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Page 1                           Ryde Pubs - An Illustrated History
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Page 4             Cover Photograph - The Malt & Hops  High Street, Ryde 1905

              Introduction  A brief history of Ryde
  Ryde is often referred to as the gateway to the Isle of Wight and is situated on the north east coast of the Island, almost directly opposite the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth
  However, its origins in comparison to other Island towns are fairly recent and its most significant period of expansion and development took place in the 19th century.  Little is know of Ryde in medieval times, when the area of the present town lay within the ancient manor of Ashey and Buckland and the coastal anchorage was known as "La Riche" or "La Rye".  The latter name is believed to mean a little stream. There was a small hamlet in upper Ryde which was sparsely populated and primarily agricultural.  The area of the present town then was mostly fields and woodlands.
In the 17th century, lower Ryde consisted of a scattering of cottages at the base of a steep slope, roughly in the area where the present day Union Street meets the Esplanade.  Such was the gradient that the roofs of the lower hamlet were hidden from sight of those who lived above.  The two settlements were linked by a narrow track where St. Thomas's Street runs today.
   The seafront area was known as Ryde "key" or "quay" and engravings of the period show a small jetty on the foreshore.  To the east, past a smallholding known as "Ostende Farm", itself a corruption of "East End Farm", lay an area known as the "Dover".
   This beach was a shifting area of sand dunes from which the Monkton Brook emerged.  It had been deeper and wider in medieval times, separating Ryde from Appley, but by the 18th century a sluice gate had been built, causing the formation of a lagoon behind the beach and creating a marsh stretching back along the course of the brook.
   The shore itself was muddy and treacherous with patches of blue slipper clay and sand bars.  Combined with the long tidal reach which limited access to vessels, this contributed to Ryde's failure to develop as a port.  As travellers invariably had to wait for the tide, hostelries were required for traders and ferry passengers.



        The earliest recorded inn in this area was the Ship, situated on what was then the beach.  The site is difficult to place today but was probably where the Esplanade Garage has its car park in Lower George Street.  Records recall that Charles II passed an hour or two here playing cards after his pinnace was left high and dry on a visit in 1662.  Later, a lease drawn up in 1692 shows the inn then occupied by a Benjamin Barkham and it appears the establishment lasted until 1790.
  Roy Brinton, a local historian, has recounted the tale that in 1697 the landlord was a man named Sivell.  He was a mariner by trade and the sea most of the time leaving his wife to look after the inn.  Unfortunately for her he arrived back one day unexpectedly and found her "entertaining" some men.  In the ensuing fit of rage, he and his cronies drank the pub dry, sent Mrs. Sivell packing, closed the inn and returned to sea.
   After demolition in 1790, two other makeshift hostelries were constructed on the site.  These were the Three Guns and the Fighting Cocks which in turn were pulled down between 1800 and 1810 and the Union Tavern built in their place.
 In 1705 a Hampshire brewer by the name of Henry Player purchased the Manor of Ryde and Buckland from Sir John Dillington for £3,120.  The estate included several farms, a number of buildings and land in upper and lower Ryde.  The purchase included the Lordship of the Manor of Ryde and Mr. Player built a manor house on reclaimed land next  to the "east quay" in lower Ryde.  He also built two wharves, the western one being known as "brewhouse quay".  Amongst his acquisitions was an inn in upper Ryde.  After Henry Player died in 1711 his son Thomas continued the brewing business but had a "hands off" relationship with the estate.  In turn, his son William assumed title to the estate in 1721 aged eight and it was administered by Trustees until he came of age.  In 1759 the foreshore area was partitioned and leased.  Charles Childe, a Gosport merchant and Henry Lys, a brewer and distiller, each obtained leases on land from the Player estate, the latter acquiring a malthouse on the site.  A new inn called the Passage Hoy was built and an adjacent building constructed some time afterwards on the shoreward side was known as the Black Dog.  A print dating from 1788 shows the Passage Hoy situated on the shore at right angles to the sea.  its name was changed to the Bugle towards the end of the 18th century and it served as an unofficial ferry office for the captains and crews of wherries and hoys that worked the passage from Ryde to Portsmouth.
The Bugle was demolished in 1826 and the Pier Hotel constructed on the site.  This building was enlarged over the years to become one of the premier hotels in Ryde.  It was to last just over one hundred years until 1931, when it suffered the fate of the earlier Bugle, being demolished for road improvements at the bottom of Union Street.
Around 1801, another inn was constructed on the western end of the foreshore known as the Vine Inn.  Its familiar twin roofs appear in several seafront engravings of that ear and it was sited where the present Victoria Hotel now stands.  An 1809 sketch shows it from the landward side where the landlord, Thomas Saunders, carried on his other trade as a builder and carpenter.  He was to go on to build the Victoria Arcade in Union Street but, unfortunately, never received payment from the contractor.  That was to be his last venture as a builder and he remained a publican thereafter.
   From about the mid-18th century, lower Ryde was beginning to develop as a port and its fortunes became linked to Portsmouth's increasing importance.  It was also developing as a resort and was recommended in Hassell's Tour of the Isle of Wight for its bathing "to the west of the village" and "easy accommodation for visitors".  Indeed in 1778 the tenant of a seafront alehouse, possibly the Passage Hoy, wrote to his landlord publican, William Player, requesting permission to install a billiard table.  The publican, James Potts, wrote, "We have a Press Gang settled here, which has drove all the young men away, and the country people are afraid to come to the place.  We have some gentlemen come on shore, but stop but a short time for want of some amusement, are soon weary of the place, that makes me wish for a billiard table."

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