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Restore The Story CIC
To restore local heritage assets and to enable local communities to discover their stories
🎉 A Great Success at the Isle of Wight Walking Festival!![]()
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Huge thanks to everyone who joined our two heritage walks — one around St Boniface, exploring the Battle of Britain, plane crashes, and the Cold War bunker, and another in Niton, uncovering its lost and changed buildings.![]()
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We had fantastic questions, great conversations, and amazing support — with people picking up our booklets, taking leaflets, and making generous donations to help us continue our research.![]()
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👉 Read the full story with photos here: www.restorecic.org/success-at-the-isle-of-wight-walking-festival/![]()
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And don’t forget to follow our page for more island history, talks, and tours!
The Royal Needles Hotel & Marconi’s Wireless Station, Alum Bay![]()
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Perched high above the cliffs of Alum Bay, the Royal Needles Hotel was once one of the Isle of Wight’s finest Victorian landmarks. In these 1895 photographs, the hotel was under the proprietorship of Henry Miller, welcoming visitors eager to experience the bay’s famous coloured sands and breathtaking views of The Needles.![]()
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Below the cliffs stood the Alum Bay Pier, a 370-foot iron structure, managed by Pier Master Alfred Isaacs. For a time, steamers called here regularly en route to Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, and other island resorts. After the First World War, however, visits declined; the pier was declared unsafe in 1925, a span collapsed during a storm in 1927, and it was finally removed in the late 1950s.![]()
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It was here, on the cliffs above the bay, that Guglielmo Marconi made history. In 1897, he set up his revolutionary wireless equipment inside the Royal Needles Hotel and sent the very first wireless transmission to a ship out at sea — a moment that marked the dawn of radio communication.![]()
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From 6th December 1897 to 26th May 1900, Marconi and his British collaborators conducted a series of pioneering wireless telegraphy experiments from what he called the world’s “first permanent wireless station.” Built under his supervision by assistant George Kemp for Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd, the Needles Wireless Telegraphy Station exchanged messages first with a tug in Alum Bay, then with Bournemouth (14 miles), Poole (18 miles), and later with ships up to 40 miles offshore.![]()
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These extraordinary achievements drew worldwide attention, attracting famous scientists from around the globe between 1898 and 1900. On 3rd June 1898, Lord Kelvin sent the first paid radio telegram from the Needles station, and on 15th November 1899, information sent from here to the U.S. liner St. Paul — then 36 miles away — became the first newspaper ever produced at sea, The Transatlantic Times.![]()
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Tragically, the Royal Needles Hotel was destroyed by fire in February 1910 and later demolished. Today, the site is occupied by The Needles: Landmark Attraction and car park — but the spirit of discovery remains.![]()
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If you’d like to see and learn more about the Island’s fascinating history, don’t forget to follow our page for more stories, photos, and discoveries from across the Isle of Wight’s past. Restore The Story CIC
Some photos from our walk today taking walkers around Niton Undercliff and exploring the locations of some of the lost buildings of Niton's past as part of the Isle of Wight Walking Festival. Thank you to all who joinedVisit Isle of WightW#isleofwightwalkingfestivalt#isleofwightw#heritageitage
Walk around Niton today for the Isle of Wight Walking Festival discovering the lost buildings of Niton Undercliff. Thank you to all who joined us. Visit Isle of Wight #isleofwightwalkingfestival
A Royal Refuge in Ryde: The Story Behind The Royal York Hotel 👑![]()
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On the morning of September 8, 1870, the quiet seaside town of Ryde became the unlikely stage for one of Europe’s most dramatic royal escapes. After a desperate journey from Paris and a gruelling 12-hour sea crossing aboard Sir John Burgoyne's yacht Gazelle, Empress Eugénie, wife of Emperor Napoleon III, landed on the Island — exhausted, unkempt, and fleeing the collapse of the Second French Empire.![]()
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Just days earlier, news had reached Paris that the Emperor had been defeated and captured at the Battle of Sedan, plunging the capital into chaos. As angry crowds surrounded the Tuileries Palace, the Empress — then serving as Regent — was in grave danger. Disguised and accompanied by her devoted lady-in-waiting, Madame Le Breton, she slipped out of the palace, hailed a cab, and began a desperate overland escape toward the coast.![]()
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After days of evasion, the two women finally crossed the English Channel under stormy skies, arriving at Ryde Pier in the early hours. Exhausted and dishevelled, they sought shelter at the first inn they encountered, the Pier Hotel — only to be turned away by the innkeeper, who failed to recognise the Empress of France in her travel-worn state.![]()
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Their luck changed at the York Hotel, where the landlord welcomed them without hesitation. Within its walls, the Empress and her small party found warmth, food, and a few precious hours of rest — their first moment of calm after days of peril.![]()
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In gratitude for the kindness shown to her, Empress Eugénie later granted the establishment the honour of adding the royal prefix, transforming it into the Royal York Hotel — a title it proudly carried for generations.![]()
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Though the original York Hotel was demolished in 1938, it was rebuilt soon after into the art deco structure that still stands on George Street today. While time has since rendered it quiet and unused, the building remains a poignant reminder of that extraordinary morning when an exiled Empress found refuge and compassion in Ryde.![]()
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For one remarkable night, a modest seaside hotel became the sanctuary of a Queen in exile — and earned its royal name forevermore.![]()
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Thanks to Steve for some images.