Visit St. Thomas, Barbados

11/04/2018

St. Thomas is a very beautiful parish. Can you guess where this is in St. Thomas?

07/04/2018

"A Nature Adventure for All"
If you love the outdoors, Highland Adventure Centre is a must on your visit to Barbados. The center offers hiking tours, bike tours, and mountain biking. You will discover the beauty of the hidden treasures of the central and eastern parishes of the island, which offer a dramatic contrast in landscape from the soothing beachscapes of the south and west coasts, where most hotels are located. The tours are not so strenuous that first-timers cannot participate, but offer enough challenge that regular hikers and bikers will appreciate the activity. Knowledgeable guides are with you throughout the tours. Mountain biking tours will take you to the rugged east coast, while hiking tours start and end at Highland’s Adventure Centre in the central parish of St. Thomas.

30/05/2017

07/04/2016

St. Thomas is a fun-lovers...dream, explore underground caves, traverse tropical gardens and a stunning gully, see local potters at work and beautiful people. St. Thomas, Barbados visit us today.

30/10/2015

If you are looking to experience the culture of the community, make your way to Melrose, St. Thomas, 7:00pm @ L&M Bar for an evening of Food, Fun and Celebration of life. Come It's a Community Cook off. Many different dishes will be on display.

20/10/2015

Great things will be happening in St. Thomas, stay connect and watch it unfold.

22/09/2015

This Saturday bring the whole family.

22/09/2015

Will you be visiting Barbados in the month of September and looking for places to see? Then come join us on the Discover our Inland Treasures Tours hosted by the St. Thomas Parish Independence Committee. Tour these wonderful attractions for less. Get you passport and get on board. Passports will be available shortly for more information call 246 245-8543. Looking forward to see you there.

17/09/2015

Come September 26th, starting at 9:00 am you can get to visit Harrison's Cave, Welchman Hall Gully and hear about the Williams Vault experience for just $50.00 Bds. Get your passports for your Departure at the House of Deals #39 Tudor Street, Bridgetown.
This all begins at The Natural Heritage Department grounds, #1 Sturges St. Thomas (9:00 am until 9:00pm). Bring the whole family to enjoy our Farmers Market and Culture Show, enjoy our great talent and experience community.
Entrance to the Farmers Market and Culture Show,
Adults $5.00 and Children under 10 years $2.00

01/09/2015

Will you be visiting Barbados in the month of September and looking for places to see? Then come join us on the Discover our Inland Treasures Tours hosted by the St. Thomas Parish Independence Committee. Tour these wonderful attractions for less. Get you passport and get on board. Passports will be available shortly for more information call 246 245-8543. Looking forward to see you there.

24/08/2015

High Holdings Guesthouse

24/08/2015

Bed and Breakfast : High Holdings, Old Sharon, St. Thomas

24/08/2015

The Bed and Breakfast Accommodations that can be found in St. Thomas. Our First Feature is Yolande's Guesthouse, Duke's St. Thomas. You can add a comment or Message for more information.

18/08/2015

There are some breathtaking views that can be seen from St. Thomas. Take a look, come visit St. Thomas, Barbados, a vacation that you can enjoy hiking, enjoying nature, enjoying the beautiful culture and people in St. Thomas.

05/08/2015

The Williams Vault

Built in 1660, the Williams Vault in Barbados, was infamous for supernatural activity and was home to the remains of the Williams family headed by General William Asygell Williams for over 300 years.
General William Asygell Williams was a general in the Welsh Fusilier Regiment under the power of Oliver Cromwell, who later took the general and others prisoner for switching sides and supporting the Royalist. They were then shipped to the British West Indies, with General Williams ending up in Barbados where he acquired Property and land such as the land on which Welchman Hall Gully is now located.

It is said that all the activity in the vault started after the coffin of the catholic wife of one of the General?s four sons was placed in the vault with the rest of the Williams family. General Williams and his family, who were of protestant faith, were not pleased with the marriage of his son to a catholic woman and hence the belief that the protestant family were fighting with the catholic woman, because they didn't want her in the vault.

After the son?s wife?s coffin was placed in the vault, the next visit to the vault found all the coffins rearranged with the General?s coffin standing upright. This event repeated itself after another visit to the vault, this time causing alarm. There was no evidence of intrusion or tampering of the vault leaving the sceptics with no rational explanation for the occurrence.

Amazingly after it was decided to remove the son?s catholic wife's coffin from the vault, there was no more movement of the remaining coffins in the vault.

The Williams Vault is located in Vault Road, St Thomas.

31/07/2015

The historic Fisherpond Plantation House was a sugar plantation, built in 1635 and was much later restored by the new owner John Chandler, a former hotelier.

John, the former owner of the Pink Ocean Hotel and a specialist in building and repairing 18th and 19th century crystal chandeliers, has been trying to recreate the Fisherpond Great House to what it was back then, by furnishing it with a wide collection of period paintings and antique furniture.

On your Fisherpond Plantation Great House Tour you will experience that old-world charm setting while seeing unique Barbadian architecture at its best, complimented by period furnishings and beautifully manicured gardens & lush grounds. If time permits you can hear thirties dance music on the antique wind-up gramophone. It is sad though, its now closed, what a beauty it was.

31/07/2015

The work of the Moravians among the enslaved population in the West Indies began in St Thomas in 1732. They came to Barbados from Germany in 1765 specifically for the purpose of converting slaves.
Moravians were the first Europeans to invite slaves to join their congregation. Their first services were held in St Thomas at the home of Brother Brookshaw in Bunker's Hill. This site came to be known as Old Sharon.

It was there that 13 persons were prepared for baptism. Among them was the elderly Sara who later became the first to be baptised.

31/07/2015

The Sharon congregation was founded in 1768 at Bunker’s Hill, St. Thomas — an area now also known as Old Sharon. In 1795 the mission was removed to its present location and named “Sharon.” No doubt, to the missionaries of the time, moving from Bunker’s Hill where they had more than their share of setbacks

Bunker's Hill served as the base for Moravian work in Barbados until 1795 when the station was moved to Sharon. In fact, it not only served as a base for the mission in Barbados, for in 1790, John Montgomery, the father of the famed poet and hymn-writer James Montgomery left Bunker's Hill for Tobago to begin missionary work in Tobago.

After the station was relocated to Sharon, the Moravians maintained the cemetery left at Bunker's Hill, for there is buried among others, Sarah, the first slave convert baptized by Moravians in Barbados into the Church, and John Montgomery who fell ill in Tobago, returned to Bunkers Hill, and died on July 27, 1791
The walled cemetery marked the site where Moravian work started in earnest in Barbados. Bishop G. Oliver Maynard records in his book, A History of the Moravian Church Eastern West Indies Province: The place Bunker's Hill, Shop Hill is situated in the parish of St. Thomas.

The Sharon Moravian Church is a member congregation of the Moravian Church Eastern West Indies Province.

29/07/2015

Mount Wilton old sugar factory chimney-St Thomas Barbados
This sugar factory ceased operations around 1950

29/07/2015

The Rock Hall Village was originally part of Mount Wilton Plantation which was owned by Reynold Elcock. This young white planter, 32 years of age at the time of his death left a will giving each of his over 100 adult male slaves 5 pounds sterling a year.
One night in 1820, a slave named Godfrey after finding out about the will killed his master by cutting his throat. Godfrey was executed for his act and the remaining slaves did not receive their monies until Emancipation in 1838. After receiving the money, the slaves now free, bought some of the land of the estate forming the first free village which was at the time nicknamed 'Cut throat village'.
Other planters in St Thomas willed their plantations to their coloured children born to slave mothers, an example of this was William Ellis whose son was the first coloured man to be elected to the House of Assembly.
After Rock Hall Barbados' first village, many villages were established by Barbadians working abroad on the Panama Canal in the 1900s'.
The Rock Hall Village is located in the parish of St Thomas and is home to the Rock Hall Freedom Monument.

24/07/2015

Jack In The Box Gully

Jack In The Box Gully is so named after the Jack in The Box Tree that once grew there and can only be found in Turners Hall woods and no where else in Barbados.

20/07/2015

BAGATELLE GREAT HOUSE: The great house, in St. Thomas, was built in 1645 and owned by James Hay, the first Earl of Carlisle, a Scotsman, who had been granted permission, in 1629 or 1630, to colonize the island by King Charles I .

The Earl leased the property to the governor, Lord Francis Willoughby sometime between 1647 and 1650, when it became the Governor's residence, however it was not called Bagatelle, Lord Willoughby called it Parnham Park House after his English estate..

The Earl of Carlisle died in 1636. Lord Willoughby went down with his ship during a hurricane in the West Indies in 1666. His brother William succeeded him as Governor of Barbados.

The property has been owned by about a dozen people over the years including
The Padmore family, whose remains are still in Barbados. The ancestors of the Tryhane family - some still live in Barbados, others in California and possibly elsewhere.

In the 21st century, it houses, Lord Willoughby's Tavern, Paulo's Churrasco Do Brasil Brazilian Steakhouse and Chatters Tea Room.

20/07/2015

Lion Castle Polo Estate: The world-class polo field at Lion Castle Polo Estate already plays host to International tournaments. The Polo field itself has been completed to the highest specification with state-of-the-art underground irrigation supplied from a man-made pond with a capacity for six and a half million gallons of captured rainwater.

At 1,000 feet above sea level- almost the highest point on the island - Lion Castle Polo Estate commands stunning views of the island.The most prestigious property development on the island of Barbados.
Weather permitting, polo is played between November and May.

16/07/2015

St.Thomas Parish Church
Location : Highway 2A, St.Thomas

Date Built : 1836

Historical Facts
The present church replaced previous structures which were destroyed by hurricane - the first in 1675, second in 1780 and third in 1831.

16/07/2015

Sharon Moravian is the oldest Moravian Church in the Caribbean.

16/07/2015

The Sharon congregation was founded in 1768 at Bunker’s Hill, St. Thomas — an area now also known as Old Sharon. In 1795 the mission was removed to its present location and named “Sharon.” No doubt, to the missionaries of the time, moving from Bunker’s Hill where they had more than their share of setbacks, the new location on the plains below, nearby the gully and watercourse, promised the fruitfulness of the biblical Sharon (Isa. 65:9-10; 35:1-7) — the verdant, coastal plain of Northern Palestine.

On February 10, 1799, the foundation stone of Sharon was laid, and the structure was built with the willing assistance of the slave congregation.

15/07/2015

The first free village to be established in St. Thomas was Rock Hall and the second village to be established was Bridge Field also in St. Thomas which was described by Professor Woodville Marshall as Rock Hall’s sister village. Both these villages were established by free blacks (ex-slaves) whose former owner had left them a bequest in his will his name was Reynold Ellcock Alleyne unfortunately he was murdered by one of his slaves in 1820. It was not until 1840 that his will was probated and the bequests became available to his former slaves and they purchased land at Rock Hall which was a marginal plantation (not the most arable plantation); and Bridge Field. These two villages were therefore established between 1841 and 1842. The Rock Hall Freedom monument which represents freedom is casted in bronze, this 20ft stainless steel statue was designed by Mr. Stanton Haynes and officially unveiled in August of 2005. The monument pays homage to a family of three (3) freed ex-slaves and the village of Rock Hall.

15/07/2015

Harrison’s Cave is named for Thomas Harrison, who owned much of the land in the area in the early 1700s. In 1733, Harrison established a school that is today’s Harrison College. It’s not clear whether Mr. Harrison ever entered the cave that bears his name — but others certainly did.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, several expeditions ventured into Harrison’s Cave, none of which got very far. Because the natural entrances to Harrison’s Cave were hard to get to, and the cave’s inside passages presented many challenges, the cave remained an unexplored mystery until 1970.

Rediscovered and mapped in 1974 by Ole Sorensen, an engineer and cave adventurer from Denmark. He was assisted by Tony Mason and Allison Thornhill, two young men from Barbados.

After 1974 the Barbados government started developing Harrison’s Cave as a show cave and attraction, by excavating shafts and tunnels that could accommodate trams. The cave was opened to the public in 1981.

Harrison’s Cave is a massive stream cave system at least 2.3 kilometres long.
The interior temperature is an average 27 degrees Celsius
Its largest cavern, the Great Hall measures 15 metres/ 50 feet high.
It is an active cave as it carries water. The stalagmites in the cave are growing by less than the thickness of a piece of paper each year — but that’s very fast in geological terms!

15/07/2015

Welchman Hall was the first property purchased and which became wholly owned by the Barbados National Trust. Purchase of this in 1992 was spearheaded by Mr. Ronald Tree, the Founder of the Barbados National Trust who recognized the importance of the environmental aspect of our mandate as well as the importance of the native plants which inhabit the Gully.

The Barbados National Trust developed this site into a major tourist attraction as a place to be visited during tours across Barbados.

The Gully is rich in natural vegetation. A number of areas have been left in their natural state and are used to illustrate how Barbados must have appeared to the early settlers.

In other areas of the Gully can be found flora not necessarily native to Barbados but that cannot be found in other areas of Barbados. In particular, there are clove, nutmeg, cocoa, coffee, citrus, avocado and other tropical fruit trees and a magnificent Bamboo grove.

Opening times:

» Monday - Friday 9:00 a.m - 5:00 p.m
» Saturday & Sunday 9:00 a.m -4:00 p.m

Admission:

» Adults BDS$20.00, children BDS$10.00
» Locals - Adults BDS$12.00, children BDS$6.00

Last entry: 3:45 p.m

13/07/2015

HP Batik Studio displaying Caribbean artwork and an excellent cafeteria with stunning views across the valleys.