Message from the Executive Director

We couldn’t be more pleased with the turnout for our Spittal Pond Community Day on 27 January! This first event for 2024 got the year off to a great start and engaged an enthusiastic cross-section of the community – you can read all about it below.

This month we are busy with our Plant & Bake Sale (10 February) and Auction & Jumble Sale (25 February-2 March). As always, we are counting on your loyal support. You can help by donating items, volunteering, spreading the word and, of course, coming out to enjoy the events.

It’s also nomination time! BNT’s Annual Awards celebrate individuals, schools, groups and organisations who have demonstrated their love for Bermuda’s natural and cultural heritage in some significant way. It could be for a recent project such as the sensitive renovation of an historic property or a research study, or it could be for showing a long-term commitment to our island’s heritage. The deadline for nominations is Friday 5 April. Click here for the nomination form. Please let us know who you think deserves an award.

Karen Border

Executive Director

Natural Heritage Updates

Myles Darrell, Head of Natural Heritage

Work of heart!

2024 has got off to an amazing, record-breaking start – with more than 100 volunteers coming out to work at Spittal Pond. That’s the greatest number I’ve ever seen at a National Trust Community Day – thank you, friends! Together, we planted more than 400 native and endemic plants.

This project – funded by an international grant – is in the early stages. Its purpose is to protect the ecological balance of the freshwater pond to enable its ongoing support of the area’s wildlife. This has required the building of a berm to shield the pond from the neighbouring dairy farm’s run-off. The success of the project will be determined through water testing to measure a reduction in pollution, specifically of nitrates and E. coli that currently cause eutrophication of the pond. This is what happens when the water in the pond becomes so enriched with nutrients that algal blooms form and create a scummy surface, essentially killing its environment.

I am delighted with what we’ve already achieved and look forward to the ongoing monitoring and assessment phase. The relationship between this special reserve and the community is essential to the success of this ongoing conservation project . That support was amply demonstrated last Saturday.

See story below for more on the cultural significance associated with the Spittal Pond Project.

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

Portuguese Rock Re-imagined

While the natural heritage team worked with volunteers on the northern side of Spittal Pond at our recent Community Day, our cultural heritage team welcomed hikers and families to Portuguese Rock. CURB’s Executive Director Stacey-Lee Williams joined me in sharing not only the new sign, but the restorative process of working with community members in a focus group she facilitated for BNT to inform the reinterpretation.

Public input will continue to assist how we interpret Portuguese Rock as Bermuda’s earliest known historic site and the nearby African Diaspora Heritage Trail Site of Jeffrey’s Cave, both of which honour their heritage as sites related to enslavement. The cultural heritage sites of Spittal Pond are significant aspects of the Trust’s ongoing RISE work for and with the Bermuda community.

Cultural Collaboration

In honour of Black History Month, a mini exhibition in Washington Mall highlighting parts of the City of Hamilton’s Black Bermudian heritage can be seen throughout February in the Church Street lobby. The exhibit features the contributions of four Black Bermudians: John Henry Thomas Jackson, Brother William (Syke) Smith, William Henry Thomas Joell and Blanche Louise Smith.

The City of Hamilton partnered with the Trust to co-curate the exhibit, with much of the information for the display sourced from our Hamilton: Town and City book.

As part of her 90th birthday celebrations, we welcomed Lady Gibbons and 20 family and friends to Verdmont Museum. Council member William White gave a fascinating talk which we followed with a house and garden tour.

Thank you to Ian and Jennifer Hind who answered our call for volunteers to look after Jennings Land Burial Ground in Smith’s to help us ensure it is well tended!

Heritage Education Updates

Anna Stevenson, Heritage Education Manager

We are delighted to be working with the Home School Network, delivering a course on early Bermuda history from our classroom at Waterville. The students have learned about the physical and written evidence of human contact with the island prior to settlement and will have a field trip and further class-based learning this month.

We had a wonderful walk around Spittal Pond with the Meet-a-Mum Association (MAMA). Children listened to bird calls, hunted in rock pools, tasted salt from the leaves of mangroves, and we were lucky to see a group of Snowy Egrets across the main pond.

With forts as their theme for the year, Bermuda Centre for Creative Learning (BCCL) students had incredible fun turning our classroom into a castle! Using cardboard boxes as walls, and cardboard tubes as swords, teams of students took turns to attack and defend. They have been constructing model motte-and-bailey forts and learning about medieval technology.

Built To Last

The Zymotic or Isolation Hospital (later Lefroy House) around the time it was built in 1899. Courtesy of the National Museum of Bermuda.

Lefroy House,

7 Lagoon Road

This is part of a series of architectural articles by the Bermuda National Trust that will highlight some of Bermuda’s endangered historic buildings.

After the closure of HM Dockyard the properties owned by the Royal Navy were sold to the Bermuda Government who transferred them to the Bermuda Crown Lands Corporation. Many of these buildings have since been demolished. Lefroy House is the best surviving example of a large Royal Navy building ancillary to the Dockyard establishment.

Click here to read the full article.

Call for Volunteers!

Volunteers are an important part of the Bermuda National. Together we can help protect our Natural and Cultural Heritage and keep all our stories alive! If you are interested in any of the following volunteer opportunities contact jean.flath@bnt.bm

Reception: We have had a great response for assistance at our reception at Waterville and only need to cover one more shift: every Monday from 11:30am – 1:30pm. It is a huge help to our staff to have someone covering phone calls and greeting the public during our lunch hours!

Retail: If you are a ‘people person’ and enjoy selling merchandise and helping tell the story of Globe House, we would be happy to talk to you about opportunities at the Trustworthy Shop in St George's.