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Carrington’s Village


Carrington’s Village, originally uploaded by pictureinfocus.

BDOS072807_0106A
Carrington’s Village
Tweedside Road, Carrington's Village
St. Michael, Barbados
Series: Walking, Driving, Taking Pictures
(07-28-2007)

Carrington’s Village is without a doubt a part of me. My mother and her family grew up in that plantation like village of small and intricate chattel houses and shops. I spent my first three to four years living in 2nd Avenue Tweedside Road. And even though I moved to the Garden Land later on, I still visited Carrington’s Village often.

Carrington’s Village was made popular by a native son of Barbados, George Lamming. This novelist and essayist captured the hearts and souls of many in 1953. His most celebrated book, In the Castle of My Skin, gave life to a Carrington’s Village of the post plantation era. It related the life of a young man and this family living in an ever changing village. Carrington’s Village which is not far from the capital Bridgetown was part of a huge sugar agricultural estate under the rule of the British and their plantation system.

There is a lot to remember about Carrington’s Village: I can still see the old street vendor Ms. Clarke selling her liver cutters; I have memories of my father having me in the bar of his old bicycle and riding me up Tweedside Road to my Grandmother’s place; and who can forget the COWS (Seals family) with their very popular shop which is now a thing of the past.

Carrington’s Village will always be a neighborhood full of character and memories. Small houses are still prominent, but some huge wall (brick) houses are creeping in, trying to change face of the village. Will this be for the good, only time will tell?

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6 Comments

  1. I am going to have to try and seek out some of George Lamming's work now.

    I do like this photo, especially in combination with your thoughts. It brings alive a world that I have read about, fascinates me, but is very different from my own experiences. Thanks for sharing it with the world!

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  2. Kris thanks for dropping by the blog and commenting as you do.

    George Lamming is a literary giant in Barbados, the Caribbean, and for that matter the world. Maybe someday I will get a chance to meet him.

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  3. It's interesting how we remember the place of our childhood in such grand scale. Everything seemed brighter, bigger, better back then. But I wonder, if we could go back to that time, would it really be bigger, better and brighter?

    I'm torn between saving the old chattel houses and tearing them down to build concrete structures.

    They offer such an insight into history, but of course, the inhabitants want stronger structures to live in, but I wonder if there could not be a happy medium: construct the houses in the same style of the chattel house. Of course, that would take money, which I'm sure, a lot of them would not wish to spend in that fashion.

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  4. Anne, it could be that folks move away from the area, and the new ones to the village hardly ever see the area as affectionately as the previous tenants.

    Like you said we are sometimes torn between preserving the old and building the new.

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  5. Great pictures. You should post them on a new travel site I found baraaza.com.

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  6. Melissa, thanks for dropping by my blog and taking the time to comment. I will definitely checkout the site you have listed above.

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