Category: HISTORY

Algernon E. Aspinall in the 1914 edition of “The Pocket Guide to the British West Indies”, describes the “admirable” Georgetown service of electric tramcars provided by the Demerara Electric Company as plying four routes daily, through the city, at 15-minute intervals. They stopped, he noted, along the route at places marked by white poles, to pick up and drop off passengers. The trams traversed along lines named the (1) Belt Line, which went from the company’s office, Water and Coal streets, crossing Camp Street, the cricket ground on New Garden…

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Meadow Bank, East Bank Demerara, located some two miles south of Georgetown, has undergone a significant transformation from the village it was some 175 years ago. Around that time, it was mostly populated by the Portuguese and became the centre of the Catholic Church in Guyana. With the abolition of slavery in 1834, many of the African slaves who worked on sugar estates eagerly left the inhuman and barbaric conditions on the estates to seek their fortune and future elsewhere. Portuguese from Madeira began arriving as indentured immigrants in 1835.…

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By Luke M. Hill, M. Inst. C.E. Georgetown, the capital of British Guiana, was first established by the Dutch on the Second Island, some miles up the Demerara River, whence it was transferred to Stabroek in 1782. Stabroek was a government reservation lying between Plantations Vlissengen and Werk-en-Rust, allotted for government offices and residences for the chief officials and leading colonists; and now forms a central ward of the City of Georgetown, which gradually spread itself right and left along the river facades of the adjoining plantations of Vlissengen, La…

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Laurens Storm van Gravesande [regarded as “the doughty founder of the Colony of Demerary, the Dutch Commander-General of the Two Rivers”]made the decision that agricultural development should move towards Demerara. The fertility of the soil and the depth of the river helped him to make this decision. From 1746, Gravesande began to grant land on the banks of the Demerara River for sugar cultivation and within two years there were 18 plantations which were established. Settlements were growing at such a rapid pace that Gravesande recommended to the directors of…

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Part I British historian James Rodway (1848 -1926) wrote regularly about the colony of British Guiana, from which today we are able to learn of many aspects of our early history. One such is the story behind the names of many of the plantations of the day that have now become our towns, villages and neighbourhoods. Here is an edited excerpt of his essay entitled, “The Names of our Plantations”, published in the Timehri: the journal of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana (1911). The estates that…

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The Hog Islandwindmill is the only known surviving brick windmill structure once used on sugar estates during colonial rulein Guyana. The Hog Island windmill ruin is said to be located on a former Dutch plantation called Plantation Lyksburg on the eastern side of the 57 km² island. Constructed on a six-foot mound, the structure stands some 28 feet high, and is made of granite blocks and red brick; the brick being used primarily as facing for the big windows and archways. After years of obscurity and neglect, the National Trust…

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British Guiana was the earliest and longest commercial producer of balata among the Guianas.According to “Tropical Forests of the Guiana Shield: Ancient Forests in a Modern World”, edited by D. S. Hammond, almost 28,000 t was produced between 1893 and 1988,though commercial production of balata ceased in 1982. While indigenous populations had long used balata to make balls for playing games, temporary tooth fillings and for carving decorative art work such as figurines, the discovery of a“rubber tree” boosted the economic activity in British Guiana as worldwide demand for rubber…

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The Linden Museum of Industrial and Socio-Cultural Heritage on Co-op Crescent in Mackenzie, is located in one of Linden’s most historic buildings, according to the National Trust of Guyana. The building was constructed in 1925 and was known as the Recreational Hall where it was used for dances, indoor games; as a cinema and general meeting place. Later, in the 1970s, it served as the Linden Consumer Goods Complex; today, after much negotiations, it houses the “Linden Museum of Socio-Cultural Heritage”, its official name, according to  lindentourism.com The museum was…

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According to a March 31, 1851 census there were some 7,168 African immigrants residing in Demerara, Essequibo and Berbiceon the colony of British Guiana. Of these, 2,728 were living in Berbice, including in New Amsterdam. Two thousand, four hundred and five resided in Demerara, including Georgetown, and 2,035 lived in Essequibo. While many are said to have voluntarily arrived on the colony from Sierra Leone and the Kroo (Kru) Coast, now in modern day Liberia and Ivory Coast, many others arrived after being rescued from the slave ships of other…

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