100 Years Ago - August 10, 1912
COWES Week was marred by atrocious weather that forced many of the scheduled races to be cancelled.
Fierce rain and strong winds played havoc with the event, which was marked by a visit from the King and Queen of Spain, who were guests of the Royal Governor (Princess Henry of Battenberg) at Osborne Cottage.
Other royalty at Cowes included Princess Henry, Princess Christian, Princess Louise (Duchess of Argyle) and the Duke of Argyle.
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A man was fined after he was caught touting by police in Cowes.
The defendant was seen standing outside an office with bills in his hand, stopping people to tell them about coach excursions he was selling.
During the first three minutes he was talking to them, 14 people had to step off the path onto the road, followed by around 30 more.
He was fined 2s 6d with 10s 6d costs.
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A 13-year-old Bembridge boy pleaded guilty to a charge of stone throwing.
Capt Reginald Slee said he was in the garden in Morton Villa with his little boy when a stone came over the wall and hit his straw hat.
He jumped over the wall and saw a boy running away. He caught up with him a short time later and the boy admitted the offence and apologised. He was fined 1s with 1s costs.
75 Years Ago - August 14, 1937
An illuminated fete, called Floodlight Fantasia, held at Graytiles, Niton Undercliff, raised £41 19s for the local nursing association.
The beautiful grounds of Graytiles were transformed into a fairyland by clever lighting effects and the use of hundreds of coloured lights. The event was attended by more than 600 people and featured dancing and side shows.
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The figure for unemployment on the Island was reported as the lowest for many years.
The number of people registered as unemployed was 368, compared to the previous year of 483 and the previous month’s total of 528.
The figures were greatly affected by the seasonal trade on the Island.
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A house in Sandown was severely damaged after a vicious storm.
The house, in Cliff Road, had its chimney stack shattered and a considerable amount of roofing ripped off, with some of the debris hurled quite a distance into a nearby garden.
Fortunately the house was unoccupied at the time of the incident.
50 Years Ago - August 11, 1967
Appalling weather on the August Bank Holiday weekend badly affected the number of people travelling on the British Railways ferries between Portsmouth and Ryde, with reports of 6,000 fewer people each way.
The figure for passengers was just over 17,000, compared with more than 29,000 the previous year.
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A sparkling, spectacular Cowes Week was crowned by the presence of the Duke of Edinburgh, whose enthusiastic participation in the yachting events provided tremendous interest.
To the delight of thousands of spectators, Prince Philip showed he was equally at home at the tiller of the royal yawl Bloodhound, which he owned with the Queen.
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A Ryde man pleaded not guilty to offering fruit for sale in the street.
PC Whittington said he saw the man walking on the south side of Sandown Esplanade pushing a truck with two full crates of strawberries and one partly filled crate. When he passed the man, he was heard shouting "strawberries, lovely strawberries".
He was fined £1.
25 Years Ago - August 14, 1987
With the serious Cowes Week racing coming to an end, attention turned more to the unusual craft for the town’s annual tin bath races.
Winner of the concours de elegance was Rover Group — a multi-hulled entry from Price’s Garage, Newport.
The craft was made from several oil drums and carried a crew of seven people.
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A crown court judge criticised the length of time the Crown Prosecution Service was taking to bring cases to court and called upon them to 'get their house in order’.
The judge made his comments as he passed sentence on four defendants, some of whose offences had been committed in March 1986.
"I wish they would get their house in order and then perhaps one day I will be able to deal with cases which have not been committed in the dim and distant past," he said.
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Attrills from far and wide joined in with one of the biggest reunions the Island had ever seen.
The event was all due to an article that appeared in the County Press in May and was the result of hard work by Cowes woman Angela Attrill.
The reunion idea snowballed at a tremendous rate and Angela found herself inundated with Attrills, keen to take part.
The name Attrill appeared on many Island records, marriage certificates and registry of deaths dating back more than 400 years.
10 Years Ago - August 9, 2002
The skipper of a yacht — with broadcaster Chris Evans on board — died after being knocked overboard near Brambles Bank in The Solent.
The man, from Hascombe, near Godalming, was a close friend of Evans, who lived nearby.
The seven-strong party spent the afternoon leading up to the tragedy in Yarmouth and were believed to have visited the George Hotel and Salty’s fish restaurant.
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More than 80 bales of straw caught fire and put the young heifers in an adjourning barn at risk of suffocating.
Farm workers at Coppid Hall Farm in Havenstreet worked together to free the cows and managed to get all 24 of the animals out safely.
The fire caused thousands of pounds worth of damage, destroying the hay bales and causing extensive damage to the barn.
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Shoppers were looking forward to being able to park more easily in Newport following a decision by IW planners to allow a 100-space car park to be created on Hurst’s gas bottle yard in Sea Street.
The decision was said to go some way to compensating for the loss of almost 80 spaces through the introduction of pedestrianisation in the town.