John Luff and John Woodford on Transport

Lisa: You mentioned there was a Passenger Ferry from Bembridge. Can you tell me about that?

John W: Yes, that started just after the Harbour was reclaimed in 1880. There was several ships there but the popular one was the ‘Bembridge’ which went from Bembridge, it stopped at Seaview and then it went over to Southsea, only during the summer months. They didn’t work in the winter.

My grandfather worked on the ‘Bembridge’ until he was too old, and then he was … well, by the 1890s, the Bembridge Harbour couldn’t be entered at low tide because it had silted up, so what they used to do, they used to take them round to a place called Under Tyne, which is off Bembridge, people had to walk there and be taken out by pinas to a boat that anchored offshore, and my grandfather used to drive the pinas there and back.

It finished in about 1924, I think was the last time it was there, but only used during the summer months.