Bermuda's Pembroke Parish

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Bermuda's Pembroke Parish

Exploring this central county which includes Bermuda's capital city

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Accommodation

Recommended hotels are shown in bold. Some have the facilities shown by the following symbols. Hotels shown with 5-2 Stars reflect the symbols shown on Expedia.com.

Symbols

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Introduction

About the Parish

Pembroke Parish is centrally located on Main Island. It is one of Bermuda's nine Parishes each of the same size of 2.0355 square miles. It has North Shore and Hamilton Harbor sea frontage.

It was named after Bermuda's Elizabethan patron, English aristocrat William Herbert, the (third) Earl of Pembroke (1580-1630).

Pembroke was the nephew of Sir Philip Sydney and richest peer in England. He took his title from the market town of Pembroke in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

He was the patron of artists like John Dunne, Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson. Dramatist William Shakespeare knew him well and dedicated his first folio printing of his collected works to Pembroke and his brother.

The Earl was banished from the Court of Queen Elizabeth when she heard he had romantic interests elsewhere. Brought back into favor by King James, he was made a Knight of the Garter within a year. He joined the Council of the Virginia Company in 1609 and the Bermuda Company in 1615.

As one of its illustrious band of gentlemen "Adventurers" he was the largest shareholder in the original Pembroke Tribe, later Pembroke Parish.

Weak in health and melancholy, he died in 1630 of an apoplexy brought on by a full and cheerful supper. He was succeeded in the title by Philip, 4th Earl of Pembroke.

Because he never visited his Bermuda domain, early settlers in this area had their own pet name for the Tribe - Spanish Point. It was in memory of the Spanish sailor Ramirez.

The Bermuda Historical Society has a painting, a print of his likeness, published by Harding, Triphook & Lepard, Finsbury Square, London, on August 1, 1825. It is from an engraving by J. Jenkins, from the original by Vandyke, in the collection of the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Pembroke. It once hung at Bramshill, Hampshire, until sold to Lord Brocket on 9th April 1937. It was subsequently sold by him at Sotheby's in London on 16th July 1952.

It was acquired in London in 1953 by the Bermuda Historical Monuments Trust. It appears that this painting which once hung at Bramshill was once much wider than the 93 inches high and 56 inches wide painting sold by Lord Brocket.

A Bermuda-placed handwritten inscription notes Pembroke was perhaps the "W. H." of the Sonnets of Shakespeare; that The First Folio of Shakespeare was dedicated to him and his brothers; and that he had extensive interests in Virginia, Bermuda, New England, Newfoundland and Barbados.

Today, Spanish Point is a separate area of the Parish. It is the part of the Parish most distant from the city (about 2.5 miles) yet well worth visiting for its beach areas, parks and marine views north and west.

The city of Hamilton, Bermuda's capital, is in Pembroke Parish, but its sightseeing attractions are covered separately.

The map to the right shows the ferry service from the city going to the most western parish as well as the closer parishes.

Constituencies

Admiralty House Park

	Eastern Spanish Point off the North Shore, less than two miles from the city of Hamilton, with free admission, open until sunset. Bus route # 4 (Hamilton to Spanish Point) has a stop just outside the main gate to Admiralty House Park, a 3 zone ride from the city. Pretty, well worth seeing but beware of possible users of illegal narcotics - Bermuda has a serious problem here - known to frequenting this area. Access it via the green painted gate. Just before the main building is a path to the sea. The scenic beach site is Clarence Cove, all that remains of the extensive property once known as Clarence House. It was named after the Duke of Clarence (William Henry, born August 21, 1765, died June 20, 1837) later, King William IV of Great Britain. He was the 3rd son of King George III and younger brother of and successor to King George IV. During his youth, he served in the Royal Navy and was known as the Sailor King. He had two legitimate children, Princess Charlotte and Princess Elizabeth, both of whom died as infants.
	He also had 10 illegitimate children by his former mistress, the actress Dora Jordan (first courted in 1790). They included George FitzClarence, 1st Earl of Munster. There is a portrait of Mrs. Jordan by Sir Thomas Lawrence, now at Buckingham Palace. He was succeeded on the throne of Great Britain by his niece Queen Victoria. Here at Admiralty House's Clarence Cove, flora is lush, ocean views are magnificent and swimming from two Clarence Cove beaches is glorious. (Facilities include a historic area, nature trail, park, and hiking trails (but no toilet). From it, nature trails lead off to the left for sea views, endemic plants and shrubbery. The property was once the Headquarters for the Americas and Atlantic of the Royal Navy, with an Admiral in residence. It was a gift from the Bermuda Government to the Royal Navy in 1814 (some say 1816). In 1822, following its purchase in 1814-16, the St. John's Hill property, bought by the government for £3,000 and made over as a gift to the Crown, was renamed Admiralty House. Its location was changed from St. John's Hill to Clarence Hill, in honor of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence. (It is now St. John's Hill again). A side street was named Clarence Avenue. Clarence Cove (originally Abbott's Bay, after Sir Maurice Abbott, Governor of the East India Company) is the property's beach (now public). It was when the Navy and British Army were the mainstays of the economy. For a brief period from 1813 - until the Navy built another elsewhere, the property was a Royal Naval hospital. Just off the bigger beach there's a historic 1813 grave often defaced by vandals and now restored of 16-year Royal Navy midshipman, Charles Francillon, of the Royal Navy ship HMS Spartan. He died from phthisis, a form of tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease of the time, on April 18, 1813 - during the 1812 to 1814 War. Francillon was born in Harwich (then in Essex, England), the fourth son of Francis Francillon of Harwich, a Purser in the Royal Navy. He was 15 years old when he joined the ship as a First Class Volunteer, a rank created in 1794. It was a first step for boys, who later became Midshipmen, then Lieutenants. He was a patient of the Royal Naval Hospital here - much later, Admiralty House - when he died.
	The letters D. D. appear beside his name, which mean he was "Discharged Dead". He probably received the posthumous rank of Midshipman while still technically a First Class Volunteer. His ship enjoyed a longer life. On May 1, 1810 she and HMS Success chased a French squadron of six ships into Naples Harbour, Italy. In 1812 she had cruised Bermuda and American waters in hope of engaging the enemy - privateer ships of the USA. In that encounter, she acquitted herself nobly, but ten crew were killed, with 22 wounded including her captain. She was a Fifth Rate, with 100 guns, with 30-50 guns on a single continuous deck. She had a speed of 15 knots and a crew of about 300. In July 1812, after Francillon was put ashore to die, she captured five American privateers. She took part in the attack on Washington, DC when British naval forces under Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn - later, a Governor of Bermuda - sailed from Britain to Bermuda and in a 24-hour period from August 24, 1812 destroyed the Capitol including the Senate and House of Representatives, the White House and other prominent buildings.

She went back to Britain in 1813 but was back in active service in the Mediterranean in 1814. She was known to be in Madeira, then Dominica (the island in the Leewards), Vera Cruz, Jamaica, Barbados and Halifax. She returned to England in July 1820. She made one more visit to the USA and brought spice back from New York before being paid off in 1821. She was broken up at Plymouth in 1822.

In 1814, the Royal Navy assembled a vast fleet here which had earlier sailed from England. The fleet sailed from here to attack and burn Washington, DC in retribution for the burning by the USA of Yorktown (now Toronto) in Canada.

There is a pier on the ocean by Clarence Cove. The views from the cave entrances facing the sea are extraordinary. To enjoy Clarence Cove best, visit when schools are in session. Or in the months of October through March, when most Bermudians consider the sea temperature too cold to swim. The area is wonderful for a picnic and swim in shallow and deep waters. See shady trees growing off the beach of the gorgeous lagoon. Not far away is the man-made "Admiral's Cave." It is worth exploring and eerie. Watch where you put your feet. It was built in the 1860's by an English convicts chain gang, diverted from building the Royal Naval Dockyard in Sandys Parish. It was on the order of the Admiral of the day who had a secret rendezvous with a lady and figured a tunnel (at the entrance of the property, just over the wall from the bus stop) would provide her with discreet access.

It was also a place to land naval stores and also as a subterranean shelter for his barge.

From the 1860s to the early 1950s a Royal Navy Admiral lived here, complete with staff as Bermuda was the headquarters of a Royal Navy fleet that stretched from the Caribbean 1,000 miles to the south and southwest, South Atlantic and north to Canada. After World War 1, during the time of Admiral Morgan Singer, RN, the house had about eight staff from the Royal Navy's lower ranks, plus a housekeeper. See http://www.maritimequest.com/misc_pages/john_w_bradley_collection_page_6.htm. The property very busy during World War 2 as a Royal Navy signal center. Its Naval Intelligence staff encoded and decoded messages from convoys sailing between the United Kingdom and the USA, and ships torpedoed at sea by German submarines and needing rescue services provided by the Royal Navy from Bermuda. They also sent signals directing attacking aircraft to proceed to where U boats were sighted. The property was handed back more than 150 years later. In the 1960s, the property served as the office, Signals facility and firing range of the Bermuda Regiment. Today, all that's left of the building that once housed the Admiral and considerable office staff is the old Ballroom, now a community center, and - since 2002 - a much-improved upper level car and cycle park. But graceful old lawns, trees, shrubs in the garden in front of the Ballroom, live on from yesteryear.

Bacardi International Building

World headquarters. Pitt's Bay Road, Pembroke. P. O. Box HM 720, Hamilton HM CX. Phone 298-1060. Fax 296-2468. World's largest rum maker. Founded in Cuba in 1862 by Don Facundo Bacardi y Maso. It prospered for years with its secret rum recipe. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Bacardi gave the world the Cuba Libre and the Daiquiri. But Fidel Castro took control in 1959 and nationalized the plant and assets without compensation. The founder's descendents exiled themselves and began afresh. The Bermuda building was designed by Mies van der Rohe. Major businesses are Bacardi International Limited and Bacardi Capital Limited. Between them, they oversee the worldwide (outside USA) marketing of much of the group's international financial affairs and bulk transportation. They also market Martini and Rossi vermouth; Asti sparkling wine - which they bought in 1993; Bombay Sapphire Gin from England, Dewars Whisky from Scotland and New Zealand vodka and gin producer 42 Below. The private Bacardi companies do not disclose financial results. There is also a large office in Miami, Florida.

Barr's Bay and Barr's Park

Bermuda Forts

Bermuda National Parks

Bermuda Plant Nursery

Pitts Bay Road. Telephone 295-5157. A facility for residents and visitors, with plants for sale year-round and imported Christmas trees in December.

Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI)

Near there is a statue by Bermudian sculptor Desmond Fountain to Johnny Barnes, a remarkable Bermudian senior citizen, who has made it a tradition for decades of waving a cheery "Good morning" - in all weather - to commuters exiting the parish to work in or near the City of Hamilton. It was funded by Andrew Banks, a philanthropist actively involved with the Jewish community, an American producer, who has been recognized publicly for donations to the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute.

Bermudiana Road

Bernard Park

Black Watch Pass and Well

It was excavated as part of a major scheme of the 1920s and early 1930s, approved by the House of Assembly as "The Marsh Reclamation Act, 1925", later apparently dubbed "The Marsh Folly" for a number of reasons.

The Bermuda Government, to provide some employment, decided to finally overcome a transportation problem that had existed for decades. It involved horses - then the principal beast of burden in Bermuda - that pulled wagons carrying supplies. The horses had to be led over the steep North Shore cliffs.

When laden with the wagons, they could not make the gradient. The Bermuda Government's Public Works Department, supplemented by hundreds from the ranks of the unemployed, cut through the cliff to create a level route to the North Shore Road. When completed in 1934, workers had excavated 2.5 million cubic feet of solid limestone rock. Much of this went into what was then the much larger marsh nearby, to create a more level surface for the sports facilities that exist today at nearby Bernard's Park. The Pass links Palmetto Road with the North Shore Road, a short distance from the city of Hamilton. Motor and pedestrian traffic use it regularly. To find it, drive out of the City of Hamilton along Cedar Avenue and bear right on Marsh Folly Road at the traffic light. Black Watch Pass is the second turning on the left.

It is named after the Black Watch Well, located at the end of Black Watch Pass, at the junction with the North Shore Road. The Well was dug by members of the famous Scottish regiment, the Black Watch of the Royal Highlanders, a battalion of which was assigned to Bermuda for military duties in 1849. When the Governor of the period ordered British soldiers based in Bermuda at the time to seek a fresh water supply "for the poor of Pembroke Parish and their cattle" during a prolonged drought that year, the Black Watch was the first of the regiments to volunteer to dig the well. Its members did it so thoroughly that the facility still exists today. Bus route 11, on the city of Hamilton to Town of St. George and back run, serves the pass and well, with a stop near the well, almost at the end of the pass.

Once, the Black Watch Well was a major stopping point on the tourist itinerary. Some years ago it was capped with a huge slab of faceless concrete, no more to be seen by visitor or resident alike. Since then, the pergola over the Well and the sign explaining its meaning have slowly been yielding to the rigors of sun, wind and rain. Bermuda now has very few reminders left of its once-proud British military past.

Black Wood Pond

It separates the Point Shares peninsula from the rest of Fairylands and bounded on the north by one of the oldest bridges in Bermuda. The names is understood to derive from Black Mangrove trees, Avicennia nitada, common along the borders of saltwater lagoons and swamps. The wood is hard, heavy and dark brown, black when wet.

Bluck's Point

A long, narrow peninsula curving into the Great Sound south of Spanish Point. It was originally Oxford Point, after a gracious old Bermuda home, Oxford, still there, once owned by 17th century Bermudian merchant, Thomas Oxford. When the house was acquired by John Bluck, the point was re-named. In 1856, men of the 3rd Company of the 56th bivouacked at the Oxford home of Mr. Bluck, in hope of escaping the disease, at the order of Bermudian physician Dr. Harvey. They were lucky enough to escape the disease-carrying mosquito.

Bus routes

Butterfield Nature Reserve

In Point Shares, a small but beautiful reserve open to the public. It and its smaller neighbor the Butterfield South Nature Reserve were both donated to the Bermuda National Trust by local philanthropist Dudley Butterfield.

Clarence Cove

Deep Bay

Ducking Stool Park

Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel

Fairylands

An up-market and exclusive residential area west of Pitt's Bay Road, covering the two peninsulas of Mill Shares and Point Shares, with many winding and narrow byways, some with lovely views of the ocean and islands in the parish. Roads include Fairyland Court, Fairyland Lane and Fairyland Road. Wetland areas include Fairyland Creek and Mill Creek. The area takes its name from Celtic mythology and dates back to when better-off merchants, establishing their business in the City of Hamilton, wanted to have their homes nearby, in a lovely and quiet area near the ocean. In 2011, in hope it will help reduce crimes such as burglaries, it was the first place in Bermuda to introduce a Neighborhood Watch. Burglars have repeatedly struck the area. Thousands of dollars worth of property has been stolen with many of the break-ins taking place while residents are sleeping. Residents have already added locks and bars to their windows and dead bolts to their doors. About 50 of them got together to establish their Neighbourhood Watch. Areas robbed include Fairyland Road, Timber Lane, Mill Shares Road and more. Neighbourhood Watch signs are now up on lampposts in the Fairylands area and residents cut back trees and hedges so there are fewer places to hide. Residents want a fence put up to stop the Mills Creek boat yard being used as an escape route. Plans to make the area a gated community are in progress. Detectives appeal for anyone with any information about any burglaries in the Fairylands area to contact the Hamilton Criminal Investigation Unit on 295-0011. The public is also reminded to report any suspicious vehicles, activities or individuals in their neighborhoods and that receiving stolen property is an offence punishable under the law.

Ferry stops

Fort Hamilton

A central fort, a 10-acre property, with a park. Just northeast of the city of Hamilton, at 6 Happy Valley Road. Open from 9:30 am to 5.00 pm. Admission is free. The entrance to the fort is on the right. Bear right, immediately after the entrance. From the ramparts, see all Hamilton Harbor, city of Hamilton, the Great Sound - and even the South Shore ocean. The imposing structure includes the moat, 18 ton guns and underground passageways.It was ordered by the Duke of Wellington and designed to repel any attack on the city of Hamilton and its environs. It was completed in the 1870's out of solid rock by the British Army's Royal Engineers. At that time and for the next two decades, it was fully manned, bristling with long range guns operated by detachments of the British Army's Royal Artillery. Those were the days when Bermuda had a full garrison of British Army regulars. The country then considered most likely to invade Bermuda was the USA. But the fort, outdated before completion, never fired a shot in anger. Its former subterranean military walkways are now lovely moat gardens lined with tall bamboo's, other fine shrubs and flora - a botanist's paradise.

The staircase leading from the moat gardens to the upper level, to access the ramparts, is steep, with many steps. But your reward will be grassy areas superb as places for picnics. Periodically, the Corporation of Hamilton sponsors an exhibition of drumming and dancing by the kilted Bermuda Isles Pipe Band. It performs a distinctive skirling ceremony on the fort's green every Monday at noon.

George Ogden, who retired in mid 2001 from the Corporation of Hamilton, was the man most responsible for creating first a park from an old set of fortress ramparts, magazine tunnels and gun emplacements. He arrived in Bermuda in 1962 with a diploma in horticulture from the Royal Horticultural Society in Wisley, Surrey. He found that the 40-foot moat had become a dumping ground. But today, allspice, palmetto, lots of ground cover plants that tolerate shade, ferns, bamboos and imported orchids now populate the moat. The area is a place of serenity and cool escape. The only drawback is that the fort is for able people only, not the disabled.

Not well known by the public is that Fort Hamilton before and after World War 2, was used to accommodate Portuguese men imported from San Miguel and other islands of the Azores as laborers to do the agricultural or otherwise manual work Bermudians black or white and other non-Bermudians would not do. Thirteen Portuguese men at a time lived here. When they came to Bermuda they were required to agree to a contract that among other things stipulated a minimum of three years of service and an acknowledgement that they would not bring their wives or family for seven years. But this policy was by no means confined to the imported Portuguese from the Azores who were indentured laborers living at the fort. It had applied for years past to other Portuguese from the Azores housed elsewhere in Bermuda as well. It is believed some continued to be housed at Fort Hamilton until the 1960s when the fort was purchased by the Corporation of Hamilton. Some will say that what these Portuguese had in Bermuda was far better than the conditions they left in the Azores. Many had very little education. But in Bermuda, they were very hard workers, dependable and took very little time off. Many were grateful, despite the family deprivations, for regular work with a regular pay packet much of which they sent home or saved. The City of Hamilton was one of the many organizations in Bermuda that benefited immeasurably from their services - and still does so.

Golf Courses

Government House

11 Langton Hill, Pembroke HM 13. Telephone 441 292-1271. Governor's Office Fax 441 292 2256. Deputy Governor's Office phone 441 292 3600, fax 441 295-3843. This imposing mansion, the largest single building in Bermuda by far, and occupying more acreage in Bermuda than any other single building by far, is actually the 5th, not the first, Government House. Previous Government House premises were

Sits by itself on a hill on the northern outskirts of the City of Hamilton. Not a Government administration building but the official residence - the home - of the British Governor of Bermuda, Sir Richard Gozney, who represents Queen Elizabeth II and is appointed to a 4-year term of office, sometimes extended, by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, England.

The Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda is appointed by The Queen (on the advice of the British Government in London) after consultation with the Premier of Bermuda.

The new Governor of Bermuda from May 2012 is George Fergusson - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Fergusson_(diplomat) - 56 in 2012, who was assaulted in Hammersmith, London, during the evening of April 20, 2012 and was hospitalized. He lost the sight of his left eye resulting from the attack. His wife is Margaret. The married father-of-three was walking in Margravine Cemetery, close to The Queen's Club – the tennis club whose members include the Duchess of Cambridge, when he was attacked. It is understood he was late for a dinner party where his wife Margaret was waiting, when he took a short cut through the cemetery. He was allegedly punched to the ground after getting out his BlackBerry mobile phone to check the address of his hosts. Scotland Yard said a "small quantity" of cash was taken and, at this early stage, officers were satisfied that robbery was the only motive. They have yet to make any arrests and say inquires are continuing. The robber was black, aged between 25 and 35, and around 5ft 10 ins. He was wearing a dark hooded top and dark glasses. Mr Fergusson, who was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford, managed to keep hold of his mobile phone and after the incident, called his wife to tell him he was going to be late before walking to Charing Cross hospital for help. Previously a former British High Commissioner to New Zealand and Samoa, Mr Fergusson, of Lambeth, London until his move to Bermuda, has also worked in the Soviet Department, which became the Eastern Department of the Foreign Office after the collapse of Communist Russia, and in London. Mr Fergusson, whose wife works for the British Council, also spent four years as Consul-General in Boston before being seconded in 2003 to the UK Cabinet Office as head of the foreign policy team. His career as a diplomat has also included time in Northern Ireland, Ireland, South Korea and the Pitcairn Islands. His father, Baron Ballantrae, was the last British-born Governor-General of New Zealand and served in that role between 1962 and 1967. Mr Fergusson was born abroad while his father served abroad as a senior soldier. His grandfather had also been governor-general of New Zealand and two of his great grandfathers were its governors when it was a colony. According to the Daily Mail newspaper in the UK, his family history has been plagued by tragedy: his mother was killed when winds blew a tree onto her car, his father died from a stroke and his 20-year-old son Alexander died after being hit by a taxi while pushing his bicycle across a bus lane. One of his middle names is Raukawa, a Maori word in recognition of the family's long association with the country.

Governor from May 2012, George Fergusson, photographed in London before his departure to Bermuda

The Governor of Bermuda from December 2007 to May 2012 was career diplomat Sir Richard Gozney, former British High Commissioner in Nigeria. His wife is Lady Gozney.

His Excellency the Governor has his own Flag of Office. It is a Union Jack but in its center it has the Bermuda arms on a white disc encircled by a green garland. Uniforms for the Governor are made in London by Davies & Sons. They include a full dress blue and tropical cotton drill. It is based on old British military Field Marshals, with a white pith helmet with dyed scarlet swan's feathers plumage and Mameluke sword by Wilkinson Sword. The price of about $10,000 is met by the British Government. The official car used by the Governor features a crown instead of a license plate, with extra large width, length and horsepower by Bermuda standards and the Governor's Flag.

The main challenge for a Bermuda Governor is to balance two sometimes contradictory functions. First, he is the primary source of information from Bermuda to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on the state of affairs in Bermuda. Second, he is the voice of the United Kingdom and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for advising Bermudians what they can and cannot do under British/United Kingdom laws. The salaries of the Governor, Deputy Governor and their staff are paid by Bermuda's taxpayers, NOT the British Government. Bermuda, despite its tiny size, is wealthy enough not to need the support from the United Kingdom some other overseas territories get.

The duties of the Deputy Governor include being an ex-officio notary public who can perform or notarize anything on behalf of the Bermuda Government but may not receive a fee for this service.

The Governor and Deputy Governor have direct access to security advice in Washington DC and London from senior British representatives.

One of the functions of the British Governor is to read the Throne Speech. In Britain, the Queen reads the speech and in British Commonwealth countries, Governors or Governors General do.

The Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to the Governor is a Bermuda Regiment officer. He used to be a British Army officer on a secondment of about 2 years but this was stopped after both the Governor and his ADC - Captain Hugh Sayers, Welsh Guards - were assassinated in March 1973 while walking in the grounds of Government House. The ADC is the equivalent of an Equerry in the UK.

By appointment, Bermudians awarded New Year or Queen's Birthday Honors may elect to receive their awards from His Excellency the Governor at Government House in Bermuda instead of going to Buckingham Palace in London.

Bermuda is externally an overseas territory of the United Kingdom and is administered by the British Government in the UK, via the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. But it has been self-governing for centuries. (It makes all its own local laws). When a private residence, it was known as Mount Langton. The huge property, the size of a large English mansion, in early Victorian architectural style and with by far the largest amount of acreage - more than 210 acres - of any dwelling house or commercial property in Bermuda, was originally much smaller. Completed in 1892 as Government House, it was designed by the Scottish architect William Hay. He was staying at the time in Bermuda with his sister and Bermudian brother in law. His prominent Edinburgh based architectural firm also designed the Bermuda (Anglican) Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity in the City of Hamilton.

In 1999, the Ministry of Works and Engineering of the Bermuda Government undertook such complete internal and external renovations that the Governor had to move, for many months. The Government got rid of some tenants who were not paying rent - bees. Hundreds of pounds of honey were discovered on the second level of the house. Wiring, plumbing and windows galore were replaced in the huge structure.

An Olympic-size swimming pool is at the back of the mansion. The surrounding gardens, 33 acres, are normally closed completely to the public and open only on special occasions. It is because of a 1973 double assassination in Bermuda, on March 10, of Bermuda Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide Captain Hugh Sayers, at Government House while walking a dog. (It was only a year after Bermuda's British Commissioner of Police was also assassinated, again by Black Cadre thugs). They were buried in the graveyard at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. A State of Emergency was called and Scotland Yard detectives were summoned. Later, the killer was tried and executed. The execution caused mass riots, strikes, malicious damage and injuries to policemen. (Much later, the Sharples family came to live in Bermuda, for UK tax avoidance purposes).

In 1940, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor stayed here for a week before a Canadian Ladyboat left Hamilton to take the Duke as Governor of the Bahamas. On special occasions, visitors see stately rooms with collections of furniture and paintings, some on loan, and a rare opportunity to see the Queen's Apartments occupied on several occasions by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, The Duke of Edinburgh, His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal (she stayed for three nights in October 1999) and other visiting VIPs. Her Royal Highness the late Princess Margaret also stayed here several times, the first when she presented the newly-formed Bermuda Regiment with its Colours in 1965. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, born in Odense, Denmark on June 20 1946, visited Bermuda and stayed here in mid-March 2003. Her husband is HRH Prince William of Gloucester, a first cousin of the Queen.

The attractive garden is the site of the Garden Party hosted by the Governor every Queen's Birthday public holiday in June. The more than 300 trees at Government House are a living tapestry of historical events, offering an unlikely insight into periods of political upheaval and change. Two palms, planted by President John F. Kennedy and Prime Minister Harold Macmillan during their visit in 1961, recall the dangers of the Cold War and the impending Cuban Missile Crisis while a sturdy Bermuda cedar planted by Sir Winston Churchill commemorates his wartime visit in 1942 to thank Bermudians for supporting the establishment of American bases on the island. Committed to a reforestation programme, Lady Vereker has overseen the planting of hundreds of cedar, palmetto, Bermuda olivewood, palms, snowberry and southern hackberry over the last five years. The gardens and their adjacent endemic and native forests are home to a large number of birds and monarch butterflies. A year after she and Sir John arrived in Bermuda, more than 900 trees and shrubs were lost in Hurricane Fabian. They included many shrubs, just about every citrus tree, the entire banana plantation and hundreds of Chinese palms, fiddlewood, spice trees, all the frangipani, most rose bushes, young cedars and all that was anywhere near a casuarina. Some 60 trees were propped up in an effort to save them. But Fabian also helped remove the invasive casuarinas lining the North Shore boundary, that up to that point had been encroaching on the endemic trees. A mango tree planted by the future George V in 1880 remained unscathed, as did over 200 trees planted by distinguished guests including a cedar planted by Churchill’s daughter Lady Soames in 2003 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Churchill, Eisenhower and Laniel Summit: There was no shortage of guests after Fabian to contribute to the replanting effort with Prince Edward planting a Bermuda olivewood, as well as former British Cabinet Minister Lord Heseltine, who planted a calabash tree. Other trees include two Bermuda palmettos planted by Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife in the palm grove. While clearing invasive species, staff uncovered several treasures, including a hooded and smiling bronze monk’s face set into a stone wall in a charming stone quarry garden. Featuring Bermuda limestone, several of these walled gardens have since been discovered, including a “secret” citrus grove. Lady Vereker points to a palm planted by Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and says she opens the garden by appointment to Rastafarians who wish to worship at this tree. A stone bench has been placed in the spot for precisely this. Various organizations also have connections to Government House and its gardens, including the Bermuda Girl Guides who hold camps on the grounds every year and recently buried a time capsule near the slat house. The Audubon Society, who helped replant more than 80 trees to mark the 50th anniversary of the society, also help maintain the bluebird trail in the grounds. The society also hosts bluebird workshops on the grounds every year: “It has become a yearly tradition. Whole families come and make bluebird boxes. Every year we produce about 60 to 80 new boxes and the children have the opportunity to see lots of bluebirds.” In addition to bluebirds, cardinals, chicks-of-the-village, European goldfinches and warblers all visit the gardens. A night heron makes itself at home near the swimming pool. Plans are afoot to renovate the stables and use them as a venue for horticultural workshops for the Department of Parks and their staff.

Photographs taken exclusively for Bermuda Online by author Keith Archibald Forbes

Islands in the Parish

Jubilee Park

Parsons Road. Well off the typical tourism route but worth seeing. After the Transport Control Department on North Street, go east. From here, see stretches of view of the Pembroke Canal. Also with one space of parking for the disabled, children's playground and picnic area with benches. Originally opened to the public in 2002 to honour the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. In late 2007 it got a facelift from the Corporation of Hamilton which acquired it and created an area of recreation and relaxation just in time for the Christmas opening. The Corporation acquired the one-acre piece of property in 2002 and expanded the original park to just under two acres. The land had morphed into a dumping ground for bikes, old mechanical parts and shipping containers and the facelift means the rubbish has been removed and the pond and natural peat basin have been restored. Three-thousand cubic yards of mulch were taken from Marsh Folly to spread over the park, which is surrounded by fence to prevent illegal dumping. The whole park except for the pond was covered with three inches of soil for grassing. This is not a nature reserve, purely a park for the local neighbourhood where people can go and sit in a green setting. The Corporation has deepened the water in the pond and introduced guppies to control mosquito breeding, also adding water lilies to enhance the beauty and to give a sense of relaxation. The pond has a fence installed around it so that the area is safe for young children.

Mill's Creek

A Bermuda National Park. Number 25 on your Bermuda National Parks and Reserves map. After passing through an industrial area, be rewarded with some interesting marine views. Or access by a rented boat, to get the full beauty.

North Shore Road

North Village

A high density neighborhood. It's uniqueness includes a soccer club, St. Monica's Church and famous North Village Band founded by local resident William F. Wilson. There is a North Village Trust.

Pembroke Canal

In 1837, Governor John Henry Lefroy persuaded the Bermuda Legislature to vote a sum of money for the drainage and improvement of the constantly flooding Pembroke March. From this came the Pembroke Canal. A century ago, it was really picturesque, so much so that post cards of it were on sale to the public. It was a gorgeous, serene and wildlife as well as recreational area of the Parish, where people could fish in water that ran through the canal into Mills Creek and from there to the sea.

In July, 1943, The Yankee Store, in the City of Hamilton, romanticized the Pembroke Marsh Canal by shooting a lovely colored photograph of it and published it as a postcard under the title "The Brook, Bermuda, No. 114." In this postcard, one of which is today in the Bermuda Archives Postcard Collection, the canal's shimmering blue waters reflect the spire of the Cathedral and are bordered by flowering shrubs. Considering the the infamous Pembroke Dump next to it today, this 1943 photo of the canal is a gorgeous representation of a serene, pastoral Bermuda during a time of war.

But industrial development from the 1950s, of the type most visitors do not see, polluted it badly. The canal changed as development grew and the Pembroke Dump was put in the area. Run-off from the roads which were now newly being heavily inundated with cars and trucks and contaminants leeching into the water from the dump turned the pristine canal into something reminiscent of a sewer line.

The clear water turned to a slimy green and the white sands and abundant fish and wildlife in the area became a memory of youth grown old.

An initiative was begun in March 1999 under then Minister of the Environment Arthur Hodgson, but came to a standstill. But visitors can still see glimpses of the canal which stretches from Marsh Folly to Mills Creek.

The canal was no longer pristine. In hot weather especially, odors from the canal were rife. Toxic leaching from the now-closed dump was taking an environmental toll, despite efforts by the Bermuda Electric Light Company Ltd on land it owns next to the canal, particularly since major expansion of the electricity plant.

In September 2008 frustrated residents and business owners expressed anger and concern concern after parts of the Pembroke Canal became completely clogged, creating a dramatic increase in mosquitoes as well as flooding the area every time it rains.

When some local residents, now elderly, were growing up the bottom of the canal had white sand and they used to go fishing and swimming in there.

The Pembroke Canal water sat stagnant and was not flowing as it should via Mill Creek into the ocean.

Stagnant water is a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other diseases and, according to the World Health Organisation, "pools of standing or slow-flowing water provide a breeding ground for many insects, including mosquitoes that can transmit diseases.

These mosquitoes are known as vectors. Different species of mosquitoes transmit different diseases, and they will also breed in different types of water collections."

Legionnaire's disease, a bacterial disease known to cause pneumonia, is a bug that has been found in ponds and is particularly attracted to bodies of warm, stagnant water such as in the Pembroke Canal.

Many bacteria that live in stagnant water are anaerobic and produce different types of proteins on their surface (endo-toxins) which are a lot more dangerous for humans than aerobic bacterial proteins.

There is huge cause for concern regarding the Pembroke Canal and the potential for a mosquito-breeding explosion because the incidence of diseases appears to be increasing.

There are many reasons: people are developing resistance to anti-malarial drugs; mosquitoes are developing resistance to DDT, the major insecticide used; environmental changes are creating new breeding sites; and migration, climate change, and the creation of new habitats mean that fewer people build up natural immunity to these diseases.

The water backs up every time it rains because the canal is not flowing at all and every time it backs up it floods the yards of local homeowners. The Works & Engineering Ministry is responsible for canal maintenance. They've cleaned it up around the Transport Control Department and Bernard Park and down by BAA Field but they have not been out to areas most affecting residents. Many people used to go on nature walks and hike through here on the trail to follow the canal, but there's been no-one in many months.

In 2009 the Ministry of Works and Engineering commenced a canal and road improvement scheme at Woodlands Road. The works were successfully carried out over the summer months at a final contracted value of $1.1 million. Further necessary work could see that figure increase by nearly $600,000. Both faces of the canal over a combined length of 500 feet were stabilized, providing adequate support for the adjacent Woodlands Road and BAA field. Most importantly, the area has been made safe for both pedestrians and motorists. The Ministry of Works and Engineering is also preparing detailed design drawings for the upgrade of the sluice gate at the Mill Creek outfall of the Pembroke Canal. This upgrade, when it eventually occurs, will more than double the volume of water that can be discharged during low tide and will improve the overall performance of the canal. The upgraded sluice gate work is estimated at $500,000. In the immediate future, however, the existing malfunctioning sluice gate will be replaced, thereby improving drainage from the canal at low tide.

Pembroke Marsh and future Park

Pembroke Parish Council

Appointed under the Parish Councils Act 1971. See under "Parish Councils" in Bermuda Government Boards. Appointees are political and meetings are not open to the public, unlike in the United Kingdom, Canada and USA where parish or community councils always are.

Pig's Field Park

Bandroom Lane. In March 2009 the Bermuda Government completed the renovation of the park with an official opening in August 2009. The park has been given a new walking track, new playground equipment and a new asphalt parking area. Renovation under the Ministry of the Environment's Community Areas Programme was the culmination of two years of discussion and fundraising with the North Village Trust Executive.

Pitt's Bay Road

Point Shares

The westernmost and southern peninsula part of Fairylands. One of the two (Tucker's Town in St. George's Parish is the other) most exclusive and private coastal and overall most affluent areas in Bermuda. So-called from when it was purchased in 1643 by Solomon Middleton from William Berkeley. At that time and earlier, tracts of land were called shares by the 17th century Bermuda Company that controlled the affairs of the earliest colonists. Most people assume wrongly it is so-called because the point was much later bought by US Union General Russell Hastings, who saw service in the US Civil War and later sold building lots on the point, mostly to his friends. Nowadays, mostly multi-millionaires own the properties there, with outstanding views of the sea and islands.

Queen's Cove

A sheltered shore basin, attractive inlet and very small private beach on the south side of Mill Creek, named after a visit by Queen Elizabeth in the 1970s. There was once an attractive hotel here, Sherwood Manor, later demolished to make way for a group of condominiums that became known by this name.

Restaurants in the Parish

Soncy Bay

A lovely quiet, protected cove easily seen from a boat or ferryboat passing by. Overlooking the cove is a beautiful historic Bermuda home, Soncy, at 7 Point Shares Road, Listed for sale for $6.9 million in 2012 to Bermudian and non-Bermudian buyers. The six-bedroom former manor house has a pool, floating dock and boat house. Once the residence of Royalty and the holiday destination of a U.S. president. The house was built in the early 1880s on some fifty acres of land (bought for $8,000 and known as Point Shares) by General Russell Hastings, a Union veteran of the American Civil War, and his wife Emily, the niece of U.S. President and Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes. The Hastings’ family papers recount that they renamed the property Soncy, a Scottish word “signifying thrift, prosperity, and all things good.” The deep yellow Isabella Sprunt was one of the two roses introduced to Bermuda in about 1880 by General and Mrs. Russell Hastings. Another was the Safrano or Saffron rose, a slow growing lemon yellow tea rose up to five feet high. It was well-known in rose catalogues in the American South in 1843. The family prospered at Soncy as a result of the General’s venture into growing and exporting the bulbs of Bermuda’s distinctive, pure white Lilium longiflorum eximum. With the arrival of spring in the 1880s and 90s, more than 100,000 lily blossoms could often be seen in the fields at one time. In the 1920s, Lady Patricia Ramsay, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, lived at Soncy with her young son. In this 21st century, the old house offers many of the same pleasures to its residents as in the past. It has large rooms with high ceilings, wide verandahs, a tree-shaded lawn running down to the water, and swimming and boating in Soncy Bay.

Spanish Point Park

Spanish Point Boat Club

St. John's Church

Records tell of re-thatching the roof in 1677 via Justices of the Peace and church wardens who ordered every parishioner to bring eight dozen good (palmetto) leaves on penalty of 1 shilling and 4 pence for non-compliance. A 1717 record tells of a double row of cedars planted around the churchyard. The church was rebuilt in 1721 and again in 1821. It was consecrated in 1826. Among the graves are those of Bishop Edward Feild (1801-1876), second Bishop of Newfoundland and Bermuda, who died in 1878; and Governor Laffan, who died in 1882. The unique artifacts include one of the finest organs in Bermuda. It is used today by some distinguished visiting organists for various concerts.

Stoves Bay, also known as Pontoons

Spanish Point. A picturesque North Shore bay chiefly famous for an unusual, rusted wreck that became stuck at the entrance to the bay in 1906. It was the floating dock "Bermuda" - built in 1866 in North Woolwich, England - which first arrived on Bermuda’s shores in 1869. It was in the process of being towed away from its post at Dockyard after having been replaced and partially dismantled. It was caught in a gale and drifted over to Spanish Point, where it got lodged on the rocks and became unmovable It has been there ever since as a rusted relic. It was first built in 1863 as a patented invention of Messrs Campbell Johnstone and Co. It weighed 8,200 tonnes and could lift any vessel afloat at the time except for the Great Eastern, which was a large iron sailing steam ship. It was the largest floating dock ever constructed and only lost that distinction to its successor in 1901, Admiralty Floating Dock #1, also made for the Bermuda Dockyard. In her prime, the ‘Bermuda’ was used to accommodate large warships. The Bermuda was more than 47,000 sq ft and 381ft long and 123ft at its maximum width, and a depth of 74ft. It could easily accommodate ships up to 370ft long and 25ft wide. (In 1950, the Bermuda Government tried to clear the bay of the remnants of the dock using dynamite, to no avail).

St. John's Road

Supermarkets and grocery stores

Call ahead to see which are on a bus route. Not all are. Most are open daily (Sundays 1 pm to 6 pm) excluding public holidays. Liquor cannot be bought on Sunday. Only locally owned stores are allowed.

Tulo Valley Nursery

15 Tulo Lane, and 21 Controversy Lane, Pembroke HM 12. Telephone 292-2503 for times. A Government-operated plant nursery open to the public at designated times, serving government-owned parks, gardens and scenic scenic areas. Here is where the Bermuda Government has its main experimental flowering and other garden. It was once the large kitchen and fruit garden of Admiralty House adjacent to it when an Admiral of the Royal Navy was in residence there from 1815 to the 1950s. It supplied all the fruit, vegetables and flowers for the Royal Navy Admiral and his staff and their dependants and had a team of gardeners for that purpose. It was taken over by the Bermuda Government in 1957 and converted first to a reforestation center for Bermuda Cedars affected by a massive blight, then to a plant nursery.

Staff do some fine work in saving certain indigenous species and in working with different public and private sector organizations. Tulo Valley is the only producer of Bermuda’s native and endemic plants. It also provides the majority of the plant stock used for Bermuda’s parks and nature reserves and all special plants for the Botanical Gardens and Arboretum. Most of the plants found at roundabouts and other public areas are grown from here. The # 4 bus stops nearby, check its times. Parking. Conducted tours by volunteer groups are available from time to time if you book in advance. Their is a tunnel from here to Admiralty House Park - adjacent and to the north - often closed but when not - for example, for a conducted tour - you can walk through.

After suffering considerable damage from Hurricane Fabian, Tulo Valley Plant Nursery was re-opened by the then-Minister of the Environment in June 2006. The 30-plus year-old facility was rebuilt during the 2005/2006 year costing the Government approximately $535,000. Two greenhouses were replaced, a new shade unit was built with a retractable roof and a new car park was installed. A new water catchment was created with a 48,000-gallon storage tank, a 15,000-gallon capacity brackish water reverse osmosis plant and a truck filling station. The water is to supply areas maintained by the Ministry.

W. E. R Joell Tennis Stadium

Cedar Avenue and Marsh Folly Road. Phone 292-0105. Government-owned, known as the Government Tennis Stadium until July 2003. Originally built for whites only, except for two weeks a year for blacks. Renamed in honour of the grandson of the late Bermudian who pioneered the integration of blacks on this tennis stadium's courts. Historical note: In 1883 the first black member of Parliament in Bermuda was William Henry Thomas Joell (born 1838, died 1885), of the city of Hamilton. He was responsible for building Glebe Road. He Served on the committee that founded Berkeley Institute and was also a cabinet maker and carpenter. Joell's Alley in Hamilton is named after him. Much later, the Tennis Stadium in Pembroke was named to honour W. E. R Joell, the grandson of W. H. T. Joell. The later Mr. Joell's daughters, Eileen Simmons, Rosemary Cann and Joyce Hayden were present at the ceremony conducted by then-Premier Jennifer Smith. In 1953, his tennis lessons attracted many children and produced two champions, Shirley Davis and Arnold Todd. In 1957, when the Social Welfare Board turned down his request for funds to pay for overseas coaches to come to Bermuda to teach tennis, Mr. Joell organized the Bermuda Tennis Development Fund. As a result, several overseas coaches came and Mr. Joell opened up his own home on Brunswick Street in the City of Hamilton to accommodate them. He was an Associate Member of The Professional Lawn Tennis Association of the USA and the Field Secretary of the American Tennis Association. He helped organize several local clubs including the Castle Harbour Hotel Tennis Club, King Edward VII Memorial Hospital Club, Unity Tennis Club and Salvation Army Tennis Club. He accompanied Bermudian teenagers to the USA to compete in tennis tournaments at Central State College. In 1973, he received the Queen's Certificate and Badge of Honour for his valued services to tennis in Bermuda.

Anyone can play here by appointment and for a fee. (Visitors will find tennis courts at many places to stay). There is a pro, 3 clay and 5 plexi cushion courts. Tennis attire is mandatory.

William F. Wilson Park

New in May 2005. St. Monica's Road, North Village. Opened with pomp and ceremony. Its famous North Village Band, still going strong, was founded by local resident William F. Wilson, after whom the park is named. Also, for over 44 years, he devoted his time, talents and energies to St. Monica's Church nearby.

- business center	- business facilities	- Ship view	- dining
- disabled access	- fitness	- golf course	- meeting room
- pool	- public buses	- public ferries	- shopping
- walking area

Belmont	Cavello Bay	Darrell's Wharf	Dockyard
Hinson's Island	Hodson's	Lower Ferry	Rockaway
St. George's	Salt Kettle	Somerset Bridge	Watford Bridge

City of Hamilton	Hamilton Parish	Paget Parish	Pembroke Parish	Sandys Parish
Smith's Parish	Southampton Parish	St. George's Parish	Town of St. George	Warwick Parish