The Isle of Wight Railway was a railway company on the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom; it operated 14 miles of railway line between Ryde and Ventnor. It opened the first section of line from Ryde to Sandown in 1864, later extending to Ventnor in 1866. The Ryde station was at St Johns Road, some distance from the pier where the majority of travellers arrived. A tramway operated on the pier itself, and a street-running tramway later operated from the Pier to St Johns Road. It was not until 1880 that two mainland railways companies jointly extended the railway line to the Pier Head, and IoWR trains ran through, improving the journey arrangements.

An independent company built a branch line from Brading to Bembridge, and the IoWR operated passenger trains on the line from 1882, and later absorbed the owning company.

The IoWR was itself absorbed into the Southern Railway in the “grouping” of 1923.

The Bembridge branch closed in 1953, and in 1966 the Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor line was truncated to terminate at Shanklin. This was electrified, and former London Underground tube train stock was brought into use on the line; this arrangement continues to the present day.

This blog was made by Simon Schofield

These are the real life flats that are on Only Fools And Horses it’s Called Nelson Mandela House. It’s where Only Fool’s And Horses was filmed and it was also made for the Only Fools And Horses studio to. Nelson Mandela House is the fictional towerblock on the fictional Nyrere Estate in the real life London district of Peckham, SE15. The Trotters flat is on the 12th floor and has housed members of the Trotter family since the towerblocks were built in 1960, save for 5 years from late 1996 to mid 2001 when the Trotters were millionaires before losing their money in true plonker style when their dodgy stock market crashed and they lost all their investments. As of 2014, the Trotters still live at their 12th floor flat. Before the towerblock and its neighbouring towerblocks Zimbabwe House and Desmond Tutu House were built, the land had a huge ammunitions factory on it. That was demolished and construction of the towerblocks began in 1959. In June 1960, when the towerblocks were still being built, Joan Mavis Trotter applied to a flat there as she was pregnant. The towerblocks were completed in late summer 1960.

The towerblock opened in September 1960 and was originally called Sir Walter Raleigh House. As Joan Mavis Trotter was pregnant, she was entitled to apply for one of the flats. They were given a 12th floor flatwith good views over London – more towerblocks. 

Joan died in 1964 after alcohol abuse and their flat was not as well looked after. After the Trotters became rich and left London, their flat stayed empty for 5 years. Del let the estate agent have the carpet but never put the flat on the market.