Barbados Information Guide & Facts

 Barbados

Full Country Name: Barbados
Area: 430 sq km; 166 sq mi
Population: 275 330 (July 2001 estimate)
Capital City: Bridgetown
People: About 80% of Barbados's population are of African descent, 4% European descent, and 16% mixed. Barbados's population growth rate has been very low, less than 1% since the 1960s.
Languages: English
Religion(s): Protestant 67% (Anglican 40%, Pentecostal 8%, Methodist 7%, other other (e.g. also small Jewish and Muslim communities) 12%), Roman Catholic 4%, other 12%, none 17%.
Currency: Barbadian Dollar (BBD)

Geography

Barbados is the most easterly of the Caribbean islands. Most of the island is relatively flat, with low, gentle hills in the interior, except for the north-east, which rises up to 340 metres. The west coast has white sandy beaches and calm turquoise waters. The east side of the island faces the more turbulent Atlantic. Coral reefs surround most of the island.

Climate

It is warm and sunny all year round with an average daytime high of 75 - 85oF. The nights are usually slightly cooler.
The prevailing northeast tradewinds blow steadily so that although it is bright and sunny, it is not unbearably hot.
The rain usually comes in quick showers. The dry season lasts from January to June.
We are in the tropics, and believe it or not, some people actually put on a sweater in the cool night winter time breezes. Barbadians complain that the sea is cold when its 78oF !!!

History

The original inhabitants of Barbados were Arawak Indians, who were driven off the island around AD 1200 by invading Carib Indians from Venezuela. The Carib Indians in turn abandoned the island around 1500. Portuguese explorer Pedro a Campos in 1536 named the island Los Barbados (Bearded Ones), presumably after the long, hanging aerial roots of the island’s fig trees, which resemble beards. The island’s first European settlement was established in 1627 by English settlers. In the 1640s the colonists planted their fields with sugarcane and brought slaves to the island to work on the sugar plantations. The sugar industry continued to boom until the 19th century. Even after the abolition of slavery, large estates owned almost all the arable land and most black islanders had to stay working on the plantations, for lack of better opportunities. Barbadians emigrated to other countries in the Caribbean and to work on the Panama Canal. Barbados gained internal self-government in 1961 and became an independent nation on 30 November 1966. Since independence, Barbados has been a stable democracy.

Places to Visit

Harrison's Cave
One of the Barbados Tourism Encyclopedia's "Seven Wonders of Barbados" is this spectacular cave which is one of our island's most famous attractions.
History of Harrison's Cave: Although historical references were made to Harrison's Cave from as early as the eighteenth century, no serious exploration of the cave was done until 1970, when speleologist, Ole Sorensen, was commissioned by the Barbados National Trust to make a survey and map the cave. Sorensen immediately recognised the potential of the cave and recommended that it be landscaped and developed. Four years later, work on the cave began, drawing on scientific, artistic, technological and geological resources. The work involved digging tunnels, improving lighting and diverting of underground streams.
Harrison's Cave Today: A unique phenomenon of nature, Harrison's Cave is an amazing gallery of stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, and stalagmites that emerge from the ground, with streams of crystal-clear running water that drop from breathtaking waterfalls to form deep emerald pools. The stalactites and stalagmites were formed over thousands of years and in some places the stalactites have reached down to the stalagmites and a spectacular pillar has been formed.
Visitors are driven in electrically operated trams down through the extensive system of caves and at the lowest level point in the cave, visitors are invited to leave the tram and walk alongside a spectaular waterfall which plunges into a deep pool below .... this is truly an "awesome wonder!"
Excellent tour guides give all the historical information on this cave along the way.
The attractive Visitor's Centre, which was designed to fit in with the natural limestone bedrock, provides a refreshment area and handicraft shops, along with an exhibit of Amerindian artifacts that have been excavated from various sites around the island.
Harrison's Cave is open every day of the week. The first tour starts at 9:00 am and the last tour is at 4:00 pm.

"The Baobab Tree"
"Out of little seeds, great trees can grow!"
It was said that the baobab tree (Adansonia digitata) was brought to Barbados around 1738 from Guinea in Africa. It is also known as the "Monkey-bread tree".
Two magnificent trees with possibly the widest tree-trunks to be found in the Caribbean, grow in Barbados! The largest can be seen in our Queen's Park in Bridgetown. To give an example of the size of this tree of great distinction, it takes 15 adults joining with outstretched arms to cover its circumference. The other grand specimen can be found on the Warren's Road in St.Michael.
In July 1997, on a wildlife programme on BBC2, it was said, that there have been seven different types of Boabab trees discovered growing in Madagascar.

St.Nicholas Abbey
St.Nicholas Abbey, located in the parish of St.Peter, was built in 1660 and is one of only three genuine Jacobean mansions in the Western Hemisphere. Barbados is home to two of these mansions ... St.Nicholas Abbey and Drax Hall.
Distinguishing features of this magnificent, well-preserved mansion are: curved Dutch gables, chimney stacks and coral stone finials, a Chinese Chippendale staircase and fine antiques and china. A rare 1930s film of sugar plantation life can also be viewed.
St.Nicholas Abbey is not without its tale of tragedy! The house appears to have been built by Colonel Benjamin Berringer. His neighbour, friend and business partner was John (later Sir John) Yeamans. When Yeamans began to pay attention to Mrs. Berringer, a feud erupted between Yeamans and Colonel Berringer, culminating in a duel in which Berringer was killed. Soon afterwards, Sir John married Mrs. Berringer and claimed the Abbey. A court ruling later returned the property to Berringer's children and the property was named after Berringer's grand-daughter who married George Nicholas.
Meanwhile, Sir John and Berringer's widow left Barbados in 1669 and helped found the colony that is South Carolina, USA, with Sir John eventually becoming Governor of that settlement in 1672. When he died two years later, his widow married again ... for the third time!

Drax Hall
No one knows for sure, but it is generally believed that Drax Hall was built by the brothers William and James Drax in the 1650's. The brothers built Drax Hall as one of the earliest and biggest sugar properties in Barbados. They were a wealthy and well connected family that had a special love for Barbados. There were others like them, for Barbados prospered with sugar and its plantation owners held considerable influence at home and abroad.
It is classic Jacobean architecture, with steep gable roofs, corner finials, casement gable windows and a Jacobean staircase with its carved hall archway of mastic wood.
St. Nicholas Abbey in St. Peter and Drax Hall in St. George, two of the oldest buildings in Barbados, both built in the 1650's, stand as proud examples of the Jacobean tradition. Drax Hall is the oldest surviving Jacobean mansion in the Western Hemisphere. Only three of these mansions exit in the Western World, and it is Barbados' good fortune to have two of these treasures. The only other remaining structure being Bacon's castle in Virginia, U.S.A.

Morgan Lewis Mill
Location: St.Andrew 
History: Morgan Lewis is one of the only two intact and restored sugar mills in the Caribbean. The other is at Betty's Hope Estate on one of our sister islands, Antigua.
Maintained by the Barbados National Trust, the mill includes an exhibit of the equipment used to produce sugar at the time when the industry was run by windpower generated from mills such as this one.
Architectural Features: Although the old plantation house has seen better days it is still worth a visit! The rubble walls are comprised of boulders held together with a mixture of egg-white and coral dust (there was no cement when this plantation house was built!).

"Famous Jewish Synagogue"
There is currently one synagogue situated in Bridgetown. Built in the 17th century (1654) it was destroyed by hurricane in 1831, was rebuilt, fell into disrepair and was sold in 1929.
In 1983, it was bought back by the Jewish community and was restored to its present state with its beautiful Gothic arches, and is now a Barbados National Trust protected building and an active synagogue.
About 300 Jewish people of Recife, Brazil, persecuted by the Dutch, settled in Barbados in the 1660's. Skilled in the sugar industry, they quickly introduced the crop and passed on their skills in cultivation and production to the Barbados land owners.
With their help Barbados went on to become one of the world's major sugar producers.

"Cannon Galore"
The Caribbean is still full of secrets. One recently revealed is that Barbados has the world's rarest collection of 17th century English iron cannon.
Not too long ago it was decided to create a National Ordnance Collection of all the old guns on the island and to date more than 400 have been unearthed.
Twenty-six of the most important pieces in the collection are mounted in front of the Main Guard House and make a fine photographic display. For further information on the National Ordnance Collection of Barbados, contact:
Major Michael Hartland,
The Main Guard House,
The Garrison,
St. Michael., Barbados.
Tel : (246) 426-8982
Fax : (246) 429-6663

"Grapefruit Tree" (Citrus Paradise)
There is an old Barbadian legend telling us that the "Grapefruit" was first developed in Barbados, in the beautiful Welchman Hall Gully and was first recorded in the eighteenth century. It's parents were Shaddock and Sweet Orange, immigrants from across the Asian Sea. A natural cross-pollination was produced between Shaddock and Sweet Orange. As a result, the "Forbidden Fruit" (as it was named many moons ago) was born for the first time! The name was changed to "Grapefruit" because it grows in large "grape-like clusters". This original Barbadian fruit has now become a world wide favourite.
It is delicious when cut in half, segmented and sprinkled with Angostura Bitters, (made in a neighbouring island, Trinidad).

The Emancipation Statue
The Emancipation Statue seen here is the work of Barbados' best known sculptor Karl Broodhagen and symbolises the breaking of the chains of slavery at Emancipation.
Slavery, abolished in 1834, was followed by a 4-year apprenticeship period where free men continued to work a 45-hour week without pay in exchange for living in the tiny huts provided by the plantation owners.
Freedom from slavery was celebrated in 1838 at the end of the apprentice period with over 70,000 Barbadians of African descent taking to the streets with the Barbados folk song:
"Lick an Lock-up Done Wid, Hurray fuh Jin-Jin (Queen Victoria).
De Queen come from England to set we free
Now Lick an Lock-up Done Wid, Hurray fuh Jin-Jin "
Many Barbadians refer to the statue as Bussa, the name of a slave who helped inspire a revolt against slavery in Barbados in 1816.