Speightstown

Speightstown (/ˈspaɪtstaʊn/), also known as Little Bristol, is the second largest town centre of Barbados. It is situated 12 miles (19 km) north of the capital city of Bridgetown, in the northern parish of Saint Peter.

For other uses, see Speightstown (disambiguation).
Speightstown
Town
Causal view of Queen's Street, Speightstown
Speightstown
Coordinates: 13°15′16″N 59°38′27″W[1]
CountryBarbados
ParishSaint Peter
Elevation
11 m (36 ft)
Population
 (2013)[2]
 • Total3,634
WebsiteOfficial website

The town is named after William Speight, a member of Barbados' first Assembly during the Settlement years, and the former owner of the land where the town is located.

History

Speightstown was formally settled around 1630 and in the earliest days of Settlement was Barbados's busiest port (AMS Seaport Code: 27213, UN/LOCODE: BB SPT ). Ships laden with sugar and other commodities left Speightstown bound directly for London and especially Bristol. For this reason Speightstown is sometimes known as Little Bristol. The quaint town has now become the centre of a tourist area as well as a secondary shopping centre.

A downtown street
Arlington House

The town itself is currently the subject of an archaeological research project, the Speightstown Community Archaeology Project (SCAP), which was established in 2010 and involves a collaboration between archaeologists and students of the University of Winchester, the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) and Barbados Museums. To date work has focused upon an historic buildings categorisation of the town, graveyard memorial survey and excavations at the eighteenth-century coastal fort at Maycock's Bay to the north.

Geography

Boundary

Through Statutory Instrument (S.I) 1984 No. 141, Road Traffic Act, CAP. 295, ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATIONS, and under Schedule Section # 6:[3] The Boundaries of Bridgetown, Speightstown, Holetown and Oistin are cited as follows: 2) "Speightstown: (a) the section of Highway 1 from the entrance of the Alexandra School to Scantleburys Drive; (b) the section of Church Street from its junction with Highway 1 to its junction with Round the Town Road; (c) the section of Chapel Street from its junction with Highway 1 to its junction with Round the Town Road; (d) the whole section of Gooding Alley.

A Mini Moke rental car on a Speightstown beach (1995).

Actress Claudette Colbert spent six months annually in Speightstown after her retirement.[4] Athlete and actor Oliver Skeete was born in Speightstown.

Twin towns – sister cities

Speightstown has been twinned with:

  • - Reading, Berkshire, England (since 2003)[5][6]
  • - Charleston, South Carolina (since November 1997), the original parts of which were based on the plans of Barbados's capital city Bridgetown. Many dispossessed indigo, tobacco and cotton planters departed from Speightstown along with their slaves and helped found Charleston after there was a wholesale move to adopt sugar cane cultivation in Barbados; a land and labour-intensive enterprise which helped usher in the era of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the British West Indies.

Notable residents

References
  1. "Speightstown, Barbados". Google Maps. Retrieved 20 August 2011.
  2. http://population.mongabay.com/population/barbados/3373505/speightstown
  3. Road Traffic Act
  4. Pace, Eric (1996-07-31). "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, is Dead at 92". The New York Times.
  5. "Reading - Town Twinning". Reading Borough Council. Archived from the original on 2013-05-09. Retrieved 2013-07-14.
  6. twinning Archived 2011-05-27 at the Wayback Machine
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