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Weekend Away to the Isle of Wight

North Cotswold Branch of the Campaign for Real Ale

On Friday 23^rd October 2009, a group of seven CAMRA members set off on one of our more ambitious Branch outings to date. It proved to be one of the best we have done, and apart from early on Saturday, the weather was again kind to us. We made Shanklin out base.

On Friday evening we met as planned in King Harry’s Bar, Shanklin, and later went on to the Chine Inn on Chine Hill. By closing time heavy rain had set in, which continued all night. The weather forecast was that the rain would stop Saturday lunchtime, so it would have minimal impact on our weekend.

On Saturday morning the rain was now more showery. Half the group went as planned by train to Brading to visit the Brading Experience. That group met up with the rest at lunchtime in the nearby Yarbridge Inn. This pub was considered by our entire group to be the best we visited the whole weekend. Apart from the huge selection of real ales, the pub was full of Railway memorabilia, and even had a working model railway running around the bar, as seen in the photo.
	The rain had now stopped. Some of us walked back to Brading station along a delightful footpath running parallel with the line The photo shows approaching Brading Station from the path. A somewhat sad view. The days when it had two railway lines had long gone. But the now unused second platform on the right and footbridge over to it are still in place. We all travelled on to Ryde.
The first pub we visited in Ryde was the Solent Inn, on 7 Monkton St., shown in the photo. We were pleased to find Goddards Brewery local beers amongst those on offer. The group then continued to the Simeon Arms, on 21 Simeon St.
	We had planned to take a break at this point by travelling on the Ryde Road Train, but sadly we found that it does not run other than in “Summer”. Summer had clearly officially ended in Ryde, even if the sun was doing its best to disagree. As a substitute we decided to do something very traditional at the seaside, walk along the Pier. Old postcards of Ryde Pier. We ended the day with beer or two and food in the Wetherspoon Pub S. Fowlers, on 41-3 Union Street.
The highlight of the weekend was a Sunday walk from Shanklin to Ventnor over Shanklin and St. Boniface Downs. The photo shows us near the start of the walk, at the base of Shanklin Down.
	Once we got near the top of Shanklin Down we were greeted with superb panoramic views. This one shows Sandown Bay.
Just to prove how high up we were, here are a fine group of Highland Cattle making the most of the sunny weather on the Down. This cattle breed is highly suited to the exposed upper slopes. They are double coated; a soft downy undercoat and a long oily overcoat which can reach 15 cm in length.
	We dropped down steeply off St. Boniface Down. This proved quite challenging for some of our group. Indeed, our Cotswold Walk Organiser said that this walk ranked easily the hardest we have tackled to date. I think if all had known this in advance most would have gone by bus! But nothing ventured nothing gained. On Saturday we had noticed an event advertised for Ventnor on this weekend “V Bay Festival”. We had no further details. But when we arrived at the first pub, the Crab & Lobster on Grove Road (Photo left), it soon became evident that it was a music festival. This was an added bonus to our visit, which made the whole day extremely memorable. We went on to visit the Mill Bay and Spyglass Inn, ending in the Volunteer,. Most of the pubs we visited in Ventnor were selling local Yates’ Brewery Beers.
The final event of the weekend on Monday 26^th, was a visit to the Island’s Steam Railway. The photo shows Havenstreet, the main centre of the railway. The sun was still shining! It had been a superb weekend away. Report and Photos by Event Organiser, Peter Rowe