PARISH INFORMATION

GENERAL

POSITION/SIZE/DESCRIPTION

Hanover, the third smallest parish in Jamaica is situated at the north-western end of the island. It had an area of 450.4 square kilometres (173.9 square miles). There are six rivers two of which flow into the Lucea harbour. This horseshoe shaped harbour is one of the safest in the island. There are hills on three sides and in one section the Dolphin Mountain range makes a picturesque backdrop. The outline of this range is said to look like the heads of two dolphins. Dolphin Head its highest point is 1789 feet. Fort Charlotte is on the western edge of the harbour. In the days of sailing boats Edward Long the eighteenth century historian, claims it could hold 300 ships at one time. The highest elevation is Birchs Hill,1809 feet high. The parish has three small waterfalls, several coves along it coastline and large caves which make this parish also interesting to explore. Periodically after excessive rainfall a lake rises at Chigwell in the interior of the parish.

BRIEF HISTORY

The first written record which refers to an area in what is today the parish of Hanover was in 1515 when King Ferdinand of Spain commended the Spanish Governor for settling some of the Spaniards here when Sevilla la Nueva the first Spanish settlement in Jamaica was abandoned. The present parish was established on November 12, 1723. It was given the family name of the English monarch who was from the House of Hanover in Germany. The coves on the coast were a favourite haunt for pirates and Henry Morgan the notorious pirate later to become Lieutenant Governor sheltered in the harbour and later acquired 4,000 acres of property in the area.

In the early colonial days the main town Lucea was a busier town than Montego Bay. By the middle of the eighteenth century Lucea was the hub of an important sugar growing region and the town was prosperous as a sugar port and market centre. Jews from Europe settled here as merchants, shopkeepers, clothiers, shoemakers and goldsmiths. It became a free port. After emancipation the free peasants prospered and supplied produce to much of the rest of Jamaica. The town hall and a few old merchant residences and town houses belonging to the plantocracy which were built by the former slaves still remain. Their style is referred to as 'Caribbean vernacular'. The Hanover Parish Church was built on the foundations of an old church built by the Spaniards. It was the only one in the island with a steeple. However, the steeple was badly cracked in the 1957 earthquake and was taken down.

It is believed that the first ship bringing Scottish Presbyterian missionaries landed in Lucea and that this accounts for the strong presence of Presbyterians (now United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman) in the parish.

A popular yam grown in the parish was named Lucea yam. In the nineteenth century it was exported in large quantities to Jamaicans working on plantations and railway construction in Cuba and Panama. The harbour was used to export bananas until after the 1960s. Older residents still remember the men rowing the lighters and mostly women loading the boats singing melodiously "Day de light an me waan go home", at two and three o'clock in the mornings when their jobs were near completion. A deep-water pier was built but this was restricted to the shipping of molasses and is no longer in use. The port was closed in 1983 but the old Fort Charlotte still stands a silent sentinel at one side of the entrance to the harbour. It was never used.

Bloody Bay in Negril was reputedly so called because whales were killed there. The bay was the meeting point for ships that went to Europe in convoys and for naval ships going to defend the island.

Some interesting people have lived in Hanover. Mr Walter Jekyll a brilliant scholar lived for a time in rural Hanover, grew magnificent roses and taught music. He wrote the book Jamaica Song and Story, one of the first serious studies of the Jamaican vernacular. He was buried in the Lucea Parish Churchyard and a tablet to his memory is in the church although he had been unfrocked as a cleric in England because of his radical beliefs.

Our National Hero, The Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante, was born at Blenheim.
Lucea has taken on new life with the return of many migrants who have added a modern area to the town which in many ways still looks like a nineteenth century town. Tourism in eastern and western Hanover has picked up some of the slack which the closure of the port caused. Infrastructure such as roads and water supplies still needs further improvement.

POPULATION: 67,000

CAPITAL: Lucea

MAJOR TOWNS: Green Island, Sandy Bay, Hopewell

MAJOR INDUSTRIES/SOURCES OF EMPLOYMENT

Agriculture: Yams, sugar cane, pimento, turmeric, breadfruit
Livestock Rearing: Cattle pigs and goats Noted areas Shettlewood, Knockalva, Ramble,
Haddo, Saddlers Hall, Burnt Ground and Haughton Court
Tourism: Large hotels - Round Hill, Tryall (noted for its golf course) - Eastern Hanover. Sharing the Negril strip with Westmoreland - Grand Lido, Couples, Sandals, Negril Cabins and Beaches. Negril is one of the more popular tourist areas.

MAJOR HISTORICAL/CULTURAL/RECREATIONAL/ECOLOGICAL SITES

The Barracks: This was built in 1843 to house the soldiers stationed at Fort Charlotte.In 1862 the English War Office gave the fort and barracks to the people of Jamaica. After 1900 it became the educational centre for the town as at one time it housed the Infant School, the All-Age School and Rusea's High School. Now it is part of the High School complex. It is an impressive Georgian structure built with bricks used as ballast for the many sailing ships that came to the port from Europe and America.

Blenheim: This was the birthplace of National Hero the Right Excellent Sir Alexander Bustamante (1884 - 1977). The National Trust Commission acquired a three acre plot and built a replica of the original from descriptions of the house by Sir Alexander himself and his boyhood friend Mr James Gayle. The area has been declared a National Monument. The small house is now a museum with mostly newspaper clippings and pictures on the life of Sir Alexander.

Fort Charlotte: This fort built in 1761 is on the peninsular closest to the channel leading into the harbour and closest to the town of Lucea. It was named after Queen Charlotte the wife of King George 111. It is situated next to the Barracks. It is roughly octagonal in shape and had embrasures for 23 canon. The Public Works Department occupies the small area between the fort and the Barracks building and stored dynamite in the still intact gunpowder magazine. Possibly the most enthralling view of the harbour is from this fort.

Hanover Museum: A small museum started in 1989 by the citizens of Hanover has developed through international funding. The museum has artifacts from Arawak middens in the parish as well as other items such as a complete set of weights and measures belonging to the town. A small Arawak village has been reproduced here. The museum is housed in the old Police barracks and gaol.

Kenilworth: These 17th century ruins of the sugar factory on this estate formerly called Maggoty Estate, are considered the best example of old industrial architecture in the island. The most prominent buildings in these ruins are the sugar boiling house and distillery, the long rectangular sugar mill and a two- storey limestone building with a flight of semicircular stairs leading to an arched doorway. The windows are oval. A graveyard further up a hill has the grave of an early owner, Thomas Blagrove, whose family also owned Cardiff Hall estate in St Ann. The inscription reads in part: "his humane treatment of his servants, in a region not abounding in such examples, induced their cheerful obedience."

The Human Resource and Training Trust (HEART) has an academy there and plans to restore some of the ruins to use in its programmes. Visitors are welcome.

Lucea Town Hall: The two-storey building of Georgian design and uncertain age stands in the centre of the town and boasts a clock put up in 1817. According to local legend the clock which was shipped to Lucea in error was destined for St Lucia. A smaller clock had been ordered for Lucea but when the residents saw this one they raised the difference in cost by public subscription. The clock tower was built by a German resident who donated his expertise in exchange for the right to choose his own design. Hence the appearance of the tower is like the helmet that used to be worn by the Prussian Imperial Guards. Reputedly the same Williams family has serviced the clock for over 100 years. The property belongs to the Parish Council. For decades it housed both the Parish Council Offices and the Court. (Court used to be kept in the area which is now the town Hall.) A fountain was built in front of the building and the square in front of it was named the Sir Alexander Bustamante Square. It was opened by the Queen in 1966.

Lucea Parish Church: This is what the church is called but in fact it is the Parish Church of Hanover. No one knows when this church was built but it is believed to have been built on the foundations of a Catholic church that had been erected during the Spanish occupation. The first baptismal record is dated 1725; the first burial 1727 and the first marriage 1749. The church used to be the only one in the island with a steeple said to have been built by a member of the Chambers family who resided at Everton where the manse of the minister of the United Church of Jamaica and Grand Cayman is now located. In 1789 a clock with three faces was installed in the square battlement tower beneath the steeple but this has long disappeared and the spaces filled with jalousies. An earthquake in 1957 cracked and shifted the steeple ( approximately 80 feet) which then had to be taken down. The church has changed over the years. The main entrance was originally north now it is south. The present organ was made by J. Walker & Sons Ltd of England in 1891. There are many interesting tablets in the church and on tombstones in the graveyard. A tablet in the church was executed by 1798 by John Flaxman, one of the leading European sculptors of his time. It is believed to be the only one in Jamaica and is listed in the National Gallery's Catalogue of Artistic Treasures belonging to the Nation.

Rusea's Comprehensive High School: Formerly Rusea's High School this was one of the first four schools to be established by bequest in the 18th century. Martin Rusea, a French refugee left by his will dated 23rd July, 1764, all his real and personal estate to establish a free school in the parish of Hanover. This amounted to two thousand and seven hundred pounds sterling. His brothers contested the will but eventually by Act of the British Parliament in 1777 his estate was disposed of and the money put into a trust fund. The school was opened in 1777. The Trust administered all aspects of school activity. The school was once located where the Weslyan Church is presently. There was a close association with the Anglican Church. Four rectors of the church were also headmasters of the school.

In 1900 the school moved to the Barracks and today that building is used solely by the school. In 1982 it was joined with Hanover Secondary School and renamed Rusea's Comprehensive High School. Enrolment has moved from 72 in 1923 to 534 in 1964 to 2000+ in 2000.

Tryall Golf, Tennis & Beach Club: This is the only remaining waterwheel on an old sugar estate that has been reactivated. It was part of the sugar works on the Tryall Estate. It turned the mills that crushed the juice out of the sugar canes. Most of the estate was destroyed in the Christmas rebellion of 1831-32. At the entrance to the great house is an old tombstone commemorating a head driver who was shot by rebel slaves while defending his master's property. The wheel was restored in the late 1950s. The water which turns the wheel is brought by aqueduct from the Flint River about two miles away. Opposite the wheel is the famous Tryall golf course which hosted the Johnny Walker World Championship Tournament for a few years. The 2,200 acre property is now an exclusive resort. Many wealthy foreigners have winter homes here.