St Thomas chock-full of interesting places

St Thomas is nestled in the bosom of nature. St Thomas is steeped in Jamaican history and heritage. Simply, St Thomas is alluring and arresting. Forget the present deplorable road conditions for a moment, and imagine where the completed roads will lead you to – astounding geographical features, mesmerising vistas, and eye-catching historical structures, and monuments.

Named after Thomas the apostle, it is said, it’s a nature lover’s destination with its lush vegetation, beaches, swamps, morasses, rivers, waterfalls, cloud-shrouded mountain ranges including parts of the Blue Mountains, hiking trails, the therapeutic Bath Fountains, and the botanical garden at Bath.

The fascinating Salt Ponds at Yallahs have their own story, embedded in folklore, but they are actually enclosed super-salty sections of the sea which no one ventures into, unlike Rozelle Falls. Its cool, sparkling waters have made it a natural outdoor shower for people near and far.

To reach the other popular falls in the parish you have to go a bit farther, to Hillside, where the thundering waters of Reggae Falls might not sing you a lullaby, but the water crashing on to water nonetheless might lull you to sleep right there at the riverside. A bliss of sort it is.

The Yallahs Ford, which was once always in the news, is now straddled over by a sturdy bridge. And do not expect to see white horses at White Horses, but look at the sea and you will see them foaming and galloping to shore until they are no more. Magical!

The white cliffs not far away will get your cameras clicking. The same can be said of the Morant Point Lighthouse located at the most easterly spot in Jamaica where there is a pristine, pinkish-sand beach. It is not easily accessible as the road to it runs through private property. A beach alternative is the one at Lyssons located on the outskirt of Morant Bay. It was rehabilitated about three years ago, and is managed by a tourism agency.

Lyssons is named after Nicholas Lycence, a 17th-century plantation owner, and a member of the Jamaica Assembly. On a mound overlooking the beach there is a little ‘cemetery’ in which lie the remains of Alton Hope Phillipps, former custos of the parish; his wife, Phyllis Josephine; and J.H. Phillipps, a former member of the Legislative Council, and another former custos of the parish. There are also the tombs of Simon Taylor and his brother, John. They were initially interred at Vale Royal, then known as Prospect Pen Estate in St Andrew. Upon the sale of the Prospect property the bodies were exhumed and reburied at Lyssons.

Back in Morant Bay itself is the St Thomas Parish Church in whose eastern wall there is a brick with ‘1865’ baked into it. Eighteen sixty-five is the year of the Morant Bay Uprising in which the courthouse and other buildings were set ablaze by the laity who were fighting for social justice.

HISTORICAL RUINS

Now, there is another set of courthouse ruins at the back which is the 1865 Memorial Gardens, established on the ruins of the Morant Bay Fort, which was built about 1758 to accommodate nine mounted guns. That fort was one of many, including Fort Lindsay (extensively repaired in 1790 and was placed on the island’s list of forts in 1799) and Fort William (built about 1675 to defend the harbour at Port Morant), constructed in St Thomas to protect the island from possible invasions from the French.

All over the parish are well-preserved historical ruins, such as those of the Stokes Hall Great House. Shortly after the British invaded Jamaica in 1655, Oliver Cromwell offered prospective colonists the opportunity to settle in Jamaica. The first person to accept this offer was Bernard Baker of Nevis, and his family. They arrived in October 1656. Baker, in turn, encouraged Luke Stokes, governor of Nevis, to settle in Jamaica, and he did. Archival records show that some members of the Stokes family survived and established Stokesfield and Stokes Hall in the Port Morant area. The mansion was severely damaged in the 1907 earthquake.

Other places of interest are Stony Gut, the birthplace of National Hero Paul Bogle; Orange Park (a coffee plantation great house cum museum), Old Pera, the former Bowden Wharf, Cuhna Cuhna Pass, and Corn Puss Gap. And whatever has become of the Three-Finger Jack Monument?