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A row of tanks. A row of tanks.

Still My House

iqpLENS June 24, 2007

Still My House, originally uploaded by pictureinfocus.

BDOS072506_0127A
Still My House
From Here to There
Kensington Old Road, Bridgetown
Barbados
07-25-2006

Living in what some in Barbados would call the ’town’ as appose to the ‘country’, you would find some small neighborhoods called a Tenantry. In most of these areas you will find mostly wooden chattel houses.

This is an image of a house on Kensington Old Road before the completion of the now new Kensington Oval. Houses in this area were slated for re-beautification prior to World Cup Cricket 2007, but I have no idea if this house was part of it. The Ministry of Social Transformation supposedly helps folk on Tenantry land maintain their home if they are economically not able to do so. The ministry also allows Tenantry folk to purchase the lots after living there for some substantial length of time. How well the Programme works, I cannot tell you.

I grew up on Tenantry property in the Garden Land and can remember looking out my window into the neighbors’ house and talking to the kid who lived there. Their zinc fence (pailing) was ours as well. Those were the days and even though you lived in a wooden chattel house it did not matter. The closest of the neighborhood was intact. Most of my closest friends now, are the same ones I grew up with in those Tenantry areas.

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4 Comments

  1. Ann (MobayDP)9:41 AM

    I've always loved chattel houses. They're usually so quaint and colourful. Sadly in Montego Bay I can hardly find any true chattels. I'll have to go out of town to get some shots.

    I always wonder about this though : Some of these houses are on really precarious looking stilts. Don't the people who live in them ever worry that one day the stilts will give and the whole house will just fall down? :-0

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  2. iqpLENS10:45 AM

    Chattel houses are made to bend in the wind. They are pretty sturdy. Most modern ones I see now, the foundation is complete cement and not just portions of it, like in the past. Some I see are painted very well, and the color is usually vibrant.

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  3. Jdid11:27 PM

    i love those older houses. reminds me of growing up

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  4. iqpLENS11:33 PM

    Jdid, chattel houses are some beautiful structures to look at.

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