English Harbour Commonwealth Walkway

Antigua is one of the Leeward Islands.  It measures 170.5 square miles, with a circumference of about 54 miles.  The name derives from ‘ancient’ in Spanish from an icon in Seville Cathedral – Santa Maria de la Antigua.  It has also been known as Waladli or Wadadli, its indigenous name.  Barbuda is a smaller neighbouring island.   The history of the area can be traced back to 3,100 BC, when prehistoric seafaring peoples exploited turtles, birds, shellfish, iguanas, bird and turtle eggs, fresh water, clay for pottery, and large trees for canoes and shelters.  The Archaic people lived close to the sea.  They harvested shellfish and other marine resources.   By 200 BC they were displaced or assimilated by the Ceramic Age Arawak people.  The earliest Ceramic Age migrants to Eastern Caribbean were Huecan Saladoid people.  They made ornaments, beads etc.  They traded in exotic stones – nephrite, turquoise, diorite and serpentine, and axes made of jadeite.   The Arawaks arrived in canoes and settled it, introducing agriculture.  Then came the more warlike Carib who raided from Venezuela.  Christopher Columbus found the island on his 1493 voyage and named it Antigua.  In 1632 a group of British arrived from St Kitts, Sir Christopher Codrington (1640-98) colonising it with British settlers, developing it as a thriving sugar colony, with African slaves working as unpaid labour.  It was ceded to Britain by the Treaty of Breda in 1661.   On 1 September 1950 a 160 mile an hour hurricane struck the island, leaving thousands homeless and wrecking every boat.  Warehouses were destroyed, food stocks damaged and communications ruined.   Princess Margaret visited Antigua in 1955, describing the islanders as ‘cheerful and friendly people – generous and warm hearted.’  She spent a 2/3 week holiday on Antigua in January 1962, staying partly at Government House and then Clarence House.  Princess Anne visited during her honeymoon in 1973.  The Queen came in 1966 and again in 1977 during Silver Jubilee year.  In 1985 the Queen visited Parliament and opened a children’s ward in Holberton Hospital, the Royal Yacht Britannia dropping anchor off Charlestown.   Antigua and Barbuda became members of the Commonwealth in 1968, and achieved Independence in 1981 when Princess Margaret opened the new Parliament Building.   St John’s has been the capital and seat of government of Antigua since Independence in 1981, and before that was the administrative centre since 1632.  It contains many shops and boutiques, the Museum of Marine Art and a cricket ground.  To the east is the Sir Vivian Richards stadium, where the 2007 Cricket World Cup was played.  The main sites include St John’s Cathedral and the Botanical Garden.  Fort James stands at the entrance to the harbour. The Governor General lives at Government House, a former 19th-century parsonage building, which is now included on the World Monuments Fund's 2018 list of monuments at risk, due to severe weather.   English Harbour consists of a number of small bays almost completely sheltered by highlands, with access via a narrow channel.  There are two Arawak sites - Freeman’s Bay and Galleon’s Beach.  It was selected as a British Naval base by a far-sighted naval officer, who saw the advantages of the steep hills protecting the bays from the worst of the West Indian hurricanes.  The water was deep enough to float the largest men-of-war.  Cannon and musket fire could protect the narrow approach to the anchorage.   English Harbour was soon the Malta of the Eastern Caribbean, with military forts built on the hilltops to guard the approaches, and large water catchments and reservoirs to remedy the only deficiency – lack of drinking water.  In 1745 the present naval dockyard was built and provided the British fleet with its main base for operations against the Spanish and French and later the American blockade-runners.   Admiral Rodney was based here in 1761 and 1780, Hood in 1780, Jervis in 1793.  From 1784 to 1787 it was the headquarters of Horatio Nelson when he was Captain of HMS Boreas and later when serving as senior officer in the Leeward Islands.  During this phase Clarence House was built and occupied by Prince William Henry (later King William IV) when he was commanding HMS Pegasus.  He gave Mrs Frances Nisbet away when she married Nelson on Nevis in 1787.   The Admiral’s House, Officer’s quarters and the Commissioner’s House were spacious but accommodation for the men was cramped and many died of Yellow Jack fever.  Even today there are the ruins of two hospitals and a large cemetery. From English Harbour Rodney sailed to his great victory in the Battle of the Saints in 1782, which established British naval supremacy in the Caribbean.  And Rodney’s fleet returned here after capturing the island of Saint Eustatius.  Nelson returned to Antigua in 1805 when he was in pursuit of Villeneuve before Trafalgar. The first naval ship used this place as a harbour in 1671.

7.5 miles / 12 kilometres