Browsing Tag shanklin

We have had two further sessions maintaining the station garden and have now replanted the boat as a ‘dry garden,’ with grasses kindly supplied by Honnor & Jeffrey.   We now look after the library garden and have used some of our funds to buy new plants this month.

Our Open Day was a success, despite the awful weather and a considerable number of Shanklin residents came to find out more about what we do and to offer to help.  We now have 20 volunteers for the Green Streets Scheme in which people undertake to spend a few minutes each week in keeping their own street clean.  Others have asked to help with beach cleans or have placed their orders for free trees in the autumn or want to attend a free talk on composting at Ventnor Botanics later this year.  Many tried the Interactive Recycling Game and had fun learning more about the new scheme.

On 26th May we did a special event, getting a team together to clear the beach from Luccombe Chine to Shanklin Chine.  Twenty three volunteers including Cubs, Beavers and pensioners spent two hours collecting nearly 1500 items.  This will be our entry for the Daily Mail ‘Spring Clean for the Queen’ competition and we hope to win money to be spent in the community.

Just to give you a brief update: we did our quarterly beach clearance at Appley Beach (next to Shanklin Chine) all the way round to Luccombe Chine on 21st March with four volunteers. We collected 779 items of rubbish including two broken lobster pots and an oil drum. Most of the items we found were plastic which has worrying implications because of the very long time it takes to break down and even then it hasn’t ‘gone away.’ The results of the survey were sent off to the Marine Conservation Society.

The other news is that we’re having an Open Day at Falcon Cross Hall from 10:00am to 4:00pm on Saturday 28th April. There will be free refreshments and some hand-outs plus a chance to find out what we do and hopefully we’ll recruit some more volunteers. Everyone is welcome and there are even a couple of interactive ‘games’ for those who want to have a go.

Welcome you to Sunday Services 2012

Informal Evening Worship in the open air – at Rylstone Gardens PO37 6RT
Through the Old Village on left, Sundays at 7.30 p.m. from 27^th May to 26^th August

Church of England

St Blasius (Old Parish Church)
Church Road PO37 6QY
Revd. Victor Standing Tel: 01983 862264

Holy Communion 8.00 a.m. (2^nd and 4^th Sundays)
Parish Communion 10.15 a.m. (1^st, 3^rd and 5th Sundays)
Matins 10.15 a.m. (2^nd and 4^th Sundays)
Evensong 6.30 p.m.

St. Pauls
Regent Street  PO37 7AW
Revd. Philip Allen Tel: 01983 862027

Family Worship 10.30 a.m. (2^nd Sunday Family Communion)
Short Holy Communion following Family Worship 11.30 a.m. (4th Sunday)
Evening Worship 6.30 p.m. (Communion 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th, Evening Prayer 2^nd and 4^th)

St. Saviour on-the-cliff
Queens Road PO37 6AR
Revd. John Davies Tel: 01983 401121

The Eucharist 8.00 a.m. (Prayer book 1st Sunday on month)
The Parish Euchariest 11.00 a.m.
Choral Evensong 6.30 p.m. (3rd Sunday in month)

Catholic Church

Sacred Heart of Jesus
Atherley Road PO37 7AT
Father P. J. Smith Tel: 01983 867610

Sunday Mass 11.00 a.m.
Holy Days as announced
Confessions before Mass by appointment

Free Churches

Methodist
Regent Street PO37 7AF
Revd. Nigel Rodgers Tel: 01983 754052

Morning Worship 10.30 a.m. (Including Sunday Bible Club)
All-age worship and Holy Communion as announced

United Reformed
High Street PO37 6LA
Revd. Brian Harley Tel: 01983 862285

Morning Worship 11.00 (including Junior Church and Creche)
Holy Communion 1^st Sunday of Month
‘All age’ Service last Sunday of Month
Extended Worship 2^nd Sunday. Praise begins at 10.30 a.m.

Living Waters Fellowship
29 Victoria Avenue PO37 6LT
Mr Norman Vesey Tel: 01983 863683

Fellowship and Communion 2.30 p.m. every Sunday

Informal Ecumenical Evening Worship held throughout the year.
This is shared by several Churches at 7.00 pm except in the summer when Worship is held outdoors at 7.30 p.m. at Rylstone Gardens.  Please look out for details on Church notice boards.

What’s it all about?

The idea behind Green Towns is to encourage people within the community to take positive action so that real environmental improvements can be achieved.  The Shanklin branch has been active for just over a year and is supported by the Town Council and Natural Enterprise.

We have a small Steering Group of local residents, including representatives from the Town Council, the Voluntary Youth and Community Club and the Community Police.  Regular meetings enable us to generate ideas which volunteers can then help to carry out.

Last year we organised many ‘quick response’ litter picks in various parts of the town, involving volunteers both young and old and we keep the theatre car park tidy. We have officially adopted Appley Beach, where we do quarterly beach cleans, sending the survey results to the Marine Conservation Society.

We distributed free water and energy-saving gadgets to help people consume less and save money and we obtained fifty small trees to give away to local residents and organisations.

We organised a visit to Ventnor Botanic Gardens for a session on How to Make Really Good Compost, with a free tea as well! Links with local schools and the Beavers were established and we plan to continue these.

In April we negotiated with Island Line to give the station garden a makeover and we now have regular gardening sessions and have added a boat and two lobster pots to enhance the appearance of the station. We’d be happy to maintain other planted areas such as the library garden but for this to happen we need plenty more volunteers.

One of our long-term aims is to improve the cycle track so that more people can use it year-round and we’re investigating grant funding in this respect. A Green Streets Scheme is something we hope to start this year, whereby residents volunteer to spend a few minutes each week to keep their street litter-free, using equipment we’d provide. We’re keen to establish links with local businesses too.

What can you do to help?

Become one of our team of volunteers!  It needn’t take much of your time but it will be rewarding and you’ll be helping to make Shanklin a better place in which to live, work or spend holidays.

Contact Us
Lesley on: 01983 868309 or e-mail: johnandlesley1@talktalk.net
Bridget on: 07792 174941

In 1940 a very real possibility existed  that the Island would the first target for an invasion by the German Army and preparations were made for this eventuality. In Shanklin the Home Guard stood ready for an onslaught whether it should come by sea or overland. Short of guns and ammunition it certainly had enough to cover the approach from the South and as the picture shows, the rifle positions to cover this are still in existence close to St. Blazius Church.

Shortage of hand grenades did not prevent throwing practice and one group assembled in the upstairs rooms of the Black Cat tea rooms for a simulated attack on a passing lorry using swede turnips.

However it was realised that the Home Guard might not be enough to repel the advancing troops and plan B was prepared. Captain Dick Wheway, the local radio repair man, recruited a clandestine band of local men who were ready to operate as guerrillas should the worst happen. Their operations would centre on a secret underground cavern they had excavated under the cover of darkness in the America woods. In preparation it was stocked explosives and detonators and emergency supplies.

The local army units erected miles of beach defences consisting of a framework of scaffold poles which stretched from Yaverland to Luccombe. The pier was a possible landing point so a cunning strategy was put into action. A vast gap was blown into the pier deck and if a battalion should land there and try to march ashore, disaster would ensue.

After the war the breach in the pier was repaired with reinforced concrete. Ironically this was the only part of the pier to survive after the storm of 1986 when all of the iron structure was washed away.

ROB MARSHALL

Sunny Shanklin seems to be getting quite the reputation as a place to retreat to, if the rumours of Johnny Depp ordering a pint in the Fisherman’s bedecked in a low hat and adopting a dodgy English accent are to be believed. Mr Depp is far from the first famous name to visit our idyllic seaside locale. Indeed centuries ago none other than Charles Darwin, a man who changed our understanding of where we came from, stayed for a while in Norfolk House Hotel, better known nowadays as The Waterfront Inn.

The author of ‘On the Origin of Species’ visited Shanklin and stayed a “short time for health sake” as he wrote in one of several letters sent while on holiday between 17 July and 13 August in 1858. Well within season then! Despite the timing, it would appear that the Darwin family were far from your typical holidaymakers. Indeed, they were actually visiting the Island as an escape from Scarlett Fever “which caused the death of our poor dear little youngest child & was very bad in the village.”

So Charles and the family came seeking the curative powers of the sea, a common idea in Victorian society. However, in a letter to his friend J.S. Henslow, dated Aug 4th Darwin laments “As yet the sea has not done much for us.” A little more than a week later he returned home, with his wife and children following
shortly thereafter.

So, what does a Victorian scientist, perhaps the greatest of his generation, get up to while he and his family are convalescing in sunny Shanklin? He works of course. During this time Darwin was considering whether to publish his magnum opus, and it would seem he wrote at least some of the ‘abstract’ for that work while staying in the comfort of Norfolk House. Certainly he kept very busy, remarking in another of at least five letters sent from Shanklin “I have just finished “variation under domestication” in 44 M.S. pages & that would do for one evening.” A clear demonstration of Darwin’s dedication to his life’s work, 44 pages in seemingly one evening, and of course this was all before the advent of a
word processor!