Nelsons Dockyard

Nelson’s Dockyard is the last surviving 18^th century British Naval Dockyard in the world, ravaged only by nature.  It dates from 1725 when a naval officer saw the advantages of the steep hills protecting the bays from the worst of West Indian hurricanes.  The surrounding hills and a narrow inlet protect the Dockyard from the North East Trade Winds and the open sea.

Early Amerindian settlers were attracted to the area and the plantation economy of later settlers was defended by patrols of naval ships that were once repaired in the Dockyard.  Forts were constructed to protect Nelson’s Dockyard and the environs from French privateers lured to the area by the rich Caribbean sugar trade.

The Pitch and tar house was built in 1788; in 1790 the Dows Hill Military complex was added, and the Artillery Quarters and Infantry Barracks.  In 1797 the boat house and sail loft were constructed.  In 1811 the powder magazine at Fort Berkeley was built, then the stone wharf wall between 1815 and 1830.  Officers’ Quarters were built in 1821, and the Naval Officers and Clerks House in 1855.

The dockyard remained in use in the first half of the 19^th century, with a military garrison occupying forts until 1853.  By 1878 control was vested in a ‘clerk in charge.’  In 1883, Prince George of Wales (later George V) was a senior midshipman in HMS Corvette Canada when it required fumigation.  They all moved into the old barracks for three weeks, without electric lights, fans or ice.  In 1899 the Royal Navy departed forever.  And in 1906 Nelson’s Dockyard was released to the Colonial Government of Antigua.

There followed years of decline.  The place was used as summer homes for Antiguan residents, centres for church excursions, and later as shelters for inhabitants who had lost their homes in hurricanes were housed here on a temporary basis.  The buildings decayed.  In 1939 Clementine Churchill visited Antigua and described it as a ‘sad but eerie spot with the deserted Dockyard Buildings falling to pieces.’  By 1950 only the Officers’ Quarters, the Admiral’s House and the Commissioner’s House, the pay office, and one mast house were in a condition to withstand the onslaughts of the two severe hurricanes of that year.

Then arrived Sir Kenneth Blackburne who served as Governor of the Leeward Islands from 1950 to 1956.  He made the restoration of English Harbour his major ‘hobby’, and was further encouraged by Commander Desmond Nicholson, who established a yacht charter service there, to see the possibilities of the Caribbean as ‘a happy cruising ground for wealthy visitors from North America.’  In 1951 he launched the Society of the Friends of English Harbour in order to raise £40,000, but only managed £5,000 until Princess Margaret’s 1955 Caribbean tour.  She became Patron of the Friends, and within no time, the necessary funds were raised.

During her 1955 visit, Princess Margaret inspected the initial improvements made over the last four years, seeing the Admiral’s House, and what was left of the Capstan House, now reduced to a low wall.  Nelson’s Dockyard was re-opened in 1961.  The Queen planted a tree outside the Copper and Lumber Store Hotel on 22 February 1966, the Wessexes planted trees in 2012, and Prince Harry inspected it in 2016.

National Parks was established in 2004 and a massive project to restore entire length of the Sea Wall instigated the same year.  The area was declared a UNESCO Heritage site in July 2016.

The Dockyard Museum is housed in the Naval Officer’s and Clerks’ House (sometimes known as the Admiral’s House, though no Admiral ever lived here).  It is one of the last buildings in the yard, finished in 1855, and was occupied by the Naval Office and Storekeeper in charge of the Dockyard.  The bakery behind was originally a kitchen.

The museum tells the story of Antigua from before the Indian settlement to the present day.  The different sections cover the natural environment, the European arrival, the development of the Dockyard, the people who occupied the Yard, tools found there, the era of Admiral Nelson, the Yard’s heyday, defence, the Yard’s decline, the Victorian Navy, the Yard’s restoration and the recent era of sailing ships.

HRH Prince Henry of Wales (later Duke of Sussex) recognised the first Caribbean Walkway here on 20 November 2016.