Cowes and Newport join the railway age
Towns joined by railway | 1862 | Period: Victorian
The first conventional steam railway line to open on the Island was from Cowes to Newport in 1862.
The Cowes & Newport Railway Company began construction of the line in 1859 after an enabling Act of Parliament was passed earlier that year.
Shortly after this, the Isle of Wight Railway Company built its initial line from Ryde to Shanklin, opening in 1864. In the same year, horse-drawn trams began running along Ryde Pier, connecting steamer services to the town. The Company opened an extension of its main line to reach Ventnor in 1866 and in 1871; the Ryde tramway was extended to meet the railway line at Ryde St John's Road.
Also in this Period:
- Queen Victoria Dies
- Marconi experiments with radio waves
- The Tennyson Monument unveiled
- Royal National Hospital for Diseases of the Chest opens
- Julia Margaret Cameron takes first photo's at Dimbola
- Cowes and Newport join the railway age
- Needles Old Battery built
- New Needles lighthouse planned
- Sailing race around the Isle of Wight won by America
- Charles Dickens writes David Copperfield
- Victoria and Albert buy Osborne House
- UK's first theme park opens at Blackgang Chine
- Work starts on St. Catherine's lighthouse
- Algernon Charles Swinburne