Tel: 01983 855397 info@botanic.co.uk

The Tunnel

Our regular Tunnel Tours are currently postponed. Please email foh@botanic.co.uk if you'd like to enquire about a private tour.

Ventnor Botanic Garden has many secrets, some dating back to the days of the Royal National Hospital that formerly stood on the site. Underground caverns, secret passageways and a tunnel through the cliff can be found by the visitors to the Garden.

A proposal to dig a tunnel from the gardens down to the shore was mooted in the late 1800s.  The Royal National Hospital annual report for 1875 states that “There can be no doubt that if the patients were able to obtain free access to the shore it would be very conducive alike to their recovery and their enjoyment.” Money for the tunnel at that time was not forthcoming and although it was built later, its function was by no means the rather romantic conception that has given rise to a good deal of speculation and comment; it was in fact used as a conduit for rubbish that was propelled through it and dumped into the sea. Steel tramlines are still visible on the floor. Exactly when the tunnel was built is unknown; possibly it was in relation to a new system of drainage and sewage disposal that was completed sometime in the 1880s. The tunnel was closed at both ends in 1940.

The 350 foot long vaulted roofed tunnel exits through the cliff midway down and is inaccessible. DO NOT attempt to locate the exit, or try to enter unless with one of our guides, as the cliff is extremely dangerous. Bolted gates are also in place for safety.

 

Ventnor Botanic Garden CIC is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. If you have questions about your personal information please contact us. This Privacy Notice sets out how we collect, process and store your personal data as well as your rights in relation to your personal data.

Ventnor Botanic Garden CIC may change this Client Privacy Notice from time to time. You may be asked to review and re-accept the information in this policy when changes occur. Any questions regarding this Privacy Notice and our privacy practices should be sent by email to info@botanic.co.uk or by post to Ventnor Botanic Garden, Undercliff Drive, Ventnor, Isle of Wight  PO38 1UL.

What personal data do we collect?
The personal information that we collect about you may include your name, email, address, telephone number, date of birth and car registration.We collect this personal data through information you provide when you:

  • contact us by phone, email or in writing
  • request information regarding the garden, products and/or services via email, telephone or by submitting a form through our website
  • enter into a contract to receive our products and/or services
  • setting up an account with us
  • sign up through our website to download information from our website
  • Sign up to receive communications from us
  • Complete a customer satisfaction survey

We may automatically collect information if you visit our website, including details of your visits, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data and the resources you accessed. We may collect technical information about your computer, including IP address, operating system and browser type.

What information we hold about you
The type of data that we collect and process from our member application and renewal forms include:

  • Your name
  • Your email address
  • Your postal address
  • Your date of birth
  • Your telephone numbers
  • Your car registration number


How your personal information is used
We process personal information for certain legitimate business purposes, which may include:

  • To inform you of activities at the garden
  • To notify you of member offers
  • To inform you of any membership schemes or renewal dayes
  • Provide products and/or services to you
  • Fulfil any contractual agreements to you
  • Communicating with you in relation to the potential provision of products and/or services
  • Creating an account and invoicing for products and/or services provided to you
  • Providing you with industry information, surveys, newsletters, offers, promotions, related products and/or services which may be of interest to you
  • Communicating with you in relation to any complaints, issues or disputes
  • Analysing marketing data, promotional campaigns, website visits in order to make improvements to our products and/or services
  • Requesting customer feedback relating to the provision of our products and/ or services

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data on the basis of Legitimate Interest as detailed in the ‘Your Rights’ section of this document.

You also have the right to change your preferences or unsubscribe from any marketing communications from us. Every communication we send will give you the opportunity to opt-out or select the products and/or services that you are interested in.

Who do we share your personal data with?
Your personal data will only be accessed by those who have a genuine business need to know it. This may on occasion mean that your personal information will be shared with a trusted third party in the course of fulfilling our contractual obligations to you, for example:

  • Our trading partners to enable provision of quotations or to deliver agreed products and/or services to you
  • Our IT and CRM support service providers in connection with maintaining our systems and continuation of services to you.

Where we engage third parties to process personal data on our behalf, they do so on the basis of written instructions, are under a duty of confidentiality and are obliged to use appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure the security of data.

Where do we store your personal data?
We take the security of your data seriously and have internal policies and controls in place to try to ensure that your data is not lost, accidentally destroyed, misused or disclosed. All information is stored on our secure servers and is not accessed except by our employees in the performance of their duties.

Please note that the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to our website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your personal data, we will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

How long will we keep your personal data?
Where we have identified a legitimate business interest, we will hold your personal data securely for an indefinite period in order to communicate with you regarding our products and/ or services that may be of interest to you. You may change your preferences at any time or unsubscribe by clicking on the link provided on our communications.

Your rights
You have various rights with respect to our use of your personal data, these include:

  • access and obtain a copy of your data on request
  • require the organisation to change incorrect or incomplete data
  • require the organisation to delete or stop processing your data, for example where the data is no longer necessary for the purposes of processing
  • object to the processing of your data where the organisation is relying on its legitimate interests as the legal ground for processing
  • ask the organisation to stop processing data for a period if data is inaccurate or there is a dispute about whether or not your interests override the organisation’s legitimate grounds for processing data

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us
If you believe that the organisation has not complied with your data protection rights, you can complain to the Information Commissioner.

Cookies
A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyse web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyse data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie DOES NOT give us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Links to other websites
This website contains links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site you should note that we do not have any control over the destination website. Ventnor Botanic Garden CIC takes no responsibility for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting these websites.

Contact us

Refund Policy

Tel: 01983 855397  |  Ventnor Botanic Garden Community Company C.I.C  | Company Number: 07976468 | Registered Address: Undercliff Drive, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, PO38 1UL