminder that new technology has always had demo-day nerves. The calls were a showpiece for a new invention in front of the Queen, and for a few minutes, at least one of them went wrong.
Hendrix on the island
Jimi Hendrix headlined the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, held on 30 and 31 August. Rolling Stone calls it his last UK concert, three weeks before his death, and he died on 18 September 1970. We have not given a crowd size, because estimates vary widely: around 250,000 at the time and over 600,000 in later estimates.
A drowned Stone Age site
Bouldnor Cliff is a submerged Mesolithic site about 8,000 years old, around 11 metres below sea level in the Solent. The Maritime Archaeology Trust and Wikipedia describe split oak and worked timbers, which may show boat-building. "May" is doing real work in that sentence, because the interpretation is not settled. A claim about wheat DNA from the site is contested, so we haven't repeated it.
Why it feels bigger than it is
The Isle of Wight is a small island with an unusually large share of big moments, from engineering firsts and royal demonstrations to a festival crowd that nobody can count and a Stone Age site that lies under the Solent. If you like your history with a ferry ticket attached, the island is only a short hop from the Hampshire coast.
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