Antigua is located in the middle of the Leeward Islands in the eastern Caribbean, roughly 17 degrees north of the equator. It is the largest of these English-speaking islands, at 14 miles long and 11 miles wide.
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact on Antigua’s history of the arrival, one fateful day in 1684, of Sir Christopher Codrington. An enterprising man, Codrington had come to Antigua to find out if the island would support the sort of large-scale sugar cultivation that already flourished elsewhere in the Caribbean. His initial efforts proved to be quite successful, and over the next 50 years sugar cultivation on Antigua exploded.
By the middle of the 18th century the island was dotted with more than 150 cane-processing windmills – each the focal-point of a sizeable plantation. Today almost 100 of these picturesque stone towers remain, although they now serve as houses, bars, restaurants and shops. A fully-restored sugar mill still survives on Codrington’s original estate at Betty’s Hope.
Most Antiguans are of African lineage, descendants of slaves brought to the island centuries ago to labour in the sugar cane fields.
Horatio Nelson arrived in 1784 at the head of the Squadron of the Leeward Islands to develop the British naval facilities at English Harbour and to enforce stringent commercial shipping laws. The first of these two tasks resulted in construction of Nelson’s Dockyard, one of Antigua’s finest physical assets and a cruise liner passenger heritage attraction port of call on the coach trip circuit from the island’s capital and port, St Johns.
But that’s the world of designer shops and bars languishing on quaysides in old buildings. The real industrial heritage survivors are off the tourist and cricket circuit trails – the island’s main sources of income – and are to be found in the quiet heartland.
For an industry that has long gone on Antigua there are, nonetheless, some remarkable survivors.
At one time the island was able to claim that it held the record for the highest density of narrow gauge rail track in the world – 50.8 miles of track (not including sidings) in 108 square miles. The rail system started in 1904 and ceased to operate commercially around 1973. Until 1966 there were constant additions and improvements to the system – primarily to serve the Antigua Sugar Factory at Gunthorpes and its rival factory at Bendals, and down to the dockside at St Johns. The Bendals factory, which had a 2ft gauge system, was taken over by Antigua Sugar in 1939 and Bendals gauge was eventually converted to 2ft 6in.
Since 1904, a total of 26 narrow gauge locos have been imported into Antigua – 21 for Antigua Sugar and five for Bendals. Today, remarkably, all but three are accounted for. Of the 17 remaining in Antigua, eight are steam, four are petrol and five are diesel-powered. All of the 2ft 6in gauge 0-4-2ST steam locomotives were built by Kerr Stuart Ltd at their California works, Stoke-on-Trent and supplied to the Gunthorpes factory, except
No 5, which was to a Kerr Stuart design but built by Hunslet. From 1904-7, Kerr Stuart provided examples of the ‘Tattoo’ Class and, from 1910, examples of the ‘Brazil’ Class. Of the larger 0-6-2T ‘Mantary’ Class of Kerr Stuart locomotive, the 1927 example Joan returned to the UK in 1971 and is now out of ticket at its Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway base.
