A StoneCrabs Theatre Company Project
(1809-1892) Farringford House in Bedbury Lane in the small town of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight was the home of Lord Alfred Tennyson and his wife for 39 years. Tennyson was an English poet and Poet Laureate from 1850 to 1892. We have included Tennyson because Arthur Henry Hallam inspired a number of his… Continue reading Lord Alfred Douglas Tennyson
(1854-1900) Oscar Wilde visited Ryde on the north coast of the Isle of Wight in 1884 to give a lecture on ‘Dress’. We found contrasting reports of his visit in issues of the Isle of Wight Observer and he had photographs taken by Hughes and Mullins, professional photographers on Union Street in Ryde. You can… Continue reading Oscar Wilde
(1837-1909) Algernon Charles Swinburne is buried at St. Boniface Church in Bonchurch, Isle of Wight. He was an openly gay English poet, playwright and novelist. His childhood was largely spent at East Dene in Bonchurch, Isle of Wight. In 1848, Swinburne went to live with Reverend Foster Fenwick at Brooke Rectory in West Wight, before… Continue reading Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1882-1941) Fiercely intelligent feminist writer Virginia Woolf had various affairs with both men and women, most famously a ten-year affair with Vita Sackville-West. Her connection to the Isle of Wight comes via her great-aunt, Victorian photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron who made her home at Dimbola Lodge, in Freshwater.
(1893-1944) Robert Nichols was an English poet and playwright often referred to as one of the First World War ‘war poets’. He was born on the Isle of Wight in East Mount, Shanklin, and was baptised in the village at St Saviour on the Cliff. Nichols’ poem ‘The Burial in Flanders’ is celebrated as one… Continue reading Robert Nichols
(1920’s) ‘Bill Stickers’, ‘Sister Agatha’, ‘Red Biddy/ White Biddy’ and ‘Kate O’Brien the Nark’ were pseudonyms used by a group of young women who came together to form what was known as ‘Ferguson’s Gang’ in 1927. Some of the group were lesbians or bisexual. They were activists protecting rural England who objected to the spread… Continue reading The Ferguson Gang
(1900 – 1993) Marion Barbara Carstairs was known as ‘Joe’, she had numerous female lovers, which were said to include Oscar Wilde’s niece, Dolly Wilde, as well as Hollywood stars Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich. Joe Carstairs was the UK’s most successful female motorboat racer during the 1920s and her boats were made on… Continue reading Joe ‘Marion’ Carstairs
