The Ventnor & District Local History Society is based at the Ventnor Heritage Museum in Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, and collects and preserves stories and pictures to share with local people and wider communities. It covers Ventnor and the Undercliff, from Luccombe in the East to Chale in the west, including the inland villages of Whitwell, Wroxall and Godshill.
Membership
New members are very welcome, so please email us if you are interested in the local history of our area, and would like to get involved, or simply support us. Annual membership runs from January to December and costs £15 (2026). Visit our website for information about becoming a member.
Monthly meetings and talks
Regular meetings are held each month, with guest speakers covering a wide range of local history subjects.
Our Collection
Within our collection we have photographs, prints, documents and artefacts.
Research
The database listing items in our collection is available to search in the Heritage Centre, and our volunteers are happy to undertake research enquiries for visitors. There is no charge for this, but donations are very welcome, and are used for our conservation programme and to help us to preserve our collection.
Publications
We publish newsletters for members and write a weekly local history article which is published in the local paper, the South Wight Chronicle. Back copies of the articles can be accessed in the Heritage Centre. Local history publications, many of them written by Society members, are available for sale in our Museum and in our online shop.
Photographs and prints
We have now embarked on a programme of digitising our collection to prints to preserve it for future generations. Some of the digital images have been used on our website, and we are adding more material all the time. Please contact us if you would like higher resolution copies of any of the images here for publishing purposes. We can also provide prints for personal use for a small fee to cover admin costs.
Donations
We are entirely managed and run by volunteers, and so we welcome donations to help us to collect, record and preserve the rich heritage and history of Ventnor and surrounding villages and share it with local and wider communities.
Charity No
Registered Charity No 286848
