100 Years Ago - November 4, 1911
PLANS for an Island bacon factory were announced by the Royal IW Agricultural Society.
The idea behind the factory was it would offer a better than average price for pigs and lower carriage expenses.
A meeting was to be held to establish the level of interest in the factory. However, shareholders were needed to fund it.
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Excitement was mounting at Quarr Abbey as its new church neared completion.
The church was not expected to be completed until August 1912 but the building work was ahead of schedule.
The crypt was to be one of the key features of the building, where most services would be held.
The new church was to replace a temporary structure.
75 Years Ago - November 7, 1936
For the second time in as many months, a notorious prisoner climbed the roof of Parkhurst and threw slate tiles at prison officers.
The prisoner attacked a prison officer in his cell, before climbing on to the roof.
It followed a similar incident several weeks earlier, when the same prisoner raided the administrative offices with a garden fork, before climbing on the roof and damaging tiles and the prison clock.
The incident led to rumours the prisoner was part of a group of disgruntled inmates determined to cause unrest.
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Two former lifeboat crew members were the first people to be rescued by the new Yarmouth motor lifeboat.
The men, Harry Simmonds and Geoffrey Cotton, the latter being the son of coxswain, Walter Cotton, got into trouble when the mooring chain on their boat tangled with the propeller in heavy seas.
The lifeboat was called and the crew managed to free the chain, before they towed the vessel back to Yarmouth.
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Island police were given anti-gas training as a precautionary measure against a potential air attack.
Officers wearing protective clothing had to undergo tests in the gas chamber at Albany Prison to enable them to adapt to the conditions.
Lectures were also given to officers at Newport Police Station, advising them on what to do in an attack.
50 Years Ago - November 4, 1961
Firefighters spent six hours tackling a blaze at Yaverland Manor Farm, which caused more than £3,000 of damage.
Five crews fought the barn fire but they were unable to save the building, which was filled with 120 tons of straw.
Tractors demolished the remaining parts of the barn after the blaze was put out.
Farm manager, Alan Emery, said he feared he would not have enough straw for the winter.
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The legality of organised Sunday football on public recreation grounds was questioned by Yarmouth Parish Council.
The town’s youth club had said it could not use the recreation ground on Sunday mornings because organised football matches were played there.
The council heard the law stated public recreation grounds should not be used for organised football but the health authority had the power to waive the restriction.
25 Years Ago - November 7, 1986
A bid by the Conservatives to delay a decision on the £1 million-plus Ryde Pavilion development failed after Medina Borough Council voted to approve the plans in principle.
Despite calls by the Tory group leader, Ian Morgan, the IW Council backed the scheme, submitted by Sandown businessman, Mr J. D. Miselbach.
Urging approval of the plan, which included a theatre, ten-pin bowling, nightclub, restaurant and bar, several councillors warned against frightening off potential investment for the site.
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An arsonist was thought to be responsible for a blaze at Solent Middle School.
More than 300 children arrived at the school to find IW Council workmen clearing the damage caused by smoke and water.
The blaze appeared to have been started by someone who lit rubbish in a wooden tea chest and placed it against a storeroom.
Gym equipment was badly damaged.
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Two high schools and two middle schools were forced to close as a result of a teachers’ strike.
More than 300 members of the National Association of Schoolmasters and the Union of Women Teachers staged a half-day strike as part of national action over pay demands.
Ryde and Carisbrooke high schools, plus Ventnor and Downside middle schools, had to close.
10 Years Ago - November 9, 2001
The chief constable of Hampshire and the IW urged Island police and social workers to take a tough line on young children out on the streets at night.
Speaking to a meeting of IW councillors, Paul Kernaghan said if there were nine and ten year olds gathering in large crowds, he would seize them under child protection procedures because they were vulnerable and at risk.
He said if they were out later than 9pm, their parents would be asked some searching questions.
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Hundreds of villagers turned out to watch the spire being lifted off All Saints’ Church, Gurnard.
The unorthodox method to deal with the church’s rotten wood problem saved it from being clad with scaffolding for months.
The lantern of the 28ft spire — the four wooden uprights where the bells were situated — had eroded, which was why the bell did not work properly.
The spire was lifted off by a crane and was put back a day later after the repairs were completed.