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.

Bronte Agatha Welsh was born in Challengers Village on the 31st December 1918, the first daughter of Evan and Annie Welsh and the second of their six children. Evan was a mason and Anne a seamstress so Bronte and her brothers and sisters grew up in a household were industry was highly valued. Her early education took place at a small private school. However, at eight years of age she was enrolled at the Basseterre Girls’...
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Ada Mae Edwards Ada Mae Andrews was born in Antigua on the 9th June 1911 and came to St. Kitts in 1930 immediately after graduating from the Antigua Teacher’s Training College. Her first appointment was as Assistant Teacher at the Sandy Point Boys’ School where she came under the influence of two of the best teachers on the island, J. E. Hanley Headmaster of the Sandy Point Boys’ School and Ann Locker (later Lady Allen) Headmistress...
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Robert Douglas Robert (registered as Isaac Lewis) Douglas was born in St. Kitts on the 4th November 1882. He was the son of Robert Gould Douglas, a clerk, and his wife Margaret, residents of New Town. By the 1890s St. Kitts was experiencing serious social and economic difficulties that culminated in the violent disturbances of 1896, known as the Portuguese Riots. For many migration in search of work was the only option. Douglas was among the...
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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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smoke hole at Lawyer Stephen's cave Photograph by permission of Gregory Pereira, Greg’s Safaris by Alex Robinson According to the oral tradition the cave was first fashioned by maroons out of the side of Olivees Mountain in the 17th century. In a series of local history programmes a contemporary griot, Tamboura Kitwana, from St. Kitts Ministry of Culture, described the site:“The cave is made of packed earth and rock, with a smoke hole and a door sized...
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Bloody Point is situated to the west of Challengers Village. It gets its name from the Massacre of the Kalinago that took place in the vicinity. English and French settlements had been set up on St. Kitts in 1624 and 1625. From the start, Warner and his men treated the Tegreman and his people as hostiles. When they set up their settlement “near to ye kings (Tegreman’s) house” they did not simply build homes, they also...
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Hurricanes Wars were not the only dramatic events to effect the development of Basseterre. Natural disasters played a very significant roll.The 1642 and 1667 hurricanes destroyed all the houses on the island. In 1667 French Governor Laurent reported I hold myself obliged to inform you that this island is in the most deplorable state that can be imagined and that the inhabitants could not have suffered a greater loss, or been more unfortunate except they had...
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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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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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