Message from the Executive Director

Happy New Year!

At BNT, we are looking forward to another active year protecting and promoting Bermuda’s heritage, starting with the completion of two important projects that began in 2023.

One is the restoration of the boardwalk at Paget Marsh, which will reopen in February. We will also be replacing the Paget Marsh signage in the first quarter of the year and look forward to welcoming school groups back in the reserve to learn about this important habitat and its flora and fauna.

The other project that will be completed early in the new year is at Spittal Pond, where the cattle fence is being repaired and a berm created to prevent contamination of the pond from run-off from the dairy farm. We will be holding a community day at Spittal Pond on 27 January when we will invite members and the public to come and help plant trees on the berm, and also visit Portuguese Rock where we will have installed a new sign that reinterprets this important cultural heritage site. I hope you will join us!

With the climate crisis more evident with every season, the Bermuda National Trust must embrace renewable energy, so we will be submitting a planning application to install solar panels on a shade structure over the carpark at our Waterville headquarters. By siting the panels in the car park we can generate our own energy while respecting the architectural integrity of the beautiful Grade 1 Listed building.

Our Buy Back Bermuda partnership with the Bermuda Audubon Society is going strong, and we are well on our way to our target of $250,000 to open High Point in Southampton as a publicly accessible nature reserve. In 2024 we will be working hard to raise the remaining funds and to finalise the conservation management plan for the reserve.

The Trust will continue to advocate robustly for Bermuda's environment and cultural heritage, as we have done for over 50 years. Development pressure on our dwindling open space is a huge concern, especially as the protections that should be afforded by the Bermuda Plan are too often overturned by ministerial discretion. The neglect of historic buildings, especially those in the care of Government, is also a worry. We hope that those who share our concerns will continue to show their support for the Trust through membership and donations so that we can continue to work to preserve our natural and cultural heritage for everyone, forever.

Karen Border

Executive Director

Spittal Pond Community Day

Join us on Saturday, 27 January for an exciting day at Spittal Pond Nature Reserve!

You are invited to participate in an important project to prevent pollution of the pond. With a Darwin Plus Local grant from the UK Department of the Environment, BNT has reinstated the fence to stop cows from the adjacent dairy farm accessing the pond and has created an embankment or ‘berm’ to prevent run-off of pollutants. We are looking for volunteers to help plant the new berm with native and endemic species and you will have the chance to learn more about the site’s natural history in the process.

You are also invited to see the new sign at Portuguese Rock, the site of a pre-settlement inscription dated 1543. The shipwrecked mariners who engraved the limestone cliff were probably from a slave-trading vessel and the reinterpretation acknowledges this link to the Atlantic Slave Trade. This change was informed by a CURB-facilitated focus group with members of the community who responded to an open invitation to join a group discussion about the site and its signage. Our heritage team will be on hand to answer your questions about the site and its evolving story as part of the Trust’s commitment to re-imagining sites of enslavement under our care.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about the natural and cultural heritage of Spittal Pond!

Everyone is welcome and there is no charge.

When: Saturday, 27 January (rain date Saturday, 3 February) 10am – 1pm

Planting Session 1: 10am until 11am (meet at 10 am at west car park)

Planting Session 2: 12noon until 1pm (meet at noon at west car park)

Parking: East/West Parking Lots. Additional parking behind Harrington Hundreds.

For more information and to sign up, visit our website.

New Leadership for the Property Department

We are delighted to welcome Karen Franks as the Trust’s new Head of Property & Facilities. Karen takes over from Nicky Gurret who led the department for two years, taking excellent care of our historic building portfolio. We thank Nicky for her service to the Trust and wish her well in her next ventures.

Karen Franks has worked in property management and real estate since 2007 with Bermuda Realty, West End Development Corporation and most recently with Longtail Real Estate. She has extensive experience in tenancy management, building maintenance management and handling renovations.

Karen is also well known as the author of the children’s book series Abigail’s Dream Adventures in which the lead character Abigail and her dream friend Pearl go on adventures that explore different cultures and ethnicities.

Cultural Heritage Updates

Dr. Charlotte Andrews, Head of Cultural Heritage

World Heritage Cemeteries Conservation

Chubb’s support for the cemeteries under BNT’s care has stretched another 120 feet! The Trust contracted Saunders Maintenance Limited to conserve a major section of the boundary wall at St. George’s Military Cemetery at Grenadier Lane. This cemetery holds 256 memorials dating between 1817 and 1893.

It’s not only the heritage of the now stabilised cemetery wall but also the intangible heritage of the skills of expert mason Dean Saunders that contribute to the Outstanding Universal Value of the World Heritage Site.

Dean’s conservation involved removing and labeling unstable stones, gently removing poisoned invasives, and firmly resetting and mortaring stones back in place using Bermuda lime and cow dung sourced from a nearby farm. Click here to see Dean sharing his knowledge and methods on site.

Dean Saunders with the long section of wall he conserved.

Emotional Experience

The Royal Naval Cemetery in Sandys Parish

BNT member John Barnes has expressed his gratitude for the Trust’s care of historic cemeteries. He shared the ‘emotional experience’ of travelling to Bermuda with his wife Jane to ‘follow in the footsteps’ of his paternal grandfather William Barnes, who was born in Bermuda in 1867. On-island family research led them to the west end’s ‘immaculately kept’ Royal Navy Cemetery near Dockyard, where, he writes, he was able to ‘stand beside 180-year-old graves of my ancestors’.

Desperately Seeking Cemetery Caretakers

We really need your help to look after Jennings Land Burial Ground in Smith’s! This small family burial ground has only two tombs and no grass to mow but needs regular attention to keep its roses and hedges pruned and to keep the tombs and fenced area free from invasives and weeds.

The two local stone tombs are thought to be very early. According to Bermuda Memorial Inscriptions by Hilary & Richard Tulloch, ‘The Jennings family was prominent in Bermuda in the 17^th century and the Norwood survey of 1663 shows Richard Jennings owning land which included the area where the tombs stand.’

Anyone living in the Jennings Land area is especially encouraged to help with tending to this site, perhaps with neighbours. But we welcome any reliable help to keep this recently-conserved site looking good. Please contact our Volunteer Coordinator Jean Flath on jean.flath@bnt.bm or 236-6483 x226 if you can become a caretaker!

Volunteers Needed!

At BNT, we rely on volunteers to achieve so much of what we do – and we can always use more help! Here are a few areas where we presently need help:

Sign cleaning at Spittal Pond. Are you a regular visitor to Spittal Pond? We are looking for someone willing to take responsibility for wiping the signs regularly, perhaps just one per visit, to keep them looking at their best. This would be a great job for a young person accompanied by an adult.
Reception work at Waterville. Are you recently retired or in between jobs? We are always on the lookout for receptionists to help us cover our lunch hours 11:30 – 1:30.
Retail assistance. If you enjoy meeting the public and selling merchandise, we would be happy to talk to you about opportunities at the Trustworthy Shop in St. George's.

As always, we will be counting on support for our Plant & Bake Sale (10 February) and the Auction & Jumble Sale (25 Feb - 2 March). You can help by baking, growing and donating plants for sale, donating auction and jumble items and volunteering to help with the events. You can also show your support by spreading the word and making purchases at the events!

To volunteer for any of the above roles and our events, contact jean.flath@bnt.bm to volunteer for any of the roles listed above, or any of our events.

Thank you to our Walkabout Photographers!

A big thank you to Cedarbridge students Maxwell Lawrence III, and Shernae McQueen, who volunteered to be our official photographers at the Christmas Walkabout in St George's. The streets were packed and they did a stellar job capturing all the activities and open houses.

Built to Last

Admiralty House Ballroom, photographed in 1990 as part of the BNT’s Old House Survey.

Admiralty House Ballroom,

8 Admiralty Lane, Pembroke

By Linda Abend and Margie Lloyd, Bermuda National Trust

New hope for an iconic building: The charming 1897 former ballroom at Admiralty House has been deteriorating for many years but now there is a chance that it will be restored by Age Concern in a public-private partnership with the Ministry of Public Works.

Read more about this and the history of the building in the latest of our architectural heritage series by visiting our website or click here.