Tour of the Gardens
The visitors are met and welcomed off the ship, before walking to the Government House car park with guides, in groups at staggered intervals.
In the car park trees by the cattle grid are Neems, a relative of the Mahogany from India in the 1940’s Medicine is made from the bark and oil from the seeds, for the treatment of high blood-pressure and diabetes, and the leaves which taste rather like quinine, are sometimes used against malaria in other parts of the world.
Climbing the hill, with the silver buttonwoods on the right, one can see the cannon and appreciate that Government House is built on the site of an old fort. While everyone is pausing to admire the view and catch their breath, it can be explained that the gardens are very young. The original garden had been very little developed, except for the beds in front of the house, and the plants were or poor quality with a limited range of material the present garden is only three and a half years old Mrs. Barwick began the work with the help of only two gardeners, occasionally supplemented by some prisoners, two pickaxes and a broken fork not until much work had been done was a viable budget made available and a third gardener employed. The team now subdued and planted nearly ten acres of very rocky land with a fairly heavy clay alkaline soil.
This is a complex garden of the English Gertrude Jeckyll Type on many different levels and designed for various functions. The aim has been to introduce as many species as possible and to experiment in order to find new plants suitable for distribution round the islands.
All the different areas have been named, mainly by the staff. Omar’s Row is the MP Omar Hodge who donated the palm trees in front of the house. Silver Mountain was so named as the gardeners said all the leaves down there were silver. Mrs. Barwick regrets that it is not looking very good at the moment (by her exacting standards) as water is a perennial but we are going through a period of drought at present, with only 42 inches recorded last year. The actual distribution of rainfall is fickle in 1983 15 inches fell in two days and sometimes there is none at all for three or four months stretch.
The Tour begins with the long walk, where the gardeners have resurrected the wall on the right, though they had no training as masons They have also turned their hands to plumbing and electrics during the making of the garden and on wet days to paper-hanging, painting, and carpet-laying, as well as generally helping in the house.
The next project in this area is to do the left-had bed along this walk planned to be a border planted entirely with indigenous exotic lilies. To the right, the Bouganvillea has been attacked by a pest that ties the leaves together before eating them. Opposite is the lovely Euphorbie Leucocephala which must have a twelve hour photo period, refusing to flower if it has a longer day than that. It has a short but dramatic flowering period, unlike its relative the Poinsettia which goes on from 4 to 6 months in Jamaica known as the Six Month Red. Mrs. Barwick believes that every garden should have some surprises like this in the way of short-lived beauties. It was to avoid disturbing the Euphorbias flowering that the bed was not re-planted this winter.
Next comes the pandanus or screw pine – ornamental and useful for making baskets, mats and hats there are many species of this plant and six or seven of them can be seen in the Botanic Garden, some of which grow quite tall with still roots and leaves five foot in length Pacific Pandanus grows right on the water’s edge and there are valued for the fruit as well as the leaves – but these hybrids don’t fruit. Beyond is Acalypha Wilkesiana otherwise known as Joseph’s Coat also a species with many varieties. In fact as Mrs. Barwick sometimes says everything here is known as Joseph’s Coat, Baby’s Breath or lady of the Night!
At the end of the long wak in the Queen’s Birthday terrace, known as QBD which is the place where the Queen stood for presentations on her first visit to the Islands in 1966. This overlooks the tennis court where the Queen’s Birthday party is held in June each year, with 500 guests, marquees with food and drink on two sides, good music provided by the local high school band, and Folk Dancing, culminating the flag being lowered to the police bugler playing the last post and the national anthem. This area is also used for fund-raising functions by various charitable organizations and is furthermore the site of a dramatic shipwreck in the hurricane of 1924 of which more will be said later.
The large trees in this lower area are Australian Eucalyptus or blue gums which are quit the wrong tree for these conditions as they are normally used for draining swamps and drinking thousands of gallons a day . They are also very messy shedding leaves and twigs over a large area. There used to be nine Eucalyptus but Mrs. Barwick cut down five and would like to get rid of more or at least prune them severely. They have never produced any seeds with one exception that was when one was chopped down and then five little seedlings popped up as if the tree said "don’t think you’re getting rid of me!"
Beyond the QBD Terrace is a small round lawn known as Mahogany shade the lawns have always been a problem here to establish and maintain they are plagued by army worms which necessitate constant spraying the old lawns are simply local grass on an inch of topsoil in the New Yea it is hoped that the power sprayer will arrive which the Canadian government has kindly promised to donate. This will greatly ease the labour of spraying at present accomplished with a 3 gallon back pack spray with top- dressing fertilizing and continual replanting with creeping zoyzie grass, it is hoped the lawns will be improved to provide a fitting setting for the plants around them.
Leaving this area on the left is a row of Veitchill Merllin know as dawn royal palms, and also as Christmas palms because they seed at Christmas time with bright red seeds in a lovely crown around the trunk as one of the fastest growing ornamental palms they are very popular unfortunately they are very prone to Lethal yellow which has killed so many of them in Florida though so for these palms have flourished here Mrs. Barwick does not import palms from Florida in the hope of keeping out the disease.
After walking uphill to the steps of the shade house, Mrs. Barwick usually pauses to remind her visitors again that water is in very short supply on Tortola and the wells brackish so it is something of a miracle that any propagation is done- however there is now a chance the government is getting a large desalinization plant which should solve the problem. Meantime de-ionising pipes are to be installed here next week. These are about one food long and full of semi precious metals designed in a spiral chamber which affect the molecular structure and break down the salts in the water passing through rendering it harmless to plants two of these de-ionisers are going on each of two outlets here and watering should then become more safe so many plants can’t take this brackish water and are constantly dying from it.
The propagating area is where Mr. Barwick and her gardeners propagate 80% of what they plant. The year before last their effort were going into the park here and last year they began propagating for the Botanic Garden, which they are still doing, when one learns that the shade house has been emptied about six times and filled up again, one understands why Mrs. Barwick starts her day’s work here as soon as it is light.
Taking care not to trip over the rock in the ground the tour continues through the shade house. Everything here is grown in a soil-less mix a peat ross base medium nothing is grown in real soil at this stage at the moment Mrs. Barwick is experimenting with a lot of new seeds and several palms which she got (manyof them personally) form Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, South America, the South Pacific, Hawaii, Florida, the Cayman Islands and many places in the Caribbean some of which are quite rare.
JP the hill outside is the orchard, one of the last areas to be reclaimed from the bush, which can be seen beyond the top fence in its original state the gardeners made all the terraces, with the assistance of some of the prisoners the shade house is literally carved out of bedrock and it took nearly three months to flatten that area. The most difficult part of the garden to make however, it was during the strenuous building of this shade house that the agricultural department came up with a budget of $4500 and Mrs Barwick was at last able to buy the materials and equipment she so badly needed for the terracing backhoes and tractors were used and all the stumps had to be removed.
Unfortunately there has been plague of fungus in the orchard and some quite well established fruit trees have died among them avocadoes, mangoes, breadnut, egg-fruit among the survivors are guavas. Mangoes citrus, cashew, carmbola a waxy yellow fluted fruit with an interesting flavor a passion fruit is climbing the tree to the right as you look until this fruit is a great favourite of the Barwicks and its juice is much used in the house.
Vegetables grown on the terraces include many experimental kinds in the hope of improving the food available in the Caribbean region. In these terraces are to be found squash, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, turnips, green peppers, cucumber, Okra and eggplant. There is a new tropical pea (purple) which has not yet eaten but does look promising there are several different kinds of beans lima beans and black turtle bean of Puerto Rican fame with its amazing long white pods which are left to dry before picking out the beans. This one has a problem with fungus spots on the leaves. Over to the right there is a new bean Mrs. Barwick is trying and which looks very healthy it is rather like lima bean and is grown for its dried beans also in the direction is an edible member of the spinach family. It is easily grown and spread fast.
The tomatoes on the right or the path of a terrible disease which could be a fungus they have been sprayed without improvement so it is possible that he problem could be caused by a deficiency of calcium in the soil on the left is a new kind of edible spinach related to Celoses amaranth. All these beds are made of very good soil mixed with compost and chicken manure. The Zuccini like vine ia a loofah it can be eaten and tastes like a cross between cucumber and a zucchini but its more common use is to scrub ones back in the bath it has to be boiled and dried out firs to remove the skin and flesh and leave the abrasive skeleton.
At the bottom of the vegetable garden, there is a herb bed on the left containing Oregano and Bush (perpetual) Basil some thyme is grown higher up in front are some dwarf coconuts and turning left the walk continues past the sugar cane , with a Dombeya to the left this plant has large flowers like pink bails which should be attractive dried for the decoration to the right as the path leads past rock bottom is a hedge of the purple leaved Pseudo Eranthemum.
Up an earth path which should be cemented soon on the left is a pale blue plumbago and then the darker blue eranthemum Nervosa otherwise called blue sage which is a lovely color and flowers in the winter for quite a long period. On the right is the vine Lantana Montevidensis and a small pink flower which is probably Boleria but may have to be sent to Kew for positive identification.
The path branching back from the white painted house was named Momme Street by the gardeners, after the nickname of Mrs. Cox the housekeeper cook at government house who lives here and who gave Mrs. Barwick many cuttings from her own garden here.
Running along the back of the patio behind government house is china road set with shards of china which were dug up as the garden was made to the right can be seen several poinsettias left over form last Christmas which get more than a twelve hour photo period due to garden lights and demonstrative how this has inhibited their flowering though they have grown beautifully.
Next comes Lovers Lane named by the gardeners this was the first area which Mrs. Barwick tackled it was the refuse dump and it took her team two weeks to clear up all the bottles and cans.
Passing Guano Corner where the chickens roost in the Neem tree we come to the cherry pot named after the old cherry tree. This is a malphigia a Barbados cherry which has little pink flowers followed by cherry-looking fruit this is somewhat astringent to the taste but is one of the most highly concentrated sources of vitamin C in the world. The cherry tree was very diseased when Mrs. Barwick came here and she cut it right back and hope it may survive. A Thunbergia Grandiflora is growing on one of the neem trees. It is a lovely sight usually but in 1984 it was hit badly by Tropical Storm Klaus and never really recovered.
There are many plans for the continuing improvement of the gardens and the flight of stone steps leading down from the cherry pot are the latest project they go down through the Governor’s exercise area where he has been clearing every weekend for the past four years recently the boundary line was moved a bit farther away giving His Excellency even more scope this is known as the Guv’s garden.
At the end of the steps is Guava Tree Law, which was once the old terraced vegetable garden. Three terraces were merged here, but Mrs. Barwick wishes she had been able to do more and level it for entertaining.
The Guava tree is one of the larges on the Island. This border is after the English Tradition of herbaceous border, where different sorts of plants are put next to each other to act as foils and contrasts, as in an old tapestry.
The tour continues to the garden of Eden, which is dominated by splendid poui tree a tabeula know here as white cedar an probably the largest of its kind in the Caribbean it is our national emblem and was use for the building of our well known local boats it was planted seventy-five years ago by Frances de Castro and a group of young people under the of Mr. Fishlock.
A lot of work is planned for the area beyond where another terrace is to be put in and the pool area completed.
Lastly we come through Phylis Folly which Mrs. Bawick planted to cheer Phyllis Shirley who had to pass this way so often form the Governor’s office with all the bills Mrs. Barwick had run up during the making of this garden. On the left the white flowered shrub is a Portlandia a native of Jamaica opposite is a chenille or cats tail an acalypha then an Indian Datura otherwise known as Angels trumpet highly poisonous to the left is the red flowered Ixora or figme or the wood.
Coming out on to the drive, one sees the stately Norfolk pine or auceria form Norfolk Island in the Pacific the lights stay on it year-round and were still working even after tropical storm Klaus. This pine has grown almost ten feet in three years.
Government house was built at the end of the last century on the site of a fort built in 1796 or 9 during the French wars by the slaves of the Reverend Mr. Wynne, whose land this was the house originally had only two reception rooms on the ground floor and four bedrooms above in the wooden upper storey, which had covered galleries or balconies along three sides this upper floor was destroyed in the major hurricane of 1924 which did so much damage in this area at the height of the storm a two masted schooner, the fajardina carrying a cargo of contraband whiskhy under a load of charcoal bound for Puerto Rico was driven ashore and grounded on the area which is now the tennis court losing one of its in the wreck. In those days, the sea came right up the fence and a public road ran through the grounds. Until the land beyond was reclaimed and proper road built the Governor travelled on horseback or between islands on a cutter name the Lady Constance.
Before Government House was built the principal officer of the Virgin Islands lived either in his own residence, or one lease for the purpose As Monarch’s representative the various governors have several times entertained royalty and usually some improvements to the official residence are made at such times. In the early 60s there were a visit from her Majesty the Queen mother in 1966 there were several modifications made to Government house before her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to the island with Prince Philip, which was the first visit of a reigning monarch in 1972 HRH Princes Margaret stayed at Government House for five days. After painting a heart-rending picture of HRH having to fill her lavatory cistern with a bucket, the current Governor’s wife was allowed funding for several improvements including the covered terrace at the back, as well to the bathrooms, Prince Charles made a brief unofficial visit to Tortola the following year, and HM the Queen made another state visit in 1977, her jubilee year. As HM was unable to visit all the dependent Territories at that time, the heads of three neighbouring territories were invited to Tortola for the visit.
The archwag over the front door was put in about two years ago, with the petrea to the left and Bougainvillea on the right Petra leaves were once used as sandpaper by the islands boat builders.
Up the steps, (following a possible visit to the washrooms along the terrace to the left) one enters the hall, from here can be seen the drawing room which has redecorated last year by H.M. Government with the rest of the house. HM the Queen gave the Government the engraving of the view of Tortola on the left, a faithful representation of the islands at the end of the eighteenth century. The outer pictures hare were also donated. The carpet was specially woven in England for this room. Mrs. Barwick made the clowns herself, at the far end.
In the dining-room, Mrs. Barwick recently drew the murals in the form of windows looking out onto the view as it would have been 200 years ago having blocked in the murals, Mrs. Barwick invited anyone of artistic bent to contribute talents to the finished effect , though she herself claims they are still unfinished and that she will complete them before she leaves the island.
Finally it is time for an English of tea on the terrace-or pimms on the patio, if you prefer, before strolling back to the ship.
In the car park trees by the cattle grid are Neems, a relative of the Mahogany from India in the 1940’s Medicine is made from the bark and oil from the seeds, for the treatment of high blood-pressure and diabetes, and the leaves which taste rather like quinine, are sometimes used against malaria in other parts of the world.
Climbing the hill, with the silver buttonwoods on the right, one can see the cannon and appreciate that Government House is built on the site of an old fort. While everyone is pausing to admire the view and catch their breath, it can be explained that the gardens are very young. The original garden had been very little developed, except for the beds in front of the house, and the plants were or poor quality with a limited range of material the present garden is only three and a half years old Mrs. Barwick began the work with the help of only two gardeners, occasionally supplemented by some prisoners, two pickaxes and a broken fork not until much work had been done was a viable budget made available and a third gardener employed. The team now subdued and planted nearly ten acres of very rocky land with a fairly heavy clay alkaline soil.
This is a complex garden of the English Gertrude Jeckyll Type on many different levels and designed for various functions. The aim has been to introduce as many species as possible and to experiment in order to find new plants suitable for distribution round the islands.
All the different areas have been named, mainly by the staff. Omar’s Row is the MP Omar Hodge who donated the palm trees in front of the house. Silver Mountain was so named as the gardeners said all the leaves down there were silver. Mrs. Barwick regrets that it is not looking very good at the moment (by her exacting standards) as water is a perennial but we are going through a period of drought at present, with only 42 inches recorded last year. The actual distribution of rainfall is fickle in 1983 15 inches fell in two days and sometimes there is none at all for three or four months stretch.
The Tour begins with the long walk, where the gardeners have resurrected the wall on the right, though they had no training as masons They have also turned their hands to plumbing and electrics during the making of the garden and on wet days to paper-hanging, painting, and carpet-laying, as well as generally helping in the house.
The next project in this area is to do the left-had bed along this walk planned to be a border planted entirely with indigenous exotic lilies. To the right, the Bouganvillea has been attacked by a pest that ties the leaves together before eating them. Opposite is the lovely Euphorbie Leucocephala which must have a twelve hour photo period, refusing to flower if it has a longer day than that. It has a short but dramatic flowering period, unlike its relative the Poinsettia which goes on from 4 to 6 months in Jamaica known as the Six Month Red. Mrs. Barwick believes that every garden should have some surprises like this in the way of short-lived beauties. It was to avoid disturbing the Euphorbias flowering that the bed was not re-planted this winter.
Next comes the pandanus or screw pine – ornamental and useful for making baskets, mats and hats there are many species of this plant and six or seven of them can be seen in the Botanic Garden, some of which grow quite tall with still roots and leaves five foot in length Pacific Pandanus grows right on the water’s edge and there are valued for the fruit as well as the leaves – but these hybrids don’t fruit. Beyond is Acalypha Wilkesiana otherwise known as Joseph’s Coat also a species with many varieties. In fact as Mrs. Barwick sometimes says everything here is known as Joseph’s Coat, Baby’s Breath or lady of the Night!
At the end of the long wak in the Queen’s Birthday terrace, known as QBD which is the place where the Queen stood for presentations on her first visit to the Islands in 1966. This overlooks the tennis court where the Queen’s Birthday party is held in June each year, with 500 guests, marquees with food and drink on two sides, good music provided by the local high school band, and Folk Dancing, culminating the flag being lowered to the police bugler playing the last post and the national anthem. This area is also used for fund-raising functions by various charitable organizations and is furthermore the site of a dramatic shipwreck in the hurricane of 1924 of which more will be said later.
The large trees in this lower area are Australian Eucalyptus or blue gums which are quit the wrong tree for these conditions as they are normally used for draining swamps and drinking thousands of gallons a day . They are also very messy shedding leaves and twigs over a large area. There used to be nine Eucalyptus but Mrs. Barwick cut down five and would like to get rid of more or at least prune them severely. They have never produced any seeds with one exception that was when one was chopped down and then five little seedlings popped up as if the tree said "don’t think you’re getting rid of me!"
Beyond the QBD Terrace is a small round lawn known as Mahogany shade the lawns have always been a problem here to establish and maintain they are plagued by army worms which necessitate constant spraying the old lawns are simply local grass on an inch of topsoil in the New Yea it is hoped that the power sprayer will arrive which the Canadian government has kindly promised to donate. This will greatly ease the labour of spraying at present accomplished with a 3 gallon back pack spray with top- dressing fertilizing and continual replanting with creeping zoyzie grass, it is hoped the lawns will be improved to provide a fitting setting for the plants around them.
Leaving this area on the left is a row of Veitchill Merllin know as dawn royal palms, and also as Christmas palms because they seed at Christmas time with bright red seeds in a lovely crown around the trunk as one of the fastest growing ornamental palms they are very popular unfortunately they are very prone to Lethal yellow which has killed so many of them in Florida though so for these palms have flourished here Mrs. Barwick does not import palms from Florida in the hope of keeping out the disease.
After walking uphill to the steps of the shade house, Mrs. Barwick usually pauses to remind her visitors again that water is in very short supply on Tortola and the wells brackish so it is something of a miracle that any propagation is done- however there is now a chance the government is getting a large desalinization plant which should solve the problem. Meantime de-ionising pipes are to be installed here next week. These are about one food long and full of semi precious metals designed in a spiral chamber which affect the molecular structure and break down the salts in the water passing through rendering it harmless to plants two of these de-ionisers are going on each of two outlets here and watering should then become more safe so many plants can’t take this brackish water and are constantly dying from it.
The propagating area is where Mr. Barwick and her gardeners propagate 80% of what they plant. The year before last their effort were going into the park here and last year they began propagating for the Botanic Garden, which they are still doing, when one learns that the shade house has been emptied about six times and filled up again, one understands why Mrs. Barwick starts her day’s work here as soon as it is light.
Taking care not to trip over the rock in the ground the tour continues through the shade house. Everything here is grown in a soil-less mix a peat ross base medium nothing is grown in real soil at this stage at the moment Mrs. Barwick is experimenting with a lot of new seeds and several palms which she got (manyof them personally) form Australia, Malaysia, South Africa, South America, the South Pacific, Hawaii, Florida, the Cayman Islands and many places in the Caribbean some of which are quite rare.
JP the hill outside is the orchard, one of the last areas to be reclaimed from the bush, which can be seen beyond the top fence in its original state the gardeners made all the terraces, with the assistance of some of the prisoners the shade house is literally carved out of bedrock and it took nearly three months to flatten that area. The most difficult part of the garden to make however, it was during the strenuous building of this shade house that the agricultural department came up with a budget of $4500 and Mrs Barwick was at last able to buy the materials and equipment she so badly needed for the terracing backhoes and tractors were used and all the stumps had to be removed.
Unfortunately there has been plague of fungus in the orchard and some quite well established fruit trees have died among them avocadoes, mangoes, breadnut, egg-fruit among the survivors are guavas. Mangoes citrus, cashew, carmbola a waxy yellow fluted fruit with an interesting flavor a passion fruit is climbing the tree to the right as you look until this fruit is a great favourite of the Barwicks and its juice is much used in the house.
Vegetables grown on the terraces include many experimental kinds in the hope of improving the food available in the Caribbean region. In these terraces are to be found squash, broccoli, cabbage, carrot, turnips, green peppers, cucumber, Okra and eggplant. There is a new tropical pea (purple) which has not yet eaten but does look promising there are several different kinds of beans lima beans and black turtle bean of Puerto Rican fame with its amazing long white pods which are left to dry before picking out the beans. This one has a problem with fungus spots on the leaves. Over to the right there is a new bean Mrs. Barwick is trying and which looks very healthy it is rather like lima bean and is grown for its dried beans also in the direction is an edible member of the spinach family. It is easily grown and spread fast.
The tomatoes on the right or the path of a terrible disease which could be a fungus they have been sprayed without improvement so it is possible that he problem could be caused by a deficiency of calcium in the soil on the left is a new kind of edible spinach related to Celoses amaranth. All these beds are made of very good soil mixed with compost and chicken manure. The Zuccini like vine ia a loofah it can be eaten and tastes like a cross between cucumber and a zucchini but its more common use is to scrub ones back in the bath it has to be boiled and dried out firs to remove the skin and flesh and leave the abrasive skeleton.
At the bottom of the vegetable garden, there is a herb bed on the left containing Oregano and Bush (perpetual) Basil some thyme is grown higher up in front are some dwarf coconuts and turning left the walk continues past the sugar cane , with a Dombeya to the left this plant has large flowers like pink bails which should be attractive dried for the decoration to the right as the path leads past rock bottom is a hedge of the purple leaved Pseudo Eranthemum.
Up an earth path which should be cemented soon on the left is a pale blue plumbago and then the darker blue eranthemum Nervosa otherwise called blue sage which is a lovely color and flowers in the winter for quite a long period. On the right is the vine Lantana Montevidensis and a small pink flower which is probably Boleria but may have to be sent to Kew for positive identification.
The path branching back from the white painted house was named Momme Street by the gardeners, after the nickname of Mrs. Cox the housekeeper cook at government house who lives here and who gave Mrs. Barwick many cuttings from her own garden here.
Running along the back of the patio behind government house is china road set with shards of china which were dug up as the garden was made to the right can be seen several poinsettias left over form last Christmas which get more than a twelve hour photo period due to garden lights and demonstrative how this has inhibited their flowering though they have grown beautifully.
Next comes Lovers Lane named by the gardeners this was the first area which Mrs. Barwick tackled it was the refuse dump and it took her team two weeks to clear up all the bottles and cans.
Passing Guano Corner where the chickens roost in the Neem tree we come to the cherry pot named after the old cherry tree. This is a malphigia a Barbados cherry which has little pink flowers followed by cherry-looking fruit this is somewhat astringent to the taste but is one of the most highly concentrated sources of vitamin C in the world. The cherry tree was very diseased when Mrs. Barwick came here and she cut it right back and hope it may survive. A Thunbergia Grandiflora is growing on one of the neem trees. It is a lovely sight usually but in 1984 it was hit badly by Tropical Storm Klaus and never really recovered.
There are many plans for the continuing improvement of the gardens and the flight of stone steps leading down from the cherry pot are the latest project they go down through the Governor’s exercise area where he has been clearing every weekend for the past four years recently the boundary line was moved a bit farther away giving His Excellency even more scope this is known as the Guv’s garden.
At the end of the steps is Guava Tree Law, which was once the old terraced vegetable garden. Three terraces were merged here, but Mrs. Barwick wishes she had been able to do more and level it for entertaining.
The Guava tree is one of the larges on the Island. This border is after the English Tradition of herbaceous border, where different sorts of plants are put next to each other to act as foils and contrasts, as in an old tapestry.
The tour continues to the garden of Eden, which is dominated by splendid poui tree a tabeula know here as white cedar an probably the largest of its kind in the Caribbean it is our national emblem and was use for the building of our well known local boats it was planted seventy-five years ago by Frances de Castro and a group of young people under the of Mr. Fishlock.
A lot of work is planned for the area beyond where another terrace is to be put in and the pool area completed.
Lastly we come through Phylis Folly which Mrs. Bawick planted to cheer Phyllis Shirley who had to pass this way so often form the Governor’s office with all the bills Mrs. Barwick had run up during the making of this garden. On the left the white flowered shrub is a Portlandia a native of Jamaica opposite is a chenille or cats tail an acalypha then an Indian Datura otherwise known as Angels trumpet highly poisonous to the left is the red flowered Ixora or figme or the wood.
Coming out on to the drive, one sees the stately Norfolk pine or auceria form Norfolk Island in the Pacific the lights stay on it year-round and were still working even after tropical storm Klaus. This pine has grown almost ten feet in three years.
Government house was built at the end of the last century on the site of a fort built in 1796 or 9 during the French wars by the slaves of the Reverend Mr. Wynne, whose land this was the house originally had only two reception rooms on the ground floor and four bedrooms above in the wooden upper storey, which had covered galleries or balconies along three sides this upper floor was destroyed in the major hurricane of 1924 which did so much damage in this area at the height of the storm a two masted schooner, the fajardina carrying a cargo of contraband whiskhy under a load of charcoal bound for Puerto Rico was driven ashore and grounded on the area which is now the tennis court losing one of its in the wreck. In those days, the sea came right up the fence and a public road ran through the grounds. Until the land beyond was reclaimed and proper road built the Governor travelled on horseback or between islands on a cutter name the Lady Constance.
Before Government House was built the principal officer of the Virgin Islands lived either in his own residence, or one lease for the purpose As Monarch’s representative the various governors have several times entertained royalty and usually some improvements to the official residence are made at such times. In the early 60s there were a visit from her Majesty the Queen mother in 1966 there were several modifications made to Government house before her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II came to the island with Prince Philip, which was the first visit of a reigning monarch in 1972 HRH Princes Margaret stayed at Government House for five days. After painting a heart-rending picture of HRH having to fill her lavatory cistern with a bucket, the current Governor’s wife was allowed funding for several improvements including the covered terrace at the back, as well to the bathrooms, Prince Charles made a brief unofficial visit to Tortola the following year, and HM the Queen made another state visit in 1977, her jubilee year. As HM was unable to visit all the dependent Territories at that time, the heads of three neighbouring territories were invited to Tortola for the visit.
The archwag over the front door was put in about two years ago, with the petrea to the left and Bougainvillea on the right Petra leaves were once used as sandpaper by the islands boat builders.
Up the steps, (following a possible visit to the washrooms along the terrace to the left) one enters the hall, from here can be seen the drawing room which has redecorated last year by H.M. Government with the rest of the house. HM the Queen gave the Government the engraving of the view of Tortola on the left, a faithful representation of the islands at the end of the eighteenth century. The outer pictures hare were also donated. The carpet was specially woven in England for this room. Mrs. Barwick made the clowns herself, at the far end.
In the dining-room, Mrs. Barwick recently drew the murals in the form of windows looking out onto the view as it would have been 200 years ago having blocked in the murals, Mrs. Barwick invited anyone of artistic bent to contribute talents to the finished effect , though she herself claims they are still unfinished and that she will complete them before she leaves the island.
Finally it is time for an English of tea on the terrace-or pimms on the patio, if you prefer, before strolling back to the ship.