15 June: The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight festival begins on this date in 2023. 10 things you might not know about the Isle of Wight:

1. The Romans knew it as Vectis and the Greeks called it Iktis. In the Domesday Book, it was referred to as Wit, and the inhabitants as “Wihtware”. Today, residents may be called "Vectensians", "Vectians" or, if born on the island, "caulkheads" (from the once prevalent local industry of caulking or sealing wooden boats). They might refer to the UK mainland as “North Island”.

2. The island has some unique dialect words including “overner” (a person from the mainland who has come to live there); mallishag (caterpillar), nammit (a mid-morning snack) and gallybagger (Scarecrow, also a local Cheese).

3. There’s an ongoing contest between the Isle of Wight and Rutland as to which is the smallest historic county in the UK. When the tide comes in, the island is smaller. When the tide goes out, Rutland is smaller.

4. About 140,000 people live on the island and about 2 million people visit for their holidays.

5. It’s the place where Marconi set up his first Radio. It also has the oldest Phone box in the UK (so old it only accepts old money), the oldest pier and the only remaining commercial Hovercraft service. The UK’s oldest theme park is here, too. It’s called Blackgang Chine, after a coastal ravine which was once a base for smugglers. Now it has an underwater kingdom, a fairy village, a cowboy town and one of the biggest collections of animatronic dinosaurs in the world.

6. From East to West, the island is 26.5 miles / 42 kms long. Easy to drive, and if you’re there in May, you can walk it as part of a charity event called Walk The Wight. The Isle of Wight has 489 miles (787 km) of roads, but no motorway.

7. There are said to be eight wonders of the Isle of Wight. These are: Cowes you cannot milk, Freshwater you cannot drink, Newport you cannot bottle, Needles you cannot thread, Winkle Street where there are no winkles, Ryde where you walk, Lake where there is no water and Newtown which is very old.

8. It’s had its fair share of famous residents. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a home here, Osbourne House, which is where Victoria died. Charles Darwin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, John Keats and Charles Dickens are other well known names from the Victorian era who spent time here. More recently, Winston Churchill, Karl Marx, inventor of the hovercraft Sir Christopher Cockerell, Alan Titchmarsh Bear Grylls, actors Sheila Hancock, Jeremy Irons, and David Niven. Some residents have been quite infamous and didn’t choose to be here, because there were once three prisons here Albany, Camp Hill and Parkhurst (now merged into HMP Isle of Wight). Famous inmates have included the Kray Twins and the Yorkshire Ripper.

9. The island gets 1,800 to 2,000 hours of sunshine each year which makes it the sunniest place in the UK and even beats parts of Spain.

10. The Isle of Wight is said to be the most haunted island in the world. Phantom monks, marching Romans and grey ladies are among the many ghost sightings reported.

Character birthday

Ultra-Grav, aka Peter Mayfield. School teacher (later headmaster) with a genetic variant power over gravity. If he uses his power against someone they are immobilised by being pinned to the ground. He was one of the founding members of the Freedom League along with Prince Christopher of Galorvia, who was studying in the UK incognito. They lost touch when the Prince returned home as King, but would receive an anonymous legacy from the King’s will which would allow him to buy a large mansion and use it as a sanctuary and base for training genetic variants. He and his friend Rosemary Ellis (Shadow) formed a new team which they called the G-Men. His story is told in Running in the Family.

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him. 

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.

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