The field trip held on the morning of Saturday, November 27th was only the fourth for 2021 due to the ongoing covid pandemic. The relatively satisfactory level of vaccinations in Barbados at the time led the health authorities to relax the protocols enough to allow us to get out with our cameras again.
The field trip took us to the east to photograph the historic churches of St. John, St. Marks and Holy Cross, and the scenery surrounding them. The early morning skies at 6.30 am. when we met at St. John’s church were grey, but after a brief rain shower things got brighter. Inside the church, the sextant and a team of faithful volunteers were already busy cleaning and decorating the building for the services to be held on the following day.
The historian among us in BPS, Ansley Weekes, provided us with a brief outline of some of the architectural features and the historical significance of the three churches we were to visit. He noted that the St. John Church, one of the oldest churches on the island, existed from the 1840’s as a place of worship.
St. John Parish Church
It was built in the Gothic style of Architecture with the large windows and doors rising to a peak, similar to hands clasped in prayer, as an apparent call to people to worship. The high parapet walls of the church are topped with turrets that are reminiscent of the signature feature of a castle.
The pulpit and pews of St. John ready for Sunday services
Ansley noted that in the Interior of Church, the wooden pulpit was built by Benjamin Thorne, Samuel Thorne, and Charles Codrington. These three gentlemen also built the pulpits at St. Mark, Holy Cross and Christ Church Parish Church. The woods used were from four local trees - manchineel, mahogany, locust, and Barbados Ebony (Shak-shak- or Woman’s Tongue). Two foreign woods, pine and oak were also used.
The location of this ancient and magnificent structure affords great scenic views to the north and east of the island. One can see a sweeping landscape to East Point in St. Philip to the south and as far as Pico Teneriffe in St. Andrew to the north almost any day. But the graveyard just behind the church is the resting place of several outstanding men. The most interesting of these is the tomb of Palaeologus, descendant of the last line of the Byzantine Greek Emperors of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in Turkey. The tomb of Hon. David Thompson, former Prime Minister of Barbados who died in October 2010 at the age of 48 is one of the newest, and it bears his photo. Another burial place of interest in the church yard is the tomb of Thomas Sealy, who was buried upright. Surely, he must have been outstanding and upstanding to the end.
From St. John’s Church we headed to Society Hill, the location of Holy Cross Church which overlooks Codrington College, Consett Bay and College Savannah. This building, like the St. John’s Church, features turrets on the top of its gable walls. This church is unique however, in that it is the only one remaining in Barbados that has a steeple. A feature perhaps meant for the purpose of symbolic transmission of the prayers of the faithful to the heavens.
Soon after we arrived, the sextant who lives within sight of the church, drove over to find out why an unannounced convoy of cars was on the premises so early in the morning. On seeing our cameras, he very kindly acceded to the suggestion to allow us to photograph the interior of the church. But we had to wait while he went back home and produced a key that looked like ten inches long to unlock the main door.
Holy Cross Church
The interior walls of exposed virgin coral stone
Ansley Weekes informed us of the special feature on the premises of the church, the tomb/grave of Bishop Richard Rawle. “The grave is a cairn (a mound made of stones) with a cross in the centre. One stone identifies the occupant of the grave. Bishop Rawle was the third principal of Codrington College between 1847 and 1864. He became the first Anglican Bishop of Trinidad and Tobago between 1872 and 1888. He was dedicated to education and introduced teacher training at Codrington College during his tenure at the college. Later, the Rawle Teacher Training Institute was set up by Bishop Anstey in 1912 in memory of Rawle. Subsequently, Erdiston College was set up in 1945 to replace the Rawle Institute.”
The stone cairn and cross at the burial site of Bishop Rawle
After thanking the Sextant, we made our way to the last of the trio of churches to find something unique in the architecture or the scenic offerings available at the vantage point of St. Mark, near the Atlantic coast.
St. Mark has been a place of worship since 1829. It would have been built out of coral stone, with slave labour, like the other two churches we had just visited. After the hurricane of 1831 which significantly damaged the structure, it was finally restored in 1833.
A view from the back of St. Mark’s Church, looking north towards St. Lucy
Sitting on a lofty cliff above the east coast, the site provides unobstructed views to the north past Pico Tenreiffe and as far as Paul’s Point in St. Lucy. Looking to the east across the sweeping landscape, the Ragged Point Lighthouse stands out in the distance against the Atlantic Ocean.
Once again, our historian Ansley Weekes having been born relatively near to St. Mark, is armed with personal local knowledge of a feature of the site that is not commonly known to many persons. He tells of visiting the “Storm Cave” located at the bottom of the steps to the north of the church leading to the rectory with his father in the early 1950’s. This cave would have been formed in ancient times when the island was being pushed up from under the ocean. The cave very likely got its name from the possibility that people from nearby districts would have used it as a refuge and a shelter from the terribly devastating storms of 1831 and 1898.
A photo by Ansley Weekes showing the entrance to the Storm Cave.
Ansley recounts that “in 1950 the roof collapsed and the cave was no longer usable as a storm shelter. Hence, during the passage of Hurricane Janet in 1955, persons sought refuge in the church itself. Youngsters from the district used to enter the cave and could follow a narrow passage that leads to the southeastern corner of the cliff. In recent times, the church has been seeking to open the cave to visitors but are await the findings from geologists concerning its safety. Since 1950, there has been no further movement in the soil.”
Back on the surface where it was all calm and bright, the faithful few photographers who were present, paused for a brief moment for a group selfie. We soon parted at the end of the field trip with photos of three historic churches with three different views.
Photographers (L-R) Everick Holder, Sybil Edghill, Gerry Gibbons, Graham Gittens, Rupert Dasilva, Victor Gittens, Markley Bryan and Audrey Bryan in front of St. Mark Church after the field trip.