"First, I have to agree with your contributor R.F. from Oz. Part of the thrill of going to the Island was the journey there. For me as a tender four year old in 1966 the trip on the train to Portsmouth, via Trafalgar Square to feed the pigeons, was a holiday in itself. The 7:15 am Master Cutler from Sheffield to start and "the boneshaker" the old ex London underground train from Ryde to wherever.

The first two or three years we stayed in Ventnor at a guest house called Brunswick House, which still exists, then run by the Rose family. What wonderful people they were. Mr. Rose did all the cooking and, according to my father (I was a little young to remember details), produced the best roast potatoes he's ever tasted, before or since. Unfortunately, after our second year there they left and we spent the next three or four years holidays at various guest houses in Shanklin, before moving along the coast to take holidays in Sandown for the next 28 years.

One place we'd visit every year when we were young was Blackgang Chine, although when we first went there were no dinosaurs or St. Catherine's Quay, when the Wild West Town was built it was as far down the chine as you could go. The main attractions then were the whale skeleton, the maze and the gnomes garden.

Also different in those off days was the Needles and Alum Bay, no chair lift then, and no "pleasure"? park either. You could collect your own sand too. How times have changed.

After years of guest houses 1975 marked a watershed, we splashed out and stayed at the Trouville Hotel on Sandown esplanade. But it didn't come cheap! Full board, a ballroom with resident comedian/compare, entertainment every night and a full blown cabaret with five acts and dancing Tiller type girls twice a week. Games room with full size snooker table, Table-tennis table and darts.

Two TV rooms (this was the days before TV's in every room), all for the princely sum of, £19.00 a week!

The hotel was owned by Adrian, and Henry, who ran the bar, also had a gift shop on Beachfield Road, above the Post Office called, surprisingly enough, Henry's.

It was while staying there, living it up in what was undoubtedly the grandest hotel I'd ever stayed in, we met an old guy who'd stayed there since the thirties and who felt that standards were slipping as they didn't turn the bedclothes back at night in the rooms for you any more.

Probably my favourite place in Sandown was the old house which used to stand in Ferncliffe Gardens on Beachfield Road and the little Crazy Golf course at the front of it. There was a tea room in the house and every year, on first arriving on holiday, we would play crazy golf and drink tea on the grass in the gardens. Then the council wanted to build flats so they demolished the house and built a red brick monstrosity. Progress."