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Upper Ryde, had always maintained a strong separate identity from its lower neighbour, and there was a fierce rivalry between the two hamlets which lasted up until the mid-19th century.  Jenkinson, in his Practical Guide to the Isle of  Wight published in 1833, speaks of local youths who would "sally forth with sticks and staves to do battle with the upper village or the upper would send down a detachment to do battle with their enemies".
   At this time, upper Ryde consisted of an area comprising the present length of the High Street from St. Thomas's Square to the junction with St. John's Road. (see map)
   The oldest recorded inn in this area was the Nags Head, originally standing on the southern corner of Newport Street and the High Street.  The Nags Head was listed as an inn in 1694 but is believed to have been licensed as early as 1664.  A Nicholas Oakley is mentioned in the Hearth Tax return of 1664 and an example of a traders token issued by him can be seen in Carisbrooke Castle Museum.  The inn closed on that site in 1780 moving to where the Queensway Hall now stands.  A century later it moved again to its final location on the opposite corner of Newport Street.  It closed forever in 1967.
   The inn's most famous visitor was Henry Fielding, the novelist and playwright, who was voyaging from London to Lisbon where he hoped to recover from an illness.  His ship, the Queen of Portugal, had anchored off Ryde waiting for a favourable wind and his wife persuaded her husband to go ashore and stay at the inn.  The date was 13th July 1754 and Fielding wrote, "I was at last hoisted into a small boat, and being rowed pretty near the shore, was taken up by two sailors, who waded me through the mud, and placed me on the land."
   After he arrived, Fielding was pleased with his surroundings but found neither of the Ryde hamlets inviting and described the occupants as mean and squalid.  As for the landlady of the Nags Head, Mrs Francis, his description of her appears to suggest the pub was named after her.
    However, Fielding was ill and his impressions may have been coloured by the disease he was later to die of in Portugal on 8th October that year.  Mr. Wyndham, in 1793, described Ryde as a plain neat village, having two tolerable inns and many decent lodgings.
   The other "tolerable inn" was the Star which was then situated slightly north of its present site and stood roughly opposite the present day Woolworths.  It was built as a private house in 1613 and is known to have become an inn in 1683.  Its yard and gardens extended back to the present George Street site now occupied by the Commodore Bingo Hall.
   James Notts was its well-known landlord but in 1825, Benjamin Mew, a Newport brewer, took over the lease.   However, it is the Lock family who are remembered as running the inn for many years in the 19th century.
It was also the stopping point for the Ryde to Newport stagecoach and in 1853 the Isle of Wight Observer announced that "a two pair horse omnibus 'The Star' ran mid-morning from Cluitts eating house (on the seafront) to the Star in the High Street and thence to Newport.  Return journey at five o'clock"
   In 1873 the Star was demolished in a Victorian redevelopment scheme and after reconstruction found itself adjoining a row of shops on the corner of Star Street and the High Street.  About the only original feature to survive was the large ornate star now situated on the upper part of the present building.
   Further down the hill on the opposite side of the High Street was another interesting old inn called the Prince of  Wales.  Known as Dagwells Bargain, after Edward Dagwell who lived there in the 17th century, it became a public house in 1846.  Originally a timber-framed building, after 1722 it was faced with regular rows of tiles to give the appearance of a brick frontage.  It was then known as Chelsea House and only took the name Prince of Wales after opening to the public.  It was long thought to have a smuggling connection with the usual stories of secret passages and staircases but little was found when the site was demolished to create a modern replica housing the present Powerhouse electricity shop.
   As already referred to, Ryde's initial development was economically linked to the rise of Portsmouth as an important naval port during the Napoleonic Wars.  Reflecting that, further development took place along the foreshore.  The Player estate had instigated piecemeal development in both hamlets throughout the 18th century but this had tended to be the construction of new building s within existing village boundaries rather than any expansion.  William Player died in 1792 and the estate was administered by trustees until his widow Jane took control.
   A new road - Union Street - was laid out and named after the Act of Union between Britain and Ireland in 1801.  Jane Player granted leases for buildings along the line of the new road and thus began the linking of the two hamlets.  John Cooper, a brewer in the town, built a large hotel on the new road in 1801.  Originally known as the Ryde Hotel it was renamed Yelf's Hotel after he sold it to Robert Yelf.  The building initially stood alone on the new road but was impressive enough to be the only inn in Ryde to appear in the 1811 Edition of the Newchurch Parish Church Rate Book with the title "hotell" (sic).
John Cooper later went on to brew beer from a site between George Street and Union Road residing in Denbeigh House, now a dental surgery.  A small inn a little way along Cross Street from Mr. Cooper's establishment, was called the Thatched House or Thatched Tavern.  Known to be open between 1830 and 1866, it was swept away by Victorian redevelopment.  Whether it was an outlet for Mr. Cooper's brewery is not known.
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

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