Plantation Skeldon, Berbice

Image 01 - Sugar factory at Plantation Skeldon (1913)

Image 02 - The Corentyne Bus at Skeldon (1925)

Sources:

[image 01] - Unknown
[image 02] - Unknown

Mounted Police of British Guiana

Image 01 - British Guiana Police (1910)

Image 02 - Mounted Police (1913)

Sources:

[image 01] - Unknown

[image 01] - Unknown

The Georgetown Lighthouse

The Georgetown Lighthouse is located at the northern end of Water Street in Kingston. It was built by the Dutch in 1817 to guide ships at sea into the Demerara River. The structure is 103 feet high with a tapering octagonal shape that has a smaller radius at the top than at the bottom. The exterior is colored in vertical red and white stripes along the flat faces of the octagon. In 1830, the British commissioned a new brick structure with a foundation of greenheart piles for longevity to replace the wooden structure. At the top of the lighthouse is a steel balcony offering a panoramic view of Georgetown. The images show the Lighthouse in British Guiana.

Image 01 - The Georgetown Lighthouse and Signaling Station (1913).

 

Image 02 - The Georgetown Lighthouse (1951).

Image 03 - The Georgetown Lighthouse (1955).

Sources

[Image 01] - Unknown.
[Image 02] - Unknown.
[Image 03] - Unknown.

The Sacred Heart Church, Georgetown

By the 1830s, many Portuguese in British Guiana had settled on the East Bank of Demerara at Meadow Bank, Ruimveldt and Agricola. As such Meadow Bank was made the center of the Catholic Church with the establishment of the Catholic Mission of British Guiana. In 1857, Fr. Benedict Schembri S.J. of Maltese origin was working in Brazil and came to British Guiana to establish the Meadow Bank Church. Later, the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church on Main Street was opened on December 1861 by Fr. Schembri. The goal of this church was to provide a religious space where the Portuguese would be comfortable with their religious customs and in their natural language. Bishop J. Ethridge S.J. delivered the episcopal blessing on 22nd June 1862. The dimensions of the church was 100 feet by 30 feet, but over time expansion created new areas such as aisles, choir space, gallery, and two wooden towers. When the 1864 Water Street fire destroyed many Portuguese businesses, the church grounds were used to store salvaged goods. In 1866, the two presbyteries were converted into a schoolroom and in 1867 the bottom area of the presbytery was converted into a grammar school. Sacred Heart Primary School is one of the top schools in the country. The church and school were both destroyed by fire on 25th December 2004. On 18th February 2011 fund-raising began for re-building of the church. On 6th December 2015 the newly constructed Sacred Heart Church was opened in Guyana. The images show the Sacred Heart Church through time.

Image 01 - Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1913).

Image 02 - Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1915).

Image 03 - Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1924).

Image 04 - Inside the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1924).

Image 05 - Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (1961).

Image 06 - Fire destroys the Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (2004).

Image 07 - The re-built Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church (2014).

Sources

[Image 01] - Unknown.
[Image 02] - Unknown.
[Image 03] - Unknown.
[Image 04] - Unknown.
[Image 05] - Unknown.
[Image 06] - Unknown.
[Image 07] - http://www.sacredheart.gy/

Bibliography

• The History of the Sacred Heart Church, A Voz Do Portugues 2013.

Bleeding the Bully Tree for Balata

Balata is a hard rubber-like material that is made by drying the milky juice from the bully tree (Manilkara bidentata). The latex is extracted by cutting a network of zigzag lines into the bark of the tree and capturing the runoff materials in containers. The latex is coagulated into dried Balata which is used to make machine belting, golf balls and decorative artistic figures. The images show some aspects of the balata harvesting process in British Guiana.

Image 1 - Balata bleeders leaving for the Falls, Berbice river (1910)

Image 2 - Balata bleeders shooting rapids on the Cuyuni River (1913)

Image 3 - Bleeding the Balata tree (1924)

Sources:
[Image 1] Berbice Gazette Store, British Guiana, 1910
[Image 2] Unknown, 1913
[Image 3] Raphael Tuck and Sons, England, 1924