World Heritage Centre

The recently opened World Heritage Centre along Penno’s Wharf in St Georges.

In 2000 the ‘Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications’ were inscribed with the recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is nice that there is now a central point to bring together and tell the stories of historical events and features in the Town.

From the UNESCO website:

Criterion iv The Historic Town of St George with its related fortifications is an outstanding example of a continuously occupied, fortified, colonial town dating from the early 17th century and the oldest English town in the New World.

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Rising East

Graves in the St George’s Parish cemetery look towards the rising sun this morning. The graveyard has a British Military area (front section of the second photograph), buried with some men who died in fort accidents, others to yellow fever and some lost at sea.

The graveyard sits on the brow of the hill above the Town of St George, with glimpses over the North Shore and across to St Davids Island on the other side.

The grave on the right commemorates William Edward Welch,who died at sea on Christmas Day, 1879. On the left is the grave of Thomas Walker Brooks.

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The Anchor

Early morning sun over the anchor that stands along Tiger’s Bay wharf in St George’s.

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Welcome to the Town of St George

For the next week I’ll be based in St Georges, so expect a series of posts from the East End of the island!

St Georges was the first capital of Bermuda, founded in 1612. As the sign says, it is twinned with Lyme Regis, a coastal town in England. That is the hometown of Sir George Somers, admiral of the fleet whose flagship, the Sea Venture, was wrecked on Bermuda’s reefs and brought Bermuda’s first settlers. Soon after founding the settlement, Sir George took ill and died. His body was returned to Lyme Regis but his heart is buried in St Georges.

Fort George is perched on the highest point overlooking St Georges, so it provides a good view over the Town and harbour:

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The Appearing Act of the Disappearing Cannon

A little while ago I posted the view across the Great Sound from Fort Scaur. I was at the Fort again, this time to photograph the Park Rangers demonstrating the Appearing Act of the Disappearing Cannon, one of only a very few of these cannons in the world. It dates from the 1870′s and was placed in Bermuda by the British.

An embedded video *should* be here, if it’s not, view video here.

The cannon is loaded out of view, below the ramparts, and then released to rise up and fire. Its recoil would then send it back down below, ready to be reloaded while the enemy collapses into chaos trying to sight the offending cannon! A police sergeant asked that the cannon not be fired though, apparently the West End community are a bit delicate, so unfortunately I haven’t been able to witness its namesake disappearing act yet.

 

Blighted Cedars

A photograph which should have been a prelude to yesterday’s post. This is Abbot’s Cliff in Hamilton Parish overlooking Harrington Sound. It is studded with the silvery skeletons of cedars that died in the scale blight of the 1940′s. They stand as a reminder of hte importance of environmental protection and the need for fastidious inspections of any plant material entering Bermuda.

A Bermuda Cottage

The intricate shadows of the Chinese Jujube tree on the white plaster work made this cottage catch my eye in the Botanical Gardens today. I thought it was worth a photograph and the cottage has an interesting short little history:

In 2001, Bermuda took part in annual Folklife Festival held by the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC. A traditional Bermudian cottage under-construction was just one of the many displays showcasing the island’s cultural heritage. It was visited by over a million people, yet unseen by most Bermudians themselves, so the following year the exhibition was re-staged at the Bermuda Annual Agricultural Exhibition in the Botanical Gardens, and entitled ‘Bermuda Homecoming’. This cottage is the creation of that encore exhibition and still stands strong with shining cedar woodwork in the Gardens. The (then) Ministry of Community Affairs & Sport produced a series of handbooks for students, the one on ‘Arts of the Land‘ is particularly relevant and an interesting read too.

Details on the chimney, and raincatchment downpipe leading to the tank:

Cedar window detail:

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Bermuda Celebrates 400 Years

28th July 1609: A mighty storm in the Atlantic Ocean damaged the Sea Venture, a ship en-route to Jamestown. By some heavenly luck, just at that moment land was sighted on the horizon! It was the cluster of uninhabited islands marked on many maps only as the ‘Isle of Devils’. The Captain, and Sir George Somers, Admiral of the fleet, ably guided the Sea Venture into the reefs and off-loaded all crew and passengers, each safe  and well, to paddle the last distance to the island. Once ashore, Bermuda was claimed with the English flag for King James.

28th July 2009: A beautiful sunny day with a slight ocean breeze and a rainbow arching into St Georges. The Spirit of Bermuda glides along the channel from the Sea Venture’s shipwreck site and a pair of dinghies, complete with oarsmen clad in 17th Century dress, appear from around Fort St Catherine. To commemorate the beginning of permanent human habitation on Bermuda, the Sea Cadets of Bermuda reenacted the final struggle of the first settlers to reach the island, and their first actions to claim the land for the King.

The Commemoration Ceremony

Along with the Bermuda Pipes, some of the Regiment Band and visiting cadets from Manchester, UK, the ‘settlers’ marched as a procession past Builder’s Bay, where the Deliverance and The Patience were built to continue the journey to Jamestown, past Gate’s Fort and on to the Town of St George.

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