THE PEOPLE & HISTORY OF BATH VILLAGE
The village of Bath is located just outside of Charlestown near the southern most part of Gallows Bay in the St. John's Parish. Today Bath Village is home to __________ people as of (date).
Neal Ferris (2018) writes that "Archaeological evidence has documented Indigenous settlement of multiple Post-Saladoid era sites1 (dating after 900 A.D.) along the lower Bath Stream, a little more than a kilometre from the Bath House-Hotel along the stream, and at Gallows Bay. Moreover, the Reverend William Smith (1745) notes that, at least in the early eighteenth-century, outlets of the volcanic spring could be felt below the cold waters of the Bath stream very near to Gallows Bay. So it is reasonable to assume that the documented Indigenous settlement of the lower Bath Stream would have meant those residents were aware, and used, the waters of the volcanic spring.
The value and heritage of the Bath Stream and Spring stretches back to time immemorial, becoming a key definitional part of Nevis in the minds of visitors and countless generations of colonizers, enslaved, and emancipated ancestors over 400 years. Moreover, today it remains a vibrant cultural heritage distinct from the architectural history and heritage of the Bath House-Hotel and grounds (Ferris, 2018)
ORAL HISTORIES
When my mother lived on that land I was accustomed to walk along that track [by the Bath Stream] and bathed in the stream_….Many people in the island bathe in the stream; so also do people from St.Kitts as well as people coming on sloops and schooners… there is one part of the stream at the top and another lower down with a big stone almost in the middle where men bathe. There is another path where women bathe. After I became owner in 1927 I continued using it and everybody continued using it. It [the paths] carried them to the stream. I got the land with the custom of persons bathing there. Women wash clothes in the stream. Clothes from the hospital are washed there. People water their animals there. The sanitary department cleaned it.
Linley Morston French Parrish, a former property owner of land along the stream, he recalled from the time of his youth
Union Messenger April 8, 1952
Dem Say Hole...
Dem Say hole. Locals used to wash, bathe, hang clothes on the surrounding trees and gossip. Relating stories of the day, they all started with “yuh hear what dem say” hence the name of the hole.
Miss Ella
Resident, Bath Village
Many Names...
We could well remember the different baths namely Man Bath, Boys Bath,Deep Hole, Myra Bath (named after the person whose house the bath was in front of), Hot Hole, Women Bath and the list continues. These Baths stretched from behind Mrs Hanley to almost at the bogs.
S. Patricia Claxton
Resident, Bath Village
WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES OF THE BATH STREAM?
Oral Histories are important and help us preserve memories for future generations. Pleae share them with us by contacting NHCS today. You can do so via email at ________
ACCESS FOR ALL NEVISIANS
There was a time when access to the Bath Stream and ground was controlled. In 1947 Horatio Claude Barber purchased the property the held the Bath House Hotel and part of the Bath Stream. He was an aviation pioneer and engineer who had his own company that built aircraft. After his initial plans to develop the property for tourism fell through in 1949 due to the economy in the Leewards islands, he decided to reside in a flat in the hotel structure. As a land woner he felt that he had rights that increasingly put him in direct conflict with the local community and their use of the Bath Stream.
Barber took exception to individuals using the stream in front of the House-Hotel to bathe, and objected to people and livestock crossing his property to access those waters. He complained that people were bathing in the stream “…at all hours and making disagreeable noises. He also complained that “During the day time nude bodies were exposed in full view of the hotel verandahs,” offending guests of the hotel.
Barber’s antipathy to the local custom of bathing eventually led him to take steps to stop the practice. He was accused of filling in the spring source and the pool where men bathed, by planting cacti along the sides and bed of the stream, by putting barbed wire up around the pools, and by blocking paths by posting signs warning people to keep out. Most significantly, on May 17, 1950 he chased away a work gang employed by the government who had come to clean the stream bed, which was a regular task the government undertook in looking after the stream. Pointedly, Barber’s objections to these uses of the stream and land in front of the hotel were framed by his assertion that the stream and spring source were his property as landowner and as such he had every right to refuse people travelling across his property on paths next to the stream, and from accessing the water.
These assertions were directly challenged by local residents, who tore down his signs and objected to the authorities. It also led local officials and government representatives to demand the work gang return to clean the stream for public health, and to “…prevent the encroachment of the people’s liberty in their own country, so as to avoid serious repercussions, which may follow.”
Nevisians also argued repeatedly that they had been bathing and using the waters “…for ages…” or from “…time immemorial…,” and by virtue of this custom had a right to cross Barber’s property to access the stream and the various distinct pools dug out in the stream used separately by men and women, as well as to use the waters for personal laundry, for washing hospital linens, and for watering livestock. This assertion that the custom of bathing granted public rights to the citizens of Nevis over the private rights of a landowner was one the colonial administration tended to be uncertain about privately, but
petition signed by 230 nevisians
C.A. Griffith, secretary of the Nevis Welfare Council (a newly formed political party in Nevis, according to Burrowes54) submitted a petition, with over 230 Nevisian signatories, “To His Honour the Administrator” on July 20, 1950. This petition noted where signatories were from, and while the majority were from Charlestown, Bath Village, Brown Hill and St. Paul and St. John Parishes, signatories also included people from across the island, including Jessups, Gingerland, Rawlins, and Brick Kiln. The statement of petition read:
In view of the fact that the public from time immemorial has had the free and uninterrupted use of the Bath stream in Nevis, for washing and bathing purposes, and that the public has recently been prohibited by the proprietors of the Bath Hotel from that part of the stream used by men for bathing… We the undersigned, people of Nevis hereby beg to present this petition requesting your Honour take such steps to insure access to and the uninterrupted use of the stream.
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NOTABLE CITIZENS
Dr. Daniel Reynold Walwyn
Born Nov 27 1892 to Ernest and Rhoda Walwyn in Bath Village.
Dr. Daniel Reynold Walwyn was a teacher at Brown Pasture, Nevis and in 1913 he left Nevis to teach at Rosseau Boys School in Dominica until 1915 when he then worked in the Treasury in Portsmouth, Dominica until he returned to Nevis in 1920. From 1930 to 1937, he lived in Antigua with his family where he was appointed an audit clerk in the Treasury in Antigua, He then became the Post Master for St Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla. And in 1947 he became the postmaster to Montserrat. In 1953, when he retired as a civil servant, a small group of prominent residents of Charlestown and Bath Village, to start a cooperative bank. The goal of the bank was to provide financial assistance to marginal individuals. The Nevis Cooperative Bank started in 1954, with DR as its executive chairman, a position he would hold until 1990. He was very active in the Nevisian society and received an honorary doctorate from UWI Cave Hill in 1991. THE D.R. Walwyn Plaza is named in his honor.
Sir Thomas Graham Briggs
Former owner the Bath House Hotel. He had come to Nevis from Barbados in the 1850s, where his family made significant wealth from the sugar trade. In the 1850w he acquired the Bath Hotel and held political position in the Executive Council of Nevis. (NEED DATE)
William Todd
On August 1st, 1834 Britain passes the Slavery Abolition Act, outlawing owning, buying, and selling humans as property throughout its colonies around the world.
Walter Edston Wade
Wally Wade, a brilliant Montserratian, bought Barbour's interest in the Leeward Island Development Co from him. Wade later sold some of his interest to Pinney's Development company controlled by Max Fischer. This interest sold included the Bath House Estate. (NEED DATE)
James Spencer Hollings
TBD ADD MORE a British civil engineer who had lived on Montserrat where his wife’s family had an estate. Around 1900, Hollings worked on restoring the Bath House Hotel. It was he who added two galleries to the building.
Grace Jane Branch (Kerr)
Norman Fowler was a socialite that moved to Nevis in 1968, where he purchased the Bath Hotel and lived onsite in one of its suites. Unfortunately in March 23 1977, he lost consciousness while bathing in the Hot Spring and drowned. ‘Who was Norman Fowler?’, appeared on April 12th 2013, in the local St Kitts and Nevis newspaper, SKN Choice Times.
James Spencer
owned the Bath House Hotel. He had come to Nevis from Barbados in the 1850s, where his family made significant wealth from the sugar trade. In the 1850w he acquired the Bath Hotel and held political position in the Executive Council of Nevis.
Norman Fowler
Was a socialite that moved to Nevis in 1968, where he purchased the Bath Hotel and lived onsite in one of its suites. Unfortunately in March 23 1977, he lost consciousness while bathing in the Hot Spring and drowned. ‘Who was Norman Fowler?’, appeared on April 12th 2013, in the local St Kitts and Nevis newspaper, SKN Choice Times.
Mrs. Helene Lewis
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Christine Eickelmann
Wrote definitive report on hotel. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque vel lacinia nisi. Integer erat purus, sagittis non pharetra at, feugiat vel quam. In luctus malesuada mauris.