In the English Manor

The West Indian island of Barbados is so British, it had its own Trafalgar Square with a statue of Lord Nelson in 1813, predating London’s square by 16 years. Of course, the islanders had a special interest: Nelson came here to ready his fleet for the famous battle at Trafalgar, where he defeated Napoleon. Locals say that without Barbados, there might not have been a victory.

Unlike other Caribbean Islands where the “don’t worry, be happy” attitude celebrates the joyful present and history means pirate lore, Barbados appreciates its past. The preservation movement and an active National Trust have saved not only the plantation estates (referred to locally as great houses), churches and forts of the colonials, but the heritage of black national heroes, as well.

For people like my husband and me, who arrived by cruise ship and had only a scant day in port, the problem quickly became one of so much to see, so little time. We skipped the canned excursions offered by the cruise staff and after walking into the capital city of Bridgetown for a bit of shopping, we hired a taxi to take us precisely where we wanted to go. Our nearly four-hour excursion came to roughly $45, or half the cost of a pair of tickets on the three-hour tour offered by the cruise line.

Because most of the restored properties lie in the southern part of the 21- by 14-mile island (east and northeast of Bridgetown), you can easily see several in half a day.

Our first stop was Ronald Tree House, site of the Barbados National Trust Headquarters in the Belleville district of Bridgetown. The old Barbadian house has gingerbread trim on the side porch and shutters to seal it against sun and storm. It is open for house tours and is also the starting point of a tour to historic and modern private homes that explores a different property each Wednesday from Jan. 15 to April 9. These are sponsored by the Barbados National Trust and the cost of the three-hour tour is $17. Alas, our single day was not a Wednesday.

But we did visit St. George parish (one of 11 districts on the island), to the east of Bridgetown. English nobility-style manor houses there were built as early as the 1650s, copying the architectural styles and whims then popular in England but using such construction materials as mud and cornhusks. Brighton Great House and Drax Hall are examples of this faded but beautiful genre waiting to be revived.

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Francia Plantation, also in St. George, is less spare and more reflective of West Indies prosperity. The house--built in 1913 for a Brazilian farmer of French extraction married to a Barbadian woman--is occupied by the original owner’s descendants.

Some of the furniture was made by mid-19th century Barbadian craftsmen. Like other great houses, it had planter’s chairs. These testaments to West Indian ingenuity had reclined backs and armrests extended to hold the planter’s feet aloft until the day’s swelling subsided and his boots could be removed. The chairs are remarkably comfortable. Other pieces such as the Waterford chandelier and James McCabe bracket clock, were imported. Francia’s walls are hung with a collection of antique maps and prints, including a map of the West Indies, printed in 1522 and based on information contained in the journals of Christopher Columbus.

The louvered windows and doors open the house to the trade winds and make it comfortably temperate year-round.

Next to the house is a pavilion covering a set of original dripstones once used to supply the house with clean drinking water. From the top of the garden you can see Gun Hill Signal Station.

Gun Hill sounds more like a fortress than it looks or ever was. The 19th century military station was one of a series around the island set up to keep an eye on incoming and outgoing ships.

The view is wonderful, but the thing that has given Gun Hill its identity is a whitewashed outdoor sculpture of the British lion with its front paw resting on the world. This was carved out of a single rock in 1868 by British Col. Henry Wilkinson and few things so exemplify the self-confident spirit of the day. The inscription in Latin reads, “He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from river to river unto the ends of the Earth.”

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Two of the finest plantation houses, closed since 1995, are being rebuilt. Sunbury House and Museum, constructed in 1660 in St. Philip parish, was destroyed by fire but is being reconstructed. Villa Nova, built as a sugar plantation great house in 1834, was the winter home of the late Sir Anthony Eden (Earl of Avon) and his wife, Clarissa Churchill. Former British Prime Minister Eden hosted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, as well as U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson and other world notables.

Sam Lord--a pirate turned planter--built his own Regency-style mansion in 1823. It’s now a part of the Sam Lord’s Castle resort in St. Philip parish. The plaster ceilings were done by the same artisan who designed some of the ceilings at Windsor Castle, and much of the furniture is original. Sam’s treasure is said to be buried somewhere on the grounds.

Though an independent nation since 1966, Barbados’ colonial heritage is more than broadly British. It is English and was so, without interruption, for more than three centuries, from the arrival of the first British settlers in 1627 until 1966. This has meant a judicial system founded on English common law; a parliament right out of Westminster (third oldest in the world after England and Bermuda); a formal education scheme; English as the official language; Anglican churches; place names such as Hastings, Oxford, Cambridge, Newcastle and Brighton. Cricket is the national passion.

Now, however, new restorations by the Barbados National Trust include the houses of black leaders. The main house, Tyrol Cot, at Heritage Village in St. Michael parish, was built in 1854 by William Farnum and filled with mahogany furniture and the memorabilia of Sir Grantley Adams. Adams at one point was president of the Barbados Workers’ Union, first premier of Barbados and prime minister of the Federation of the West Indies. His son, Tom Adams, was prime minister of Barbados, 1976-’85.

As both a house of architectural interest and an interpretive center for its time, the house is as it was in the 1930s when it was a meeting place for Caribbean leaders. Also make note of several chattel houses, the movable cottages of freed slaves.

Chattel houses were built of wood painted in bright colors with contrasting trim and topped with corrugated tin roofs. Though constructed to the same module, they were nonetheless varied. For example, some have covered doorways and cutout trim on the side roofs; some are as plain as beach bungalows and charming in their simplicity. Linked together they doubled a family’s living space. Today, chattel houses are considered the folk architecture of Barbados and have been transformed all around the island into handicraft shops and artisans’ studios. In Heritage Village, for example, there are chattel houses that shelter painters, woodworkers and other artisans.

Other homes that have been restored or are in the process, are those of Samuel Jackman Prescod, first black member of Parliament in 1843; Sir Conrad Reeves, first black chief justice of Barbados in 1886; Errol Barrow, first prime minister; Charles Duncan O’Neal, founding leader of the Democratic League; and Sir Frank Worrell, a famous West Indies cricket player.

Houses of worship have stood up remarkably well. St. John’s Anglican church was built in 1836 after the 1660 original was destroyed by the Great Hurricane of 1831. The pulpit is made of six kinds of tropical wood, and from the yard there is a view of much of the Atlantic coast.

St. George’s, built in 1784, escaped that hurricane and is the island’s oldest standing church.

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On the northern part of the island, St. Nicholas Abbey, built in 1650, is Barbados’ oldest structure. However, it is not now nor has it ever been an abbey. One of its early owners thought the term abbey sounded appropriate for a sugar mansion of medieval design and so embraced it as part of the name. It is one of only three wood and stone Jacobean-style houses still standing in the Western Hemisphere and a showpiece of sugar-growing prosperity. Surrounding it are 200 acres of sugar cane and a working cane syrup plant that is open to the public.

Despite the limits imposed by a short cruise port-of-call visit, reaching any island by sea has its charms. After all, Barbados was not only a pirate lair, but one that paralleled the history of the United States. The first settlers arrived in Holetown, a town on the western coast of Barbados, in 1627, aboard the ship Olive Blossom, a scant seven years after the Mayflower reached New England.

As for pirates, note that the taxi drivers who meet the ship quote hourly rates far higher than those offered by cabs along Lower Broad Street, at Trafalgar Square or near Independence Arch in Bridgetown. Walking there from the cruise ship dock along Princess Alice Highway takes about 15 minutes, and you can dawdle along the way, visiting the Pelican Village craft shops as well as watching the sweepers clean the beach with palm-leaf brooms.

Perhaps there will be time for a swim on the calm Caribbean side of the island before tea back at your ship. Not everything is history, after all.

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GUIDEBOOK

Barbados Details

Getting there: American Airlines flies, with one change of planes, from LAX to Bridgetown, Barbados. Advance-purchase, round-trip fares start at about $850.

Getting around: Taxi rates are more or less fixed, so don’t pay more than a flat $16 per hour; waiting time costs $3.50 per hour. Be sure the car has working air-conditioning. If you rent, you will need a local driving permit ($5) available on the spot from car agencies. Driving is on the left side of the road.

Where to eat: I enjoyed Creole and Barbadian food at the Waterfront Cafe, Cavans Lane, Bridgetown, local telephone 427-0093. Entrees about $10 to $20.

The following restaurants were recommended to me by local people:

Pot & Barrell, Long Bay, St. Philip, tel. 423-4107. Seafood and pizza. Entrees about $12.

Great Escape, Belleville, St. Michael, tel. 436-3554. Barbadian food. Lunch only, buffet $15.

Bagatelle Great House, St. Thomas, tel. 421-6767. Elegant Barbadian food. Dinner about $45.

For more information: Barbados Tourism Authority, 3440 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1215, Los Angeles 90010, (800) 221-9831 or (213) 380-2198; fax (213) 384-2763.

Barbados National Trust, 10th Avenue, Belleville, St. Michael, tel. (246) 426-2421.