Crane

A couple of days prior to taking this snap from the beach at Sandown, we had seen a telescopic crane in the vicinity from the café at Brading Roman Villa, checked out with the trusty monocular. This crane was nowhere to be seen by Wednesday, so presumably we had just missed a crane erection. Another luffing crane, regarding which see reference 1.

At what had once been the site of the Carlton Hotel, quite possibly a hotel which had been used by MIL & FIL in the course of one of their coach holidays on the island, coaches being an important part of what business there is for the rather run-down hotels of the east coast. A far cry from the island's glory days of the end of the nineteenth century, with paddle steamers running trips from Portsmouth to the piers of Ryde, Sandown and Shanklin.

So we were pleased to see that Premier Inn had taken a punt on the site, maybe a sign that Sandown is on the up again. Maybe we will take the train from Epsom to Sandown and stay there ourselves one day.

PS: I was also pleased to pick up a more or less new M&S shirt for £3 in one of the charity shops in Sandown. Only a 17 inch neck, but I virtually never do up my top button nowadays, so it will do fine - at maybe 10% of the proper price.

Reference 1: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/07/an-audience-with-renee-fleming.html.