Message from the Executive Director | |
|
February was a busy month, with the Plant & Bake Sale and the Auction & Jumble Sale, as well as the Children’s Nature Walk, Trust Talks, tours and volunteer days – all great fun and very successful! Thank you to everyone who donated, volunteered and purchased items at our fundraisers, and supported our other events.
We’re excited to have Dr. Michael Jarvis back on island in early March, for an excavation of the Globe Museum’s basement (see below for when you can stop by for a look). It’s a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to the fascinating world of archaeology. With Mike’s support, we’ve invited many school groups to come to St George’s over the course of the week to observe and learn a bit about Bermuda’s early history. They will also visit the archaeology exhibit and Joseph Rainey’s barber shop at Tucker House.
Heritage education is a critical part of what we do here at the Trust, as we seek to inspire the stewards of the future. The Spring term is the busiest for the education department with lots of field trips planned to our museums and nature reserves. We are particularly grateful to John Charman for his generous support of our education programme over many years.
| |
|
Karen Border
Executive Director
| |
Natural Heritage Updates
Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage
| |
Plant a Tree in '73 - 50 years on | |
|
Recently, a long-standing supporter of the Trust, David Barber, reminded me that we are 50 years on from the Plant a Tree in ‘73 initiative, which many members will remember. The trees David planted to mark the occasion are thriving, as you can see from the photos below.
The 1973 tree planting campaign was picked up from the UK, where it was driven by the need to replace millions of trees killed by the Dutch Elm disease. In Bermuda, we had experienced our own tree crisis with the decimation of the Bermuda Cedar in the 1940s and ‘50s, so the initiative was a good fit. It was embraced with huge enthusiasm in the community, with schools, organisations and thousands of families getting involved.
While I’m not sure how many trees were planted in 1973 and how many have survived, it is awesome to see what 50 years of growth looks like. If you planted a tree in ‘73, we’d love to see your photos of the tree today, on planting day, and anything in between. Send your photos to myles.darrell@bnt.bm with any information about the planting you can share.
These newsletter clippings show how consistent Trust efforts over the decades have been to ensure Bermuda protects its precious natural resources. In light of today’s profound concerns about climate change, we are grateful for the prescience of those early campaigners for the environment.
| |
The above Cedar was planted as part of the Plant a Tree in ‘73 initiative | |
The Palmetto was planted for the Plant some more in ‘74 follow-on. | |
Cultural Heritage Updates
Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage
| |
|
The Trust held several special events during Black History Month, which is a springboard for us to honour and celebrate African-Bermudian heritage year-round.
These included free open houses at Tucker House and Globe museums in St. George’s. Interpreters shared stories of the African diaspora such as the incredible achievements of Joseph Hayne Rainey.
Head of Natural Heritage Myles Darrell led a natural and cultural heritage tour of Springfield and Gilbert Nature Reserve. This was followed by a peace tree planting by community members in commemoration of the Theatre Boycott in 1959 and responding to ongoing violence (see photos below).
An open house at Verdmont museum invited the community to experience the historic house and garden and to give input into our reimagining this site of enslavement and related heritage of Black achievement.
-
BNT has reposted searchable spreadsheets of the Bermuda Slave Registers, with permission of the Bermuda Archives and based on work by its staff and affiliated researchers including Dr. Virginia Bernhard. The Bermuda Slave Registers can be found here, publicly accessible for all.
| |
|
World Heritage Archaeology
Targeted archaeological testing at the Globe Museum in St. George’s is happening this month. The dig is designed to help answer several historical and architectural questions that have recently emerged about this important building in the Bermuda World Heritage Site.
Dr. Michael Jarvis and a dozen of his University of Rochester students will be excavating in the cellar of the Globe from 6-12 March. BNT’s Heritage Education Coordinator, Anna Stevenson, has partnered with the Ministry of Education to present an overview of archaeology at school assemblies, after which aastern primary schools and all middle schools will visit the dig.
Bermuda National Trust’s Archaeological Research Committee invites the public to visit the site on Friday, 10 and Saturday, 11 March between 11:00 am - 2:00 pm. Dr. Jarvis and his team are also looking for volunteers to help process finds during the week they are here.
For more information about visiting and volunteering, and to see Dr. Jarvis’ approved research proposal, please click here.
| |
Dr. Michael Jarvis, right, with Dr. Thomas James, Akilah Swan, Larry Mills, and Jessica Dill, who with researcher Diana Chudleigh helped formulate research questions about Globe. | |
Volunteers processing finds with Dr. Jarvis. | |
|
Have your say on the City!
Consultation on the City of Hamilton Plan 2023 has started. Visit the Department of Planning’s special web page to access the plan documents, how to submit your comments, and other details. A Placemaking design competition purely for fun is being held to stimulate public interest in the plan’s ‘emphasis on creating successful places which have a strong sense of place and identity’. The deadline for comments on the Consultative Draft and Placemaking competition entries is 24 March.
| |
Heritage Education
Education Update from Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Coordinator
| |
|
February was a busy month for Heritage Education with the Annual Children’s Nature Walk attracting nearly 200 participants, who enjoyed a wonderful learning walk around Spittal Pond. We are very grateful to our lead sponsor Arch Insurance and to the experts and volunteers who gave their time to make the event a success.
Twenty middle-school teachers also enjoyed a professional development class at Spittal Pond. Covering the factors that impacted Bermuda’s discovery and settlement it included site visits to Portuguese Rock and Jeffrey’s Cave. All M2 students in Government schools are scheduled to visit over the next two months.
Anna Stevenson was pleased to be invited to help judge the annual Purvis Primary School Science Fair. The projects ranged from using yeast to fill a balloon, to producing ice-cream using salt and constructing and flying weighted paper airplanes. The students had clearly worked extremely hard on their presentations.
| |
|
Properties for Rent: click on the links below for more information.
For viewing, please contact Nicky Gurret, Head of Property & Facilities: nicky.gurret@bnt.bm 236-6483 x 216
| |
Palmetto House has all new shutters. | |
Waterville roof has been painted. | |
|
The Old Sunday School,
St James’ Church, 92 Somerset Road
| |
|
This is part of a series of architectural articles by the Bermuda National Trust to highlight some of Bermuda's endangered historic buildings.
by Linda Abend and Margie Lloyd
| |
|
Our last article covered the risks of leaving a lifetime interest in a property to a person not the ultimate beneficiary of a will. This one looks for solutions to historic and perhaps listed buildings falling into disrepair and for which no obvious current use exists.
The prime example of this is the old Sunday School at St James’ Church in Sandys. The vestry minutes of April 14, 1865 include “This was the first meeting held in the above named Sunday School Room, a building erected and completed though the exertions of some benevolent ladies of Sandys aided by liberal contributions by gentlemen of the parish and other individuals. Independent of it being used as a Sunday School, all vestry and parish meetings will in future be held therein.”
Read full article
| |
The Sunday School was photographed in 1944. | |
The Bermuda National Trust | bnt.bm | |
| | | |
