The Hotel Majestic

As another TT draws to a close this will be my last Manx related post for a while, though do expect more in the future. I have a lot of Isle of Man postcards.

We've looked at some tourist attractions, but all those tourists had to stay somewhere so I'll be looking at one of the many sadly now defunct hotels on the island - The Majestic.

Although there is still a request stop in Onchan called the Majestic Halt, the hotel is long gone having been razed to build apartments .

The hotel started life as a mansion in 1893 and was sold in 1920 to a couple looking to build a hotel to cater to tourists who wanted to take advantage of the attractions of Douglas and not have to travel from the South of the island to do so.

Tho hotel open in 1922 and boasted a ball rooms, billiard room and bar. The swimming was not added until 1935 and the same year the hotel changed its name to the Majestic Lido Hotel. In the following decades the hotel became a popular place for wedding receptions and was increasingly used by non-residents.

The decline of the hotel is a familiar one. As foreign holidays become more available, domestic based holidays fall out of favour and the local tourist industry suffers and so it was the case with the Majestic. It ceased functioning as a hotel in 1987 but the building remained for a few years as an auction house before, as stated earlier,it was razed to build apartments.

I'm not sure when the above postcard is from, it's not dated,  but I've seen similar pictures used on adverts for the hotel from the early 1970s so that seems about right.

Open Air Bathing Manx style : Port Skillion and Peel

Some of my postcards I'd really like to be able to dive right into and with the hot weather we've been having recently I wish I could dive right into the pools depicted on the following couple of cards.

The fist post card  shows Port Skillion bathing creek near Douglas Head. Built in 1874 by Mr Robert Archer , they were possibly the first open air baths in the British Isles.

Initially they were for men only though women used to enjoy watching the men which was considered quite scandalous at the time with people writing letters to newspapers about the moral decline of the island.

I imagine the scene would have looked like this card sent in 1908 and written in what I think is Welsh.

The people who wrote the card  below do not seem too bothered about any lowering of  moral standards as they state they are having a great time.

The card is published by Valentines and research indicates it's from 1909 but other research conflicts that as guides published in 1910 state the cove was for gentleman only. The card is not dated but the stamp is of George V SG 338 so 1911 seems about right.  

The creek stopped being used in 1932 after the surrounding walls were storm damaged.

The second postcard is more up to date and shows the outdoor pool in Peel.  It was published by Bamforth is one of the Color (sic) Gloss Series and is likely from 1969.

There had been an open air pool in Peel since 1900 but this was closed in the 1950s due to cliff erosion. Those above replaced it and remained open until the 1970s. They are now filled in and there are currently no public outdoor swimming pools in the Isle of Man which I think is a shame.

   

Cambrian Airlines

It's not just places which disappear from the map. Companies can also cease to exist for a variety of reasons and it is one such company I'd like to look at today.

While the bikers who visit during the TT will arrive via the ferry, I'm sure some of the crowds will have flown in to Ronaldsway. However, they won't have done so by Cambrian Airlines.

Cambrian Airways was a UK based airline which operated between 1935 and 1974 before being incorporated into British Airways in April of that year. The Isle of Man was one of 16 destinations flown to by the airline. The company used several types of aircraft including the now retired Viscount Vickers 701 which is shown on the card below. These types of craft were last flown commercially in 2008.

The plane on the card above G-AMOO was scrapped long before then.

The website below gives precise information about this particular plane. I won't go into details here other than to say that it was built in Bournemouth in 1953 and sold to Cambrian Airways in 1966 and it remained with them until 1970 when it was withdrawn from service on 19th December that year. It sold for scrap in October the following year and broken up.

The card above is not dated but form the colours we can tell it's from 1969 as this was the year it was painted  in the Cambrian Airways 'BAS - British Air Services' livery.  So, the airline, the aircraft type and the aeroplane all no longer exist. It really is a postcard from a vanished world.

For the full story and for information on other Viscount Vickers planes please see below.

http://www.vickersviscount.net/Index/VickersViscount028History.aspx

Calvary Glen

I have to admit to not knowing an awful lot about this glen. I hand not heard of it until I was looking through my postcards.

What I can tell you is that the glen was created in the 1960s by Father McGrath of St Anthony's church in Onchan.
The statues were made in Lourdes and set up in "The Way of the Cross". They were also illuminated and could be seen from Douglas Head. I have tried  finding photos which illustrate this but no luck so far.
I also know that the statues, which were nearly four foot high, are now in the grounds of St Anthony's church in Onchan which was built on the site of the former internment camp.
They were moved there sometime in the 1980s.
What I haven't been able to find out is when the glen was closed to the public, but I do know that it was purchased from the Diocese of Liverpool in 2013 and there are plans to renovate it though it is still in a state of disrepair.

The card dates from the mid 1960s probably from around the time the glen was first created.

Source http://www.isleofman.com/places-to-visit/countryside/glens/calvary-glen/

The Changing Fortunes of Port Soderick Bay and Hotel

Is that the roar of motorbike engines I can hear? Is that Bushy's beer tent I can see from my window and are those leather clad men I can see wondering around Strand Street?

It seems so, which can only mean that TT is upon us again and so all my blog posts for the next fortnight will be Manx related.

Port Soderick got a brief mention in a previous post but it deserves a post of its own.

The Isle of Man is known for its glens and among them is Port Soderick. Its Wikipedia entry makes for rather grim reading, describing closed and abandoned buildings, filled in padding pools and unsafe walkways. Strangely, or perhaps not, it's one of my favourite places to visit on the Isle of Man.

In visiting the glen I'm following on from many a tourist from previous generations.  The site was first developed as a tourist attraction by the Forrester brother and advertised as "the only free glen on the island". Holiday makers in the late Victorian era flocked in their droves to the Port Soderick Hotel where they enjoyed the private beach, camera obscura and the funicular. The railway, built in 1898, which still runs today, was once the busiest in the island such was the popularity of the place.

The card below dates to the Edwardian era and shows the funicular, which was destroyed in 1914, as well as the hotel and holiday makers.

This is actually my favourite card in all my collections.

Here it can be seen from a different angle but from the same era.

Although the hotel closed in the 1950s, tourists still came to the hamlet and enjoyed the bay as the card from the early 1960s shows below.

    The hotel was sold to private hands in 1984 but did go through something of a renaissance in the 1990s when celebrity chef Kevin Woodford  had the Anchor Hotel there. This was closed in 2002 and the building has been derelict ever since.

However, in March this year we received news that Heritage Great Britain is interested in buying the site and bringing it back to life. This is great news if it happens, though part of me will miss the quiet secluded Port Soderick I like to visit.

Douglas Southern Electric Tramway

Today I'm going to be showing a postcard of something destroyed long before I was born.

The Douglas Southern Electric Tramway travelled from Douglas Head to Port Soderick ( which will feature in a later post) from 2nd September 1896 to 28th August 1939. It was eventually destroyed in 1955 and all that remains is the entrance at Marine Drive which will be instantly familiar to all those of us who have walked that way. It is unlikely to operate again due to landslides in the area.

I'm not sure of the exact date of the above postcard. It hasn't been used, but the publisher is S. Hildersheimer who were producing cards between 1881 and 1920.

One of the trams is currently at Crich Tramway Museum and is shown on a 1997 postcard below.

Today, anyone wanted to go to Port Soderick is likely to get the Steam Train whose fate has been better than a lot of the transport on the Isle of Man.