At
the crossroads west of Westgate shopping
centre turn L and travel between the banana
fields and mango orchards of Barnett estate,
owned for many generations by the Kerr-Jarrett
family. The late Francis Kerr-Jarrett, Custos
of St. James and patriarch of the clan,
erected the cross visible on the rim of
the mountains to your right. Cromarty, the
stately mansion R above a phalanx of Royal
Palms was once owned by press magnate Lord
Beaverbrook. Now it is the home of the ebullient
Slidie Jo Witter, an ex-cane cutter who
went to England and made a fortune in South
London real estate.
At
Fairfield R a road leads up to Doctors Hospital,
a small private hospital, and the erstwhile
Fairfield Country Club with a small theatre
used by the Montego Bay Players. The fork
R leads to KEMPSHOT.
Take the L towards ORANGE
RIVER LODGE. As the Westban.
It's banana time again sign suggests you
will be seeing a lot of banana cultivation
on this trip. Westban, a private company
owned by the farmers was created as a catalyst
to achieve another 3000 acres of banana
cultivation in western Jamaica -enough to
make export feasible from Montego Freeport.
Approaching the village of JOHNS
HALL,
try to ignore evidence of Montego Bay's
environmentally unfriendly municipal dump
off the road R at Retirement, once an Arawak
settlement. A curious sign R, Our God reigns
at Johns Hall Aggregate Ltd. announces a
large quarry. Further on, Jasper, a friendly
woodcarver displays some interesting pieces.
His prices, he says, "depend on the
people pocket", in other words, they
are negotiable.
A
sign directs you L to
ORANGE RIVER LODGE about 1 mile
to another Slidie Jo Witter enterprise.
The hilltop great house on a scenic 980
acre estate cultivating bananas, citrus,
and coffee has been remodeled and restored
to provide comfortable accommodation for
eco-tourists, everything from campsites
to triple bedrooms with private bath. The
garden is rich in shrubs and a variety of
trees -starapple, guinep, tangerine, mango,
June plum, avocado, soursop, cedar, guango
and Royal Palms. On a hill overlooking the
great house and its fine garden there is
a new 24-room hotel with swimming pool and
tennis court. Eco-options include hiking,
horseback riding, river swimming and exploring.
Nearby,
the remote district of SALTER'S
HILL is a farming community and
the site of Moses Baker's Baptist church
which has been relocated to Johns Hall.
Baker, a freed slave from Carolina in the
U.S. was preaching in Kingston before he
was brought to St. James by the Quaker owner
of Adelphi estate to preach Christianity
to his slaves.
Back
on the main road into John's Hall there
is an interesting stop L at Calimento, a
mini-nature park operated by Rastafarian
"Ossie Dread". Johns Hall like
most rural villages straggles along the
main road for a mile or more. Proceed, steeply
to SPRINGFIELD
with a large Baptist Church and all-age
school and along the spine of the hill to
WELCOME HALL
where the R fork can take you through
MOUNT HOREB and BIG
BOTTOM to CAMBRIDGE
and from there to SEAFORD
TOWN (see
Tour 9). There are fine views over the MONTEGO
VALLEY as you proceed to
KENSINGTON, the ex-sugar plantation
where the last slave revolt began. It was
from this vantage point that the signal
for the start of the Christmas Rebellion
was given: the slaves set the trash house
ablaze and the fire was clearly visible
for miles around. The event is commemorated
by a plaque erected on the roadside by the
Jamaica National Heritage Trust which says:
'A freedom torch was lit here . . . On Tuesday
night December 27th 1831 the
trash house on Kensington estate was set
on fire signaling the start of the last
slave rebellion in Jamaica when the slaves
led by Johnson, Campbell, Gardiner and Dove
forced the militia guarding the area to
retreat to Montego Bay. Over 50 estates
were burnt. In the reprisals 500 slaves
were killed including Sam Sharpe who had
organized the slaves to demand freedom.
As a result of the outbreak the movement
to abolish slavery was greatly accelerated.
On
this route you may see dozens of uniformed
schoolchildren, girls in sky blue and white,
boys in khaki on their way to the large
MALDON TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL which,
like many schools in Jamaica, runs two shifts.
Turn L at POINT
to Maldon where there is also an interesting
Baptist church founded in 1838, destroyed
by earthquake in 1957 and rebuilt within
a year by the late Rev. Dr. C.A. Morgan,
pastor, politician and something of a legend
in his lifetime.
MAROON
TOWN is
a scattered community of small farmers.
The largest business, and all-purpose shop
belonging to the Chin family is an unofficial
community centre. Maroon Town was settled
originally by the remnants of the Trelawny
Town Maroons. In 1739 by the Treaty that
ended the first Maroon War 1,500 acres between
here and Trelawny Town (now called FLAGSTAFF)
were ceded to the Maroons led by the redoubtable
Cudjoe. The second Maroon War erupted in
1795 after the British had the temerity
to flog a Trelawny Town Maroon in Montego
Bay for pig stealing. The Maroons, invincible
guerrilla fighters were defeated only after
the British imported bloodhounds and Amerindians
to track them down. Their warriors were
exiled to Canada, the rest of them scattered
and Trelawny Town became a British army
post. At Flagstaff, banana cultivation's
conceal traces of the district's sanguinary
history: military graves and the foundations
of a barracks. The old parade ground is
now a playing field. Amiable local farmers
like Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Read, Mr. Fred
Gracey, Mr. Charles Chambers and his son
Nelroy will regale you with tales of old,
pointing out landmarks like GUN HILL - where
the Maroons mounted a captured cannon and
slaughtered a company of British Dragoons
as they filed into a cockpit now called
Dragoon Hole. Local lore maintains that
99 of 100 soldiers were killed there and
the lone survivor "went and told the
Queen" that the British army would
never vanquish the Maroons, so she decided
to use bloodhounds.
The
(very unpredictable) road loops through
Flagstaff past SHAW
CASTLE and returns to Maroon
Town from where you can proceed to ACCOMPONG
(settled by and named after Cudjoe's brother).
You will travel around the edge, or through
the COCKPIT COUNTRY
via FLAMSTEAD,
GARLANDS, MOCHO, NIAGARA
and ELDERSLIE
- through hilly farm country where the banana
is making a modest comeback.
At
Elderslie, spelunkers should ask for Mr.
Westin Thomas at the shop in the square.
He owns the WONDROUS
CAVES at nearby COOKS
BOTTOM and can arrange for a
guide. The caves contain a stream and underground
lake. At Elderslie, the L fork leads to
Accompong (see Tour Through Seaford Town
to Accompong). If you take the R fork through
MULGRAVE and MERRYWOOD
you are within striking distance
of the large IPSWICH
CAVES
(about 6 miles) and then YS
FALLS (14 miles). The large Ipswich
Cave has three entrances, the most used
being a tunnel up to 40 ft. wide and 25
ft high.
Options
for your return route to Montego Bay include
via YS
, MIDDLE QUARTERS and
NEWMARKET,
via YS,
GINGER HILL and SEAFORD
TOWN,
or via Middle Quarters to the southcoast
and over WHITHORN
HILL.
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