Bridgetown (Antigua)

Bridgetown Willoughby Bay (derelict)
Willoughby Bay
Coordinates	17 ° 2 '24 "  N , 61 ° 43' 35"  W Coordinates: 17 ° 2 '24 "  N , 61 ° 43' 35"  W.
Basic data
Country	Antigua and Barbuda
island	Antigua
Parish	St. Phillip
division	Willoughby Bay
founding	1675
Given up	after 1843
Founding date uncertain, abandoned after earthquake

Bridgetown , also called Willoughby Bay , is a derelict place on the Caribbean island of Antigua , in what is now the state of Antigua and Barbuda .

location

Bridgetown was in the southeast of the island. It was on the coast of Willoughby Bay , on the north shore, where the high plateau of the southeastern Antiguas peninsula breaks off in a steep step towards the sea.

history

Willoughby Bay is one of Antigua's natural harbors, protected by a reef bank with a passage, but shallow and relatively difficult to access, the terrain is steep, the inner bay, Christian Cove , is more extensive wetland. An English trading post was established here as early as 1675 or a few years later. This post was protected by Fort William to the east . The Anglican Church, St. Philip's Rectory , main church of the Parish of Saint Phillip , was at the top of what is now St. Phillips . Politically, the area belonged to the island's Willoughby Bay division .

The other ports like Falmouth , Parham or St. John's quickly became much more important. By 1750 Fort William was already in a desolate condition after hurricane damage, and was manned by only two men.

In 1820 the Methodists (now Methodist Church in the Caribbean and Americas ), who had been missionary in Antigua since the 1760s and from 1812 ran a school in what is now Bethesda , founded a congregation with a chapel.

After the abolition of slavery in 1834, a large part of the population moved to the free city of Freetown and also to Bethesda. The Methodists therefore moved their congregation to Bethesda in 1841, and also built a chapel in Freetown.

In the Great Antilles earthquake in 1843 , the settlement on Willoughby Bay was largely destroyed, and the rest of the colored residents migrated to Bethesda and Freetown. The Methodist pastor resided in Bridgetown for a while until the new Freetown Mission House was completed in 1847. In 1856 the place had only 17 buildings and 47 inhabitants. In the course of the following years the settlement was completely abandoned.

Today it is home to the Crossroads Center , an upscale drug rehabilitation center founded by musician Eric Clapton. The ruins of Fort William still exist.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b The} location of the place and the boundaries of the divisions can be found on the map of Antigua . Robert Baker, Thomas Jefferys , 1775 ( File: Antigua 1775.jpg )
2. ↑ Desmond Nicholson: Cultural heritage. Villages: Town Beginnings (At Settlement) . In: antiguahistory.net: Museum of Antigua and Barbuda. Susan Lowes, accessed March 22, 2014 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} cf. Plan of the Battery call'd Fort William, on the East side Willoughby Bay . Map. In: Kane William Horneck (Ed.): A report of the state of the fortifications in the Island of Antigua and particularly those of English Harbor in the said island in the year 1752 . [Antigua] 1752 ( Viewer , jcb.lunaimaging.com).
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Freetown and Walter Lawrence: Bethesda. Congregations . Methodist Church of Antigua & Barbuda, accessed on March 19, 2014 (English, further details also History: Part 3 The work takes shape ). 
5. ↑ Census 1856; according to The Report of the Registrar General of Births and Deaths of the Census taken November 17, 1856… Enclosure in No. 17. In: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (Ed.): Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons . Table No 5. Populations and Houses of the Towns and Villages, & c: Sain Phillips , S. 73 (K) ( Full view on GoogleBooks - Ordered to be printed 1858).
6. ^ Crossroads Center, Antigua (crossroadsantigua.org) ; → en: Crossroads Center ;
   the project is the concert series Crossroads Guitar Festival supports