The Isle of Wight can boast of many historic generations of local families.

One family that have been prominent on the Island are the Price family.

For nearly 200 years the well known family have been part of the Island's world of commerce.

Scroll through the family archive above

It was in the 19th century that Thomas Price started farming at Dodnor and Hunnyhill on the outskirts of Newport.

Besides the task of running the farm, the family had ten children, as did their son, Captain C. W. Price.

Capt Price had his own boat, trading around the Island and offering coasting trips to mainland destinations, and during the First World War he took part in delivering armaments to France.

The family were heavily involved with commercial seafaring, as were the next Price generation. 

However, as trading habits changed, so did the profitability of offshore trading, and after a long run it was decided to sell the last coastal traders, The MV Moultonian and MV Wessex.

Thomas William Price, of the following generation of Prices, carried on the tradition of having an exciting seafaring career. 

He was at the time the youngest mariner to have a masters certificate, and took part in helping in the laying of the first telephone cables to both the mainland and the Channel Islands.

He took an active role in the Second World War, helping to deliver ships for the Royal Navy.

Following the war, he decided to come ashore and start a taxi business, which he launched in 1948.

It became one of the leading Island taxi companies, recognisable by the distinctive small blue light fitted to the roof of its vehicles.

Thomas broke the family record by having 17 children.

One of the children, Charlie, had the nickname of Bonzo, given to him by Thomas, owing to the fact that when he was born his father amusingly thought he had looked like Bonzo, the family pet dog.

Another child, Barry, went into the motor trade, gathering extensive knowledge both in the army, and working in Fowlers garage in Newport.

He founded the well-known local Prices Garage, just on the outskirts of the town, at Pan.

While running the business, Barry had an amusing story that went down in local folklore. It concerned a large air balloon.

Being on the outskirts of the town, clients sometimes had a problem finding his garage, so he came up with an original solution to the problem. Why not fly a large air balloon over the location, reading Prices Garage?

All went well until the council stepped in, stating it was a danger to low flying aircraft, even though one can only imagine an aircraft flying that low over Newport would be imminently pursuing an emergency crash landing.

Nevertheless he was instructed to remove it.

But the determined Barry refused, much to the annoyance of the county council, who fined him £400 for every day the balloon was in the sky.

It was costing him a lot of money, so he finally relented and removed it.

However he had the last laugh owing to the fact that the story of the balloon received so much media attention that it produced an influx of customers, considerably boosting his trade.

Today, the well-known and trusted locally-owned garage is going from strength to strength and Barry has handed over the reigns to his son, the next generation family member Matthew, himself a local councillor.

Here I have but mentioned a few of the family members - it would take a whole book to cover others, who have also gone on to form successful and interesting careers and achievements.

A remarkable Island family known and loved by many, they may be said to be entrepreneurs, risk takers, adventurers, and always willing to help.