The Isle of Wight County Press has been reporting local news since 1884.

We've taken a delve into the archives.

April 1904, 120 years ago:

A young Newport girl had a miraculous escape when the hem of her dress became caught beneath the wheels of a gravel cart. The girl was walking along Pyle Street when the incident happened. She was pulled under the cart and a wheel rolled over her shoulder, causing only severe bruising.

Two Freshwater residents took the IW Rural District Council to the High Court over alleged access rights at Colwell Common, Totland. Edmund Ward and Jonathan
Gilbert were trying to restrain the council from entering Furzefield or from interfering with the construction of buildings on the land.

A Newport boy was fined 13s (65p) after being caught with 22 heads of broccoli. He was accused of digging up the vegetable from a local garden and then selling them on for 9d. He gave the money to his mother, claiming that it had been given to him for running an errand for an old lady.

April 1929, 95 years ago: 

Cowes-based shipbuilding firm J. Samuel White announced more orders. Yonkers of New York and Paris wanted the firm to build a 750-ton twin-screw steam yacht
for sailings along the Thames in London. Building the yacht would keep 700 Islanders employed.

April 1954, 70 years ago: 

Islanders and tourists basked in the spring sunshine for the Easter weekend, with traveller numbers to the Island including nearly 43,000 on the Ryde to Portsmouth passenger route, higher than ever for the time of year. The County Press said: "From almost every point of view, Easter 1954 will go down in history as a record festival."

April 1994, 30 years ago:

Police and animal welfare groups on the Island expressed their outrage after an illegal snare was used in the West Wight, killing a young female badger. The hand-made steel wire contraption was used, according to police, by poachers.

The Island's two leading independent schools, Ryde and Upper Chine, announced they were to merge. Upper Chine's pupil numbers had dropped in five years from 215 to 135.

Island beaches that won awards for European and national water quality standards were slammed in a travel publication. The 1994 Reader's Digest Good Beach Guide stated that the only beach on the Island that was fit to visit was at
Compton Bay. They said beaches at Shanklin, Ventnor and Seaview were polluted with sewage.