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Our People

Charles Ashton Halbert

 

Charles Ashton Halbert Charles Ashton Halbert born in Bath Village, Nevis on the 25th April 1880. His mother worked as a nurse for the Parmenter family. At the end of his schooling young Charles earned his Seven Standard Certificate and became a pupil teacher. In 1896, at the age of sixteen he found employment as a store boy at the Charlestown branch of the S.L. Horsford. In 1900 when the business of the branch was acquired by...

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Basil Henderson

 

  Basil Ebenezer Henderson was born on 24 April 1924 to Ethel Augusta Paul. Young Basil grew up in the Catholic church and remained devoted to it all his life. He would become the social organizer par excellence. He put all his energy and determination into the projects he undertook often travelling from one end of the island to the other, at all hours whether he had his own transportation or had to use the bus. Initially...

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Sir Joseph Nathaniel France

 

Joseph Nathaniel France Joseph Nathaniel France was born on the 16th September 1907 to Thomas and Mary France at Mt. Lily, Nevis. Thomas who was a road driver and a small plot-holder sent his son regularly to Combermere School. At age thirteen, young France went to St. Kitts to spend his school holidays with relatives in New Town. But before the vacation was over he was offered a job as office boy with the St. Kitts-Nevis Universal...

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Our Places

Salt Pond

 

Salt Pond, St. Kitts English and French settlers started setting up colonies on St. Kitts from 1624. They share the island and agreed to keep the peace unless war was declared by their sovereign nations. The area now called the Salt Ponds was to be used in common. The very narrow isthmus that connects the Salt Pond area to the main part of St. Kitts was very hilly and heavily wooded making it easier to access the...

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The University Centre and Technical College

 

The University Centre and Technical College occupy an area at the western end of the Bay Road, just east of the War Memorial. Although the western boundary of Basseterre stretched to Fort Thomas in 1768, only dwellings in Irish Town extended beyond Olivees Ghaut, now called Westbourne. Beyond those buildings was cane land belonging to Greenlands Estate which by the mid-19th century was the property of the Berkeley family. The part of the estate south...

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Warner Park

 

Warner Park is bordered by Losack Road on its south side, Victoria Road in the west, the Basseterre High School on the northern side and Park Range to the east. Originally it was part of an estate owned by the Losack family, a French family that continued to live in St. Kitts after the British gained control of the whole island. In 1817, the Original List of Slaves records a return of seventy-one slaves made...

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Our Events

Flood of 1880

 

Sunday, 11 January 1880 was described as a fine day with some scattered showers.  At about 5.00pm the atmosphere became quite warm compared to the previous few days.   Then at about 9.00pm an intense cold set it.  There was a light shower which quickly came to an end.  By 11.00 pm the rains started falling and continued unabated till 3.00am of 12 January.  The night was very dark. The flow of water in the streets was...

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Treaty of Basseterre 18 June 1981

 

Treaty of Basseterre Historical BackgroundThe idea of unification within the Caribbean region gained the interest of the British Colonial Office in the late nineteenth Century mostly as a colonial administrative device designed to cut the cost of managing the colonies with failing economies and a growing reliance on Britain. The 20th century however saw a growing discontent with regards to the unrepresentative nature of the island governments. In 1914, T. Albert Marryshow of Grenada, founded the Representative...

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Buckley's Strike - 28 Jan 1935 (a time line)

 

Estate Workers 1934, December: The Wade Estates paid their workers a Christmas bonus of 8d per ton of cane cut. Other estates paid only 3d per ton cut. Some estates refused to pay any bonus to their workers. 1935, January: There were cane fires on several sugar estates near Basseterre. 1935, 20 Jan: Estate workers from all over the island attended a Universal Benevolent Association meeting called by its Secretary, Joseph Nathan. He advised them that since there...

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

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