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the stories of our proud and friendly people, our charming and colourful villages, our fascinating ruins, our intriguing rain forests,
and our traditions that span centuries.

Our People

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William Frederick Solomon

 

William Frederick Solomon was born in 1881. Little is known of his youth except that he had learnt the carpenter’s trade and in 1911 he was employed on the construction of the Basseterre Sugar Factory. He was dismissed form that job because of his anti-management attitudes. He had successfully attempted to manufacture and sell soap but eventually went into business as a building contractor and undertaker working out of Liverpool Row. By 1917 he had...

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Sir Probyn Innis

 

Probyn Ellsworth Inniss was born on the 18th November 1936 at Challengers Village.  he was a student of the St. Kitts Grammar School.  he attended Trinity Government Primary School from 1942 to 1949.  In 1949 he won the St. Kitts Nevis Trades and Labour Union Scholarship to the Grammar School from which he graduated in 1955.  For the following two years he worked in the Treasury and Customs Department then went to study at the...

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May Stevens

 

May Stevens Yvonne May Stevens was born on the 28th May 1910 into the large family of James Henry Stevens and his wife Ethlinda Leonora nee Penn. Her father was at the time, the Master of the Leper Home in Sandy Point but by 1914 the family had moved to Nevis where he held the post of Assistant to the Surveyor on that island. May grew up in a disciplined close-knit house hold that valued family and...

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Our Places

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Vambell Estate

 

Vambell Estate near Sandy Point but actually in the Parish of St. Thomas, takes its name from its earliest known owner Peter van Belle. The estate was located in the English quarter of St. Kitts. Van BellePeter van Belle was born in Province of Holland now part of the Netherlands probably in the 1640s. Very little is known of his early life. With his brother Joshua, he became involved in the Asiento de Negros. This was...

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St Thomas Anglican Church

 

St. Thomas Anglican Church, Middle Island St Thomas Anglican Church occupies the site of the first Anglican Church in the West Indies. The first building would have been made of wood and designed to hold a few English Settlers. Changes were made to it over the years to allow for larger congregations and to rebuild after hurricanes and earthquakes. In 1622 St. Kitts saw the arrival of an English group of settlers lead by Thomas Warner. They...

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Charles Fort

 

Charles Fort Entrance   Based on “The Military and institutional Occupations of Charles Fort, St. Kitts, West Indies” by Gerald Schroedl and Todd M Ahlman in Historical Archaeologies of the Caribbean: Contextualizing Sites through Colonialism, Capitalism and Globalism edited by Todd M Ahlman and Gerald F Schroedl (Tuscaloosa, University of Alabama Press, 2020) The Second Anglo-Dutch war was fought between 1665 and 1667. France became involved as it had a defensive alliance with Holland. In St. Kitts where...

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Our Events

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The Christmas Sport - last week of December

 

Bull The Christmas Sports takes place in the days between Christmas and New Year.  These are street performances.  However some elements on the sport, particularly the Masquerade, is used as cultural performances throughout the year. THE BULLis based on a story that had its origins in St. Kitts itself. It is said that Arthur Davis, the owner of Belmont estate, and brother of Basil Davis, Manager of the Sugar factory bought a young bull for breeding purposes...

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Statehood 28th February 1967

 

Statehood flag The West Indies Federation was an experiment in unity for the English Speaking Caribbean and should have resulted in an independent West Indian nation.. After long discussions it came into being in 1958. Elections took place that year but Jamaica and Trinidad did not join the new political unit with the same commitment as the other islands. Economic prosperity meant that these two islands did not feel the need to be part of a...

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The Fire of Basseterre – 3 July 1867

 

On the night of the 3rd July 1867, one of the worst fires in St. Kitts destroyed the town of Basseterre. It started in an uninhabited house in Reeve Alley just behind the western side of the Pall Mall Square (now Independence Square). That side of the Square was destroyed. The Alley connected the Square and Fort Street and the fire made its way down both sides. The night was a breezy one and the...

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"In this  bright future, you can't forget your past"

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