On 3 October 1896 Reed was involved in an accident when his pony trap overturned near his residence "Woodcliff", Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
Mrs. S. Bartram Richards, the wife of the secretary-treasurer of the land company, suggested the name "Ventnor" for the area then being developed by the Camden and Atlantic Land Company south of Atlantic City, having recently visited the seashore resort on the Isle of Wight with the same name.
Ventnor, opened September 1866, renamed 'Ventnor Town' 1923, name reverted to 'Ventnor' 1953, closed 1966.
Ventnor | Ventnor railway station | Ventnor West railway station |
Leeson Road, named after the 19th century Bonchurch resident Henry Beaumont Leeson, is the segment of the A3055 that runs from Ventnor, at the foot of St Boniface Down, along the clifftop above Bonchurch, the Bonchurch Landslips and the Devil's Chimney.
He tied for fourth/fifth at New York 1940 (US Chess Championship, Samuel Reshevsky won), tied for third/fourth at Ventnor City 1941 (Jacob Levin won), tied for third at New York 1942 (US championship, Reshevsky won), shared third at Ventnor City 1942 (Daniel Yanofsky won), took fifth place at New York 1944 (US championship, Arnold Denker won), and tied for second/third at Ventnor City 1944 (Levin won).
Until 1844 the family lived at Pidford Manor or Ventnor, but in that year Mrs. Sewell and her daughters settled at Sea View, Bonchurch.
Despite the Island's popularity as a holiday resort after World War II, British Railways closed the Bembridge branch in the 1950s and the Shanklin - Ventnor part of the IWR main line in 1966.
Champions like the Ventnor planing hydrofoil; the Flying Dutchman Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Superdocious for short) in which Rodney Pattisson won a gold medal at the Mexico Olympics; Rita, the Laser in which Ben Ainslie won an Olympic gold medal in Sydney; and "Defender II"
However, trains were run by the independent Isle of Wight Railway and Isle of Wight Central Railway, who owned the tracks beyond St John's Road and operated through services to Ventnor and Cowes via Newport respectively.
In the 1950s and 1960s, and before the Beeching Report, the Island boasted a comprehensive railway network based on a triangle of lines connecting Ryde, Newport, Sandown and Ventnor.
Ventnor West, opened June 1900 as Ventnor Town, renamed 'Ventnor West' 1923, closed 1952