Have you ever wondered how Devil’s Bridge got its name or why Bendals is “Bendals”? Let us take a look at some place names in Antigua and Barbuda and their stories, as reproduced from Places Names And their Stories (Desmond V Nicholson and expanded by Brian Dyde (2012 edition))
Image by Freepik.
All Saints:
All Saints Chapel was built in 1839 on Obsborne’s Pasture. The Chapel was called All Saints both for the Anglican All Saints Day (November 1st) as well as the adjoining parishes — St John’s, St Peter’s and St Paul’s — which all meet at the point where the chapel was built. As houses sprung up around the chapel and schoolroom, the village was named All Saints.
Bendals:
A community at the foot of the Sherkeley Mountains, four miles south of St John’s, and believed to have been named after a former estate. A deep water well named after Sir Eustace Fiennes, the Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1921 to 1929, is located at the site, and there are several other wells in the area that still supply water to St John’s and surrounding districts. One of the island’s three sugar factories was built here in 1905 when sugar production became mechanised and the planters moved away from wind-powered mills. It closed in 1940 when all sugar production moved to Gunthorpes.
Blue Waters:
The name given to an area of housing and holiday villas surrounding the Blue Waters Hotel in the north of Antigua close to Boon Point and adjoining Crosbies. The area was originally known as Soldier’s Ghut, presumably after a long-gone military station situated in the ‘ghut’ or valley.
Cedar Valley:
This area was named after the Cedar Valley sugar estate on which the old mill still stands. Many white cedar trees also grow in the area.
Carlisle:
A former estate situated between Barnes Hill and Cassada Gardens, the name of which comes from ownership by Captain Francis Carlisle in 1678. It overlooks the main runway of the V.C. Bird International Airport and is now an area of residential and light industrial buildings.
Codrington, Barbuda
Barbuda’s only village is named after the Codrington family that leased Barbuda for 185 years from 1685 until 1870.
Christopher Codrington
by R. Clamp, after Sir James Thornhill
stipple engraving, published 1796
NPG D13732
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Darkwood:
Originally called, for an unknown reason, Dead Sands, the beach changed to Darkwood after a bar of that name at the south end of the beach. This is a very popular beach. At one time it was lined with coconut trees which have been demolished over the years during hurricanes.
Devil’s Bridge:
A natural limestone arch in the low cliffs to the eastern side of Indian Town Point in the north-east of Antigua. Legend has it that due to the unhappy conditions of slavery on the sugar estates, many escaped slaves committed suicide at this spot, giving people rise to think that the devil must dwell there (Smith & Smith 1986: 109) It is now one of Antigua’s most popular tourist sites, famous for the dramatic Atlantic waves.
Ebenezer:
A roadside village just north of Jennings. The origin of the name is sadly lost in time.
Freetown:
Along with Liberta, this village was named to commemorate freedom after emancipation in 1834. Both settlements were amongst the first ‘free villages’. Freetown was originally called Farr Hills.
Goat point, Barbuda
The name given to the northernmost point of Barbuda, presumably after the resident population of goats.
Green Bay:
This south-western suburb of St John’s is named after the bay of that name, so called because in former times, before the reclamation of land, it was green with mangroves. The village was originally called Fitzroy Town after the 1842 Governor, Sir Charles Augustus Fitzroy, and is shown on maps up to about 1943. In 1933, there was a Pan American Seaplane anchorage in Green Bay (Camacho Map)
The Green Bay Moravian Church.
Gunthorpes:
Colonel John Gunthorpe owned Gunthorpe’s Estate, the site of the 20th century Central Sugar Factory. The Central Sugar Factory was built in 1904-5 and closed in the early 1970s/ At one time it was the island’s major employer.
Hodges Bay:
Here, in the 1740s, Henry Hodge owned a sugar mill. Even up to the 1880s the estate was owned by the Reverend W.O.B. Hodge but was then sold to one Oliver Nugent.
Indian Cave, Barbuda:
A series of interconnected caves contain petroglyphs close to Highland House on the east coast, thus making it the island’s most notable prehistoric site.
Jennings:
This village was named after Samuel Jennings who owned a small estate with a cattle mill south of the present village in 1749. By 1772, heirs of the Codrington Family owned the estate, which was also known as Herman Hill. Jennings village was famous for the Moravian Church and Mission House built in 1921.
McKinnons
It is named after the former estate owned by the McKinnon family from around 1750.
Mill Reef
A hotel and villa complex on the east coast, created by a group of Americans seeking an exclusive getaway in Antigua after World War II. The name derives from the mill tower which belonged in the 19th century to the Sheriff estate, which is at the main gate to the property.
Photo credit Mill Reef Club
Newfield:
A village in a fairly remote position on the east coast. Its name is believed to derive from a past increase in the layout of the estate on which it later developed i.e. a new field.
Rubbish Bay, Barbuda:
Rubbish Bay near Spanish Point is named because of the quantity of flotsam and jetsam that washes up in this particular area.
Spanish Point, Barbuda:
Spanish Point, studded with coral reefs, is the most south-easterly point of Barbuda and is most likely named after the wreck of a Spanish merchantman by the name of Santiago de Cullerin.
And finally (for now) …
St John’s:
The capital city of Antigua was named after Saint John the Divine. The town was built after the French invasion of 1666 and had become as large as Falmouth by 1689. The first St John’s Cathedral was built in 1681 but this simple wooden structure was damaged by an earthquake in 1745. A second brick building was constructed, but that again bore the brunt of an earthquake. The present cathedral was built in 1845.
