Blanchisseuse

Blanchisseuse
Blanchisseuse
Coordinates	10 ° 47 ′  N , 61 ° 18 ′  W Coordinates: 10 ° 47 ′  N , 61 ° 18 ′  W
Basic data
Country	Trinidad and Tobago
region	Tunapuna-Piarco
Residents	519 (2011)
founding	circa 1783

Blanchisseuse is a place in Trinidad and Tobago .

location

Blanchisseuse is located on the north coast of the island of Trinidad in the Tunapuna-Piarco region , about 25 km north of Arima . The place is divided into the older Lower Blanchisseuse in the west and Upper Blanchisseuse in the east. Blanchisseuse is located at the foot of the Northern Range , a low mountain range that runs through the entire island of Trinidad in a west-east direction and drops quite steeply to the sea on the north coast. Blanchisseuse is particularly affected by coastal erosion . The Marianne River flows into the Caribbean Sea near the village .

history

Blanchisseuse was founded shortly after 1783 by the French, to whom the land had been assigned by the Spanish governor José María Chacón . The place was one of the first settlements of French settlers on Trinidad, who settled on Trinidad as part of the Cédula de Población , a decree of the Spanish king for the targeted settlement of the Spanish colony of Trinidad by the French. The place was given its current name after the British conquered Trinidad in 1797. As part of an expedition along the north coast, the British captain Frederick Mallet sighted the as yet nameless settlement and local women who did laundry in the nearby Marianne River in February 1797 . He noted this sighting on a card, and the place was named after this encounter - 'blanchisseuse' is the French word for 'washerwoman'. After this contact Blanchisseuse was forgotten and went into no British statistics to 1849, and almost 150 years, the place was reachable only by boat, in 1849 was made a connection to the coastal steamer that once a week between Port of Spain and Toco wrong .

The first person Blanchisseuse reached by land was the passionate mountaineer Charles Kingsley in 1869, who was staying on the island at the invitation of his friend Arthur Gordon , then governor of Trinidad. In 1872 a school was built in Blanchisseuse. In 1880 the place became the seat of a parish of the same name . Only in 1931, after a three-year construction period, was a narrow, winding road across the Northern Range to Arima completed, and at the end of the 1970s, the connection to the better-developed North Coast Road to Port of Spain was also made .

Economy and Transport

In Blanchisseuse there is still fishing, otherwise there is little income from tourism. Many wealthy townspeople have holiday homes in Blanchisseuse.

Attractions

Blanchisseuse has two beaches and there are several waterfalls in the vicinity. A suspension bridge with wooden planks leads into the village from the west. In the village itself there is a church bell from 1835 (kept outdoors). Between April and June, leatherback turtles visit the beaches of Blanchisseuse to lay their eggs.

Others

In Blanchisseuse there is a 10 hectare settlement area of ​​the Caribs donated by the government .

Solomon Hochoy , the last British governor of Trinidad and first governor-general after Trinidad's independence, spent his childhood and youth as well as the last years of his life in Blanchisseuse.

gallery

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  Old suspension bridge at the entrance to the village

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  Church with an old church bell

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  graveyard

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  Mouth of the Marianne River

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  Supermarket

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  Surfer's Beach

Web links

• The suspension bridge of Blanchisseuse

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Radhica De Silva: Coastal erosion is transforming T & T's landscape . In: Trinidad Guardian . January 27, 2019.
2. ^ Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago
3. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 63 .
4. ^ ^{A b} Michael Anthony: Towns and Villages of Trinidad and Tobago. Printmaster, p. L. 2001, ISBN 0-00-976806-8 , p. 17.
5. ↑ Blanchisseuse must not be forgotten
6. ↑ Evelin Seeliger-Mander: Trinidad and Tobago. (The Complete Vacation Guide for the Southern Antilles Islands). 3rd, completely updated edition. Reise-Know-How-Verlag Rump, Bielefeld 2004, ISBN 3-8317-1266-2 , p. 234.
7. ↑ tntpangola.com
8. ↑ 25 acres of land for indigenous people