Ventnor Blog

One of our favourite manor houses in the South, The Enchanted Manor has some treats planned for this Halloween.

On 31st October, they will be hosting a Haunted House Party at the Manor with “quizzes, games and ghost stories, followed by a supper of Graveyard Goulash, spooky spuds and witches brew”.

As is usual on the Wight, dressing up for the event is compulsory - in true enchanted stylee dress code is strictly witches, wizards, fairies and enchanted characters.

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The next meeting of the Niton and Distict Camera club will be at the Niton Village Hall next Tuesday evening.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm and visitors are as welcome as members.

This time there will be an open competition for prints, do come along and join in.

Image: VentnorBlog

Keen photographers in the South, don’t forget that the Niton and District Camera Club starts up again tomorrow night.

Just pop along to the Village Hall in Niton, where members will be showing photos shot during the summer outing to Castlehaven.

Visitors are very welcome to attend.

Image of Niton Village Hall reproduced courtesy of Auntie P, copyright remains with the photographer

If you went along to the Niton and District Camera Club Exhibition this summer and felt inspired, why not join the group?

The Autumn season starts next week with a meeting at the Village Hall in Niton.

Members will be showing work taken on the summer outing to Castlehaven.

Visitors are very welcome to attend.

Image: Castlehaven courtesy of Claude

Niton’s very own Music Festival, FONStival takes place tomorrow and with tickets at only £7.50 for adults and £3.50 for kids, it’s well worth checking out.

There are tons of Island musicians taking to the stage and plenty to keep the kids happy all day.

If you want to know who is playing when check out this lineup below.

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If you’re not heading off the Wight this weekend for Camp Bestival, but are hankering for a festival atmosphere, why not head down South to Niton where you’ll find the FONStival.

FONS-ti-what? You might be asking. Well FONS stands for ‘Friends Of Niton School’ and in a continuation of their fund raising efforts, this weekend Niton Primary School will be hosting their very own music festival.

As well as some of our most talented musicians performing, there’ll also be tons of stuff to keep the nippers happy.

They can take part in a carnival workshop making headdresses and masks, test out their monkey bar skills on the adventure trial, bounce for free on the blow up castle and much more.

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At last night’s Ventnor Town Council, Cllr Buster Bartlett asked his fellow councillors to consider adopting the following statement (see below) in relation to the future of the Undercliff Drive.

Cllr Brian Lucas seconded the proposal by Cllr Bartlett and added that he had helped on the proposal in order that discussions move forward. He felt that every time the subject of Undercliff Drive was raised at the TC, that past history was dragged up which didn’t help in deciding what would be best for the future of the road, residents and businesses affected.

Returned to an ‘A’ Road?
Cllr Rob Mew welcomed the proposal, but added that he felt the road should be returned to an ‘A’ class road should be opened up to heavy good vehicles, coaches and double decker buses.

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Congratulations to Ric and Maggie Hilton from the Enchanted Manor in St Catherine’s, Niton, who last night picked up yet another award for their luxury B&B.

Maggie and Ric made their way up to London yesterday to pick up the award from The AA for the Funkiest B&B in the UK!

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The Enchanted Manor in Niton has made it to the last three for the AA’s Funkiest B&B Awards, which will culminate in the top prize being presented at London’s Mandarin Oriental hotel on 4th June.

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Well done to those in Niton who have organised themselves into getting their first batch of plastic-bag replacements delivered.

The design on the bag was the product of a competition held at Niton Primary school where the whole school put forward designs, which were then judged by the school’s Eco team club.

There were two winners of the competition. The writing at the top was designed by Philip Morris in Year R and Justyce Cox for the lower drawing in Year 3.

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If you have an interest in photography, you might like to put this one in your diary.

Next month The Niton and District Camera Club are holding their Spring/Summer Exhibition of members prints at the Village Hall in Niton.

They are inviting the public to go along, view the work, have a coffee and perhaps join for the forthcoming season.

Image of Niton Village Hall reproduced courtesy of Auntie P, copyright remains with the photographer

Thanks to Malcolm who got in touch to let us know about the Niton and District Camera Club who are holding their next meeting on the 10th April in the Niton Village Hall at 7.30pm.

Malcolm tells us that visitors always welcome, so if you have an interest in photography or would like to learn more why not give it a go?

He also tells us that this is an open competition night, so take along your prints and slides and you could be going home a winner?

[Image courtesy of Jeremy Rowe Vintage Photography]

Thanks to Malcolm who got in touch to let us know about the Niton and District Camera Club who are holding their next meeting on the 27th March in the Niton Village Hall at 7.30.

Malcolm tells us that visitors always welcome, so if you have an interest in photography or would like to learn more why not give it a go?

He also tells us that this is an open competition night, so take along your prints and slides and you could be going home a winner?

[Image courtesy of Jeremy Rowe Vintage Photography]

There are only 20 tickets left for the folk rock gig being held at The Buddle Inn on the 23rd.

Smoke and Mirrors will be performing on stage with support acts David Hughes, and the
Hilltop Trailblazers (featuring Rick East - ex-Lonesome Valley Boys).

Get your tickets by calling Vic on 730930 or Becky on 07779 727587.

If you live in a busy household and struggle to find ‘me time’ or ‘clam’ time then a church group in Niton called The Sanctuary might be just what you need.

The group meets Tuesday afternoons during term time between 1-2.30pm at Niton Parish Church.
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Niton band, The Motion Pictures have just released their new EP, Potion Mixtures and it’s now available to buy.

Either pop up to HMV in Newport or if you’re feeling in a lazy mood and can’t be bothered to get out of your seat, click on to the 1965 website and order online for a special price.

It’ll only cost you £3.99 (nearly the price of a pint these days!) and as well as adding another great piece of vinyl to your collection, you’ll be supporting the Island music scene.

The 12″ vinyl features, If All Things Were Never Said, Blue Gun, She Is Gone and Count Me Out.

I came across a fantastic piece of vintage footage on YouTube today, which is titled Isle of Wight Landslide of 1928.

It is a five minute clip made up of three Pathe News films of the great landslide in 1928, the Niton Undercliff landslide and then a tour of Ventnor.

Really lovely to watch and well worth putting your feet up for five minutes and sitting back to enjoy it.

The person who has uploaded the film has removed embedding, so you’ll have to pop over to YouTube to watch it.

They’re dropping like flies. John Lawson, former Deputy Chief Executive, is the latest casualty in the costly investigation into the unlawful procurement of High-Point Rendel. He tried to resign last week, but the committee wouldn’t let him off that lightly. Here’s the latest news from the council press office. Ed

On Monday October 29, the IW Council’s Investigatory and Disciplinary Committee discussed an independent report into the role of John Lawson in the illegal procurement of Undercliff Drive contracts.
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Following Monday’s announcement that Undercliff Drive suspended senior officers, Paul Wilkinson and Derek Rowell are no longer on the payroll of the Isle of Wight Council, more news has come out today regarding the investigation.

We’ve been absolutely rushed off our feet all day and haven’t had time to sift through the report yet, but IW Radio have had excellent reports all day, including a detailed discussion during the 6pm news tonight.

We’ll be putting our attention on it tomorrow, so check back to hear more.

We all know about the Undercliff Drive scandal that has caused so much controversy at the Isle of Wight Council, and given editors of Private Eye content for their ‘Rotten Boroughs’ section every couple of weeks.

This week, Wragge & Co, who are leading the investigation, are inviting members of the public to step forward if they have any information that may be of use in the rather expensive ongoing inquiry.

If you feel that you have something that may be useful in the investigation, they will be plonking themselves down at the Ventnor Botanic Gardens, next Tuesday (2nd October).

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Thanks to VB reader, Lisa Burt for alerting us to a event being held next month over at The Enchanted Manor in Niton which may appeal to many of our readers.

Lisa tells us that Ric and Maggie Hilton (owners of the hotel) will play host (and hostess) to a night of enchanting magical entertainment.

You can enjoy a gourmet buffet (along with a complimentary glass of champagne) and the chance to meet world famous fantasy artist, Josephine Wall.

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I see in the agenda notes for the next Planning Committee (Tuesday 24th) that the future of Niton Skate Ramp will be discussed.

Following the public consultation and the planning officers evaluation of the situation, conditional permission is being suggested.

If this is granted by the Planning Committee, permission will be given for the skate ramp will remain open until 30 September 2010 on or before which date the skateboard ramps shall be dismantled and removed from the site.
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Niton Primary School will be transformed on Sunday afternoon as they host their annual summer school fayre.

Over the last term, all things medieval have been the theme to much of the pupils work, so some bright sparks thought it would be good to carry on the theme for the fayre.

All the usual suspects will be there, teachers in stocks, tombola, go karts, bouncy castle, cake stall, grand raffle, second hand toys galore and the BBQ (maybe they’ll have a hog roast given the medieval theme).

They’ll be a grand medieval parade and maypole dancing.

Previously there have been lots of other stalls selling all sorts of things, from table decorations and plants, to those rubbery shoe thingys and handmade jumpers.
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Great news that Niton band, The Motion Pictures, last week signed a deal with hot label, 1965 Records.

The label is headed by James Endeacott (pictured), ex-A&R guru at Rough Trade Records, who in that role discovered and signed bands such as The Libertines - and latterly, under 1965, have signed the current smash bands, The View and The Draytones.

The Motions are under new management, with the wonderful name Just Managing, who appear to be doing slightly more than the modest name implies (those who know Raff will appreciate the name).

It’s expected that The Motions will have the next album coming out shortly, which will be followed, in short order with new melodies.

The rumour is that Paul Butler, he of The Bees, should be spreading the local love and working with The Motions on their new recordings.

We’ve been promised a listen of the new album, which we’ll let you know about when it hits our ears.

In the meantime, have a listen/watch of them playing at The Sessions 07, Which took place on 3 March at Ryde Theatre.

Hats off to all those at Isle of Wight Music who put on such a great showcase of local talent and turned out such professional video like the one above.

We did an interview with Simon Rodley (head of IOW Music) ages back, that we’re still planning to get to you - given the time!

[image courtesy of Guy Eppel]

It was one year ago to the day that we last reported about the threat of closure to Niton Skate Ramp.

It appears, one year on that news is repeating itself after we received a request to highlight this issue on the blog.

Two or three years ago young people from Niton raised money for the skate ramp in Niton Recreation Ground. The police supported it financially, to give skateboarders a safer alternative to riding on the road.

It has been very popular and well used by young people in the village. NOW due to complaints by a minority, there is a risk of it being removed. If you think it should be retained please write a letter before the close of Thursday 26th April.

Here is an excerpt from one of the supporters letters …

The arguments against the skate ramp have been that it is creates unsociable and intolerable noise for the neighbouring residents and attracts underage drinkers and trouble from outside the village (although supporters say there is no evidence of this).

With regard to the noise, as one supporter of the ramp pointed out, the noise of bored kids could be far worse.

If you wish to add your comments (before close of business tomorrow) , write to

Customer Information Team
Seaclose Offices
Fairlee Rd
Newport
IOW

Email: development@iow.gov.uk

Quoting ref: Planning Application - TCP/15259/M, P/00465/07

You can also submit your comments online.