Princes Town (Trinidad and Tobago)

Princes Town
Princes Town
Coordinates	10 ° 16 ′  N , 61 ° 22 ′  W Coordinates: 10 ° 16 ′  N , 61 ° 22 ′  W
Basic data
Country	Trinidad and Tobago
region	Princes Town
height	69 m
Residents	12,000 (1997)
founding	1687
Post Code	85xxxx
Telephone code	+868

Princes Town is a city on the island of Trinidad . It is the seat of the administrative unit of Princes Town and is located in the southwestern part of the island, about 50 kilometers south of the capital Port of Spain and about ten kilometers east of the coastal city of San Fernando . In 1997 the population was around 12,000.

history

Spanish monks of the Capuchin order built a mission station in 1687 in what is now the city. The mission was called La Mission de Savana Grande . Settlers settled around the station.

On March 5, 1859, a railway line was opened from Kings Wharf in San Fernando, which had been built as a shipyard and port in 1817, to the mission. The railroad was supposed to transport agricultural produce from southwest Trinidad, historically known as the Naparimas , such as sugar cane , to the port. Until 1920 the railway line ran under the name Cipero Tramroad when it was taken over by the Trinidad Government Railway. From 1884 the line was also used regularly for passengers, mostly plantation workers.

The HMS Bacchante on December 1st, 1880, painting by William Frederick Mitchell

The renaming of the place in Princes Town was carried out by an event on January 17, 1880. In the San Fernando anchored HMS Baccante , a battleship of the Royal Navy . The ship was on a three-year trip around the world from 1879 to 1882, on board Princes George and Albert Victor , sons of the future King Edward VII and grandsons of Queen Victoria . While going ashore, at the crossroads that Walter Raleigh had passed on his journey to the Caroni River in 1595 , in the courtyard of the Anglican Church of St. Stephen's, the two princes each planted a yellow-flowering trumpet tree ( poui tree ) of the genus Tabebuia . The place was renamed in honor of the two princes. The trees are still standing today.

In February 1884, the revolts of freed slaves, known as the Canboulay Riots, spread to Princes Town. The British police tried to stop carnival music by force.

climate

Princes Town
Climate diagram
J F. M. A. M. J J A. S. O N D.     90   29 20th     47   29 20th     49   30th 21st     60   31 22nd     105   31 23     209   30th 22nd     217   30th 22nd     243   30th 22nd     173   31 22nd     159   31 22nd     209   30th 22nd     158   30th 21st Temperature in ° C ,  precipitation in mm Source: Princes Towns weather data on de.climate-data.org

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Princes Town Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Max. Temperature ( ° C ) 29.0 29.4 29.9 30.8 30.7 30.0 29.8 30.3 30.8 30.6 30.2 29.5 O 30.1 Min. Temperature (° C) 20.4 20.2 20.6 21.5 22.5 22.4 22.1 22.0 22.2 22.1 21.7 20.9 O 21.6 Temperature (° C) 24.7 24.8 25.2 26.1 26.6 26.2 25.9 26.1 26.5 26.3 25.9 25.2 O 25.8 Precipitation ( mm ) 90 47 49 60 105 209 217 243 173 159 209 158 Σ 1,719 Source: Princes Towns weather data on de.climate-data.org

Intersection in Princes Town, 2016

politics

Princes Town is one of 41 constituencies in elections for the House of Representatives . In the elections on September 7, 2015, Barry Padarath of the United National Congress (UNC) was elected for Princes Town as the successor to Nela Khan (UNC), who had not been elected by their party.

Culture

A public library is located on the High Street. Princes Town had a movie theater called Globe Cinema on Railway Road, but it closed in the early 2000s.

traffic

There are buses and taxis. After Mayaro about San Fernando there are maxi taxis called mini buses. They can be recognized by a black stripe on the paintwork.

Education and health

In addition to several primary schools, there are also secondary schools in Princes Town . The Anglican St Stephen's College , named after St. Stephen , was founded in 1943 by Herbert clergy Bindley-Taylor and 1958, recognized by the state. To the west of the city is the Princes Town West Secondary School , which was called Princes Town Senior Comprehensive until 2009 and has one building for the younger ( junior ) and one for the older ( senior ) students. The Princes Town West Secondary School football team plays in the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL).

Princes Town has a hospital with the Princes Town District Health Facility on Circular Road.

Personalities

sons and daughters of the town

• Joseph A. (Joe) Small (1892–1958), cricketer, national player from 1928 to 1930
• Prior Jones (1917–1991), cricketer, national player from 1947 to 1952
• Mighty Spoiler (1926–1960), actually Theophilus Philip , calypso singer
• Yolande Pompey (1929-1979), boxer
• Basdeo Panday (* 1933), politician, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago from 1995 to 2001
• Robin Singh (* 1963), cricketer, national player for India from 1998 to 2001
• Andrei Pacheco (* 1984), football player
• Shahdon Winchester (born 1992), football player

Personalities who have worked on site

• Percy Cox (* 1878 at Foster Hall Plantation, Saint Joseph , Barbados , † 1918 in Princes Town), cricketer, national player 1896 to 1906

See also

• List of cities in Trinidad and Tobago

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Michael Anthony: Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago . Scarecrow Press, London 1997, ISBN 0-8108-3173-2 , pp. 458 .
2. ↑ The history of rail traffic in Trinidad ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
3. ↑ The official travelogue dates the event to January 17th, 1880. Later reports mention January 20th, 1880 when the princes were on their way back from a visit to the mud volcano Devil's Woodyard. According to other sources, they planted the trees on January 20, 1880, on their way back from a visit to Pitch Lake at La Brea , which is an asphalt lake . According to St. Stephen's Church, the trees were planted on January 22, 1880.
4. ↑ In sources later than the royal travelogue, Port of Spain is mentioned instead of San Fernando.
5. ^ John Neale Dalton: The Cruise of HMS "BACCHANTE" . Macmillan, London 1886.
6. ^ Princes Town marks 131 years . Article by Kevon Felmine of January 22, 2011 in the daily newspaper Trinidad and Tobago Guardian (English)
7. ↑ Canboulay Riots. South's Can boulay riots hotter than North’s . Article by Michael Anthony from March 4, 1984
8. ↑ Barry Padarath on the website of the parliament (English)
9. ↑ History of St. Stephen's College (English)