Woodford Hill, Dominica

Woodford Hill (15°34'59.99", -61°19'0.01") is a village in Saint Andrew Parish in north-eastern Dominica. Woodford Hill was an estate extending from Eden River to L’anse Noire. An Amerindian village existed at the mouth of the Woodford Hill river about 1,400 years ago.[1] The present day village of Woodford Hill is on the western boundary of the old estate. It is made up of various sections including Small Farm, Mount Sylvie, Falang, Larieu, Fond Cole, Joe Road, and Big Cedar.[2] According to the 2011 census report, Woodford Hill had a population of 1,034 (545 male and 489 female).[3]

Woodford Hill
Nickname(s):  Simit
Woodford Hill Location in Dominica
Coordinates: 15°34′N 61°19′W
Country	Dominica
Parish	Saint Andrew Parish
Population  (2011)
• Total	1,034
Time zone	UTC-4 (UTC)

History

When the French arrived to Dominica in the early 1700s they called the former Woodford Hill estate La Soie, after the Bois La Soie bush. The entire parish in which it is situated was called Quarte de La Soie. The area was put up for sale by the crown when the British occupied Dominica in 1763. A significant portion was bought by Napleton Smith. As a result, the present Creole name for the village of Woodford Hill is Simit (the ‘cockoy’, or English Creole pronunciation of Smith), in reference to the estate owner.[4][5]

Robert Aberdein was the owner of the Woodford Hill Estate until around 1826. After that point Faur Mourillon was a joint owner with F.V. Mourillon until their last known association in 1832.[6] During the mid 19th century, the estate was owned by Charles Leatham who was nicknamed the “sugar king of Dominica”.[7][8][9] The area had gently sloping land and was one of the largest sugar producing estates on island. Five years before the emancipation of the British West Indies, 112 slaves worked in Woodford Hill, producing 66,000 lbs of sugar, 2,550 gallons of rum and 400 gallons of molasses. The ruins of the sugar plantation can still be seen by the seashore. The post-emancipation village of Woodford Hill developed on hilly land between the former Woodford Hill Estate and Hodges. At the end of the 19th century Woodford Hill was 1,123 acres large and the estate was bought by Estates Investment Trust of Dominica who owned it until they sold it to Captain William James Ross Stebbings in the 1930s.[10] It was then acquired by Frobel Laville in the 1940s who sold it to Ernest Foley and Geoffrey Band in 1948. They owned it until Van Geest Banana company purchased the estate in 1954.[11][12] In 1974, the Dominica Labour Party government, under the leadership of Patrick John, acquired 400 acres of the estate along the coast from Geest Industries and other landowners for the building of an airport and other projects. These projects were supposed to be developed under an agreement with Barbadian weapons smuggler Sydney Burnette Alleyne. Mass protests led to the resignation of Patrick John and the planned projects were not forthcoming. In the late 1970s and 1980s Geest divided the rest of the estate into farm lots and they were sold mainly to villagers of the northeast.[13][14][15][16][17]

References

1. "Archaeology – La Soye".
2. Honeychurch, Lennox (2004). "A to Z of Dominica Heritage". LennoxHonychurch.
3. "2011 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS" (PDF). Dominica.gov. Central Statistical Office.
4. Honychurch, Lennox. "Slave Valleys, Peasant Ridges: Topography, Colour and Land Settlement on Dominica". University of the West Indies.
5. McCanse, Anna (2011). Dominica (Other Places Travel Guide). Other Places Publishing. p. 168. ISBN 9780982261972.
6. "Woodford Hill [Dominica]". Legacies of British Slave-ownership database.
7. "Dominica 138 (Woodford Hill) Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates". Legacies of British Slave Ownership.
8. Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons. 37. Oxford University. 1855. p. 10.
9. Honychurch, Lennox (2003). "Inter-Island Migration and Cultural Change: The Impact of Montserratians on Dominica". University of the West Indies.
10. Pascal, Elsa (May 2016). "The Dominican Contribution to the World War 1 Effort" (PDF).
11. Clegg, Peter (2002). "THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS BANANA INDUSTRY: COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY AND COLONIAL NECESSITY". Social and Economic Studies. Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies. 51: 155–174.
12. "PIX & NOTES 2: Seaplane Service". 2020.
13. Allfrey, Phyllis Shand (March 10, 1978). "Miss Charles Exposes Geest Takeover Deal". The Star Dominica.
14. Baker, Patrick (1994). Centring the Periphery: Chaos, Order, and the Ethnohistory of Dominica. University of the West Indies. p. 146. ISBN 9789766400002.
15. "PIX and NOTES 3: 50 years of planning an international airport".
16. Trouillot, Michel-Rolph (1988). Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 130, 188, 194.
17. "Dominica : Much ado about... bananas". 1993.