Ten years ago: The eagle has landed... back on the perch from which it was swept by the 1987 hurricane. Two years ago, Sarah and Chris Teague moved back to Shanklin from Winford where they had lived with their three children for a decade.
They found a terracotta eagle smashed on the floor, which had been blown from the roof in 1987. After visiting the Shanklin Historical Society, the eagle was restored to its perch by a Ventnor restorer, looking down on the street.

100 Years Ago
October 6, 1917

A proposal was put forward to acquire the Royal Cliff, Sandown, and transform it into a pleasure garden for the public.
Mr W. Board suggested if the council was not willing to buy the land, it could be leased for up to ten years. After much debate the proposal was postponed until the end of the war.

75 Years Ago
October 3, 1942

Island evacuees sent to Australia were able to broadcast messages to their parents on the radio.
Dennis Townsend, 15, of Newport, was one of the children whose ‘voice came through very clearly’.
After greeting his father and other friends and relatives, he asked: “How is Newport doing these days?”
He said he had just returned from a holiday with his foster parents.
He added: “I have grown so much the clothes I brought with me two years ago will not fill and they have all been sent back in Bundles for Britain.
“I like the country very much but, in spite of its many attractions, I shall be glad to get back to the old country again.”

50 Years Ago
October 9, 1967

An Island nursery teacher flew out to South Africa to spend time working as a missionary.
Miss Beryl Beak spent several months working in the Anglican diocese of Pretoria. In the new year she was scheduled to transfer to Rhodesia, spending time training secondary school teachers.

25 Years Ago
October 10, 1992

Six-year-old Shaun Davison said it was ‘mind-boggling’ to discover his message in a bottle made it as far as Guadalupe.
During a trip to the Canary Islands, Shaun’s family met a German couple who put a message in a bottle for Shaun and let it float off to an unknown destination.
The bottle eventually resurfaced on a beach in the French West Indies. The message was found by a 14-year-old French girl, who wrote to Shaun to tell him she had found the bottle. She included a colourful map to pinpoint her home island.

10 Years Ago
September 28, 2007

Five MPs said they were on board with a campaign to investigate the cost of ferry fares.
Island MP Andrew Turner led the charge and by midweek more than 338 people had registered their support for the investigation.
Mr Turner said it was important to make the companies aware of the high levels of satisfaction with the cost of ferry travel.