Ventnor Heritage Museum |
Source: https://www.ventnorheritage.org.uk/museum_30
Archived: 2026-04-23 15:39
Ventnor Heritage Centre
"
To Collect, Record and preserve the rich heritage and history of Ventnor and surrounding villages, and share it with local and wider communities
"
Ventnor Heritage Museum |
The Ventnor Heritage Museum carries visitors back in time to explore Ventnor’s origins and the way it grew at phenomenal speed to become a premier Victorian resort town.
For opening times please see
Ventnor Heritage Centre home page
.
Click here for information on exhibitions and displays for 2025
Our many display boards tell this story in words and pictures. There are finely detailed images from glass plate negatives that offer glimpses into vanished lives. There are reproductions of paintings from visiting artists of the time, fascinated as they were with the dramatic coastal scenery of Ventnor and the Undercliff and the people who came to visit. Other displays document the life-worlds of outlying villages in the earlier 20th Century, a time when horizons were limited and the pace of existence altogether different from today.
Visitors will also see showcases of artefacts that recover lost material worlds. There are even models of the town’s vanished railway lines. We play several DVDs that offer voyages back in time. Finally, you can absorb our Victorian kitchen and laundry exhibits, telling of an age when household chores took on a scale that is difficult for many to appreciate today.
Olivia: Portrait of a Life
Olivia Parkes (1881-1962) was born in Walsall in the Midlands, but for many years lived a solitary life in a wooden hut in Myrtle Bay in Ventnor, where local people referred to her as ‘Britannia’, and her life has been a constant source of fascination to local people and visitors.
This new exhibition for 2024, inspired in part by the ‘Olivia’ art installation by Teresa Grimaldi and Sarah Vardy shown at Ventnor Fringe Festival in 2023, features a model of Olivia’s home (Britannia’s Hut) and is accompanied by an extensive board display.
A new book, '
Britannia, The Extraordinary Life of Olivia Parkes
' is available to buy in the Ventnor Heritage Centre, or by post from our
Online Shop
.
Latest news
Our first Society Meeting for the new year will be on
[…]
A Slideshow by Paul Kingswell
The Society meeting on Friday 28 November 2025 will be
[…]
Monthly Meeting: ‘Do you Remember? An Isle of Wight Scrapbook’
Our next Society Monthly Meeting will be on 25 April
[…]
Ventnor Congregational Church (also known as the Independent Chapel)
The first Independent or Congregational chapel was
[…]
Monthly Meeting 29th November 2024: ‘Nothing to see here . . . ‘
Our final monthly meeting for 2024 will be on 29th
[…]
Upcoming Society Meetings
Monthly Meeting January 30th 2026: Ventnor History Quiz Night
Our first Society Meeting for the new year will be on
[…]
Monthly Meeting: ‘Do you Remember? An Isle of Wight Scrapbook’
Our next Society Monthly Meeting will be on 25 April
[…]
Monthly Meeting 29th November 2024: ‘Nothing to see here . . . ‘
Our final monthly meeting for 2024 will be on 29th
[…]
Monthly Meeting: Friday 25th October 2024
250 Years of Undercliff Art, By Dr Robin McInnes
[…]
Society Meeting: Friday 23rd February 2024
At our meeting on Friday 23 Feb 2024 Alan Clark will
[…]
"
To Collect, Record and preserve the rich heritage and history of Ventnor and surrounding villages, and share it with local and wider communities
"
Ventnor Heritage Museum |
The Ventnor Heritage Museum carries visitors back in time to explore Ventnor’s origins and the way it grew at phenomenal speed to become a premier Victorian resort town.
For opening times please see
Ventnor Heritage Centre home page
.
Click here for information on exhibitions and displays for 2025
Our many display boards tell this story in words and pictures. There are finely detailed images from glass plate negatives that offer glimpses into vanished lives. There are reproductions of paintings from visiting artists of the time, fascinated as they were with the dramatic coastal scenery of Ventnor and the Undercliff and the people who came to visit. Other displays document the life-worlds of outlying villages in the earlier 20th Century, a time when horizons were limited and the pace of existence altogether different from today.
Visitors will also see showcases of artefacts that recover lost material worlds. There are even models of the town’s vanished railway lines. We play several DVDs that offer voyages back in time. Finally, you can absorb our Victorian kitchen and laundry exhibits, telling of an age when household chores took on a scale that is difficult for many to appreciate today.
Olivia: Portrait of a Life
Olivia Parkes (1881-1962) was born in Walsall in the Midlands, but for many years lived a solitary life in a wooden hut in Myrtle Bay in Ventnor, where local people referred to her as ‘Britannia’, and her life has been a constant source of fascination to local people and visitors.
This new exhibition for 2024, inspired in part by the ‘Olivia’ art installation by Teresa Grimaldi and Sarah Vardy shown at Ventnor Fringe Festival in 2023, features a model of Olivia’s home (Britannia’s Hut) and is accompanied by an extensive board display.
A new book, '
Britannia, The Extraordinary Life of Olivia Parkes
' is available to buy in the Ventnor Heritage Centre, or by post from our
Online Shop
.
Latest news
Our first Society Meeting for the new year will be on
[…]
A Slideshow by Paul Kingswell
The Society meeting on Friday 28 November 2025 will be
[…]
Monthly Meeting: ‘Do you Remember? An Isle of Wight Scrapbook’
Our next Society Monthly Meeting will be on 25 April
[…]
Ventnor Congregational Church (also known as the Independent Chapel)
The first Independent or Congregational chapel was
[…]
Monthly Meeting 29th November 2024: ‘Nothing to see here . . . ‘
Our final monthly meeting for 2024 will be on 29th
[…]
Upcoming Society Meetings
Monthly Meeting January 30th 2026: Ventnor History Quiz Night
Our first Society Meeting for the new year will be on
[…]
Monthly Meeting: ‘Do you Remember? An Isle of Wight Scrapbook’
Our next Society Monthly Meeting will be on 25 April
[…]
Monthly Meeting 29th November 2024: ‘Nothing to see here . . . ‘
Our final monthly meeting for 2024 will be on 29th
[…]
Monthly Meeting: Friday 25th October 2024
250 Years of Undercliff Art, By Dr Robin McInnes
[…]
Society Meeting: Friday 23rd February 2024
At our meeting on Friday 23 Feb 2024 Alan Clark will
[…]