Vere

By William Mitchell Manning

This third book of William Manning looks back at experiences gained while living in Vere, and includes relevant information during important periods in the history of Jamaica.
The Tate & Lyle Corporation of England, which owned The West Indies Sugar Company, operated two sugar making organizations in Jamaica; Frome in Westmoreland, and Monymusk in Vere, Clarendon. Vere was a major producer of cane sugar in Jamaica.
The Monymusk group played a major part in the life of people who lived in the area and was an important contributor to social development programs. Vere flourished as long as sugar flourished.

Extant to the economic development in Vere, was a unique system of education, where funds from an ancient charitable bequest, provided high school scholarships to a number of nine to eleven year old students, and vocational or technical scholarships to older students who did the Jamaica Local examinations.
To be awarded a scholarship, the student was required to be born in Vere or have some family connection to the old parish, which included that part which was annexed to become part of Manchester.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 15, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479744701

William Mitchell Manning

Bill Manning retired from his position as entomologist for an international food company after working there for several years. He has been living in Canada with his family for most of this time, making frequent visits back home. He has written two books The Doyen Of Vere’, and ‘My Name is Eva’.

Book preview

V E R E

William Manning

Copyright © 2012 by William Manning.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2012920683

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-4797-4469-5

             Softcover    978-1-4797-4468-8

             Ebook         978-1-4797-4470-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Special considerations

Perspectives

Withywood

The Plains Of Vere

Slavery and Its Aftermath

About The Weather

Vere and Modern Cane Sugar Manufacture

Vere, The Drive Towards Nationhood

Youth Development in Later Years

Reminiscences Of Vere

The Tour

Addendum

Sport Groups

Notes

References

Dedication:

To: Ida

Howard, Robert, Andrea, Pauline, Lesley, Paul

Arron, Lucas, Christopher, Malique, Serene

PENSIVE

2.jpg

Notation: While gazing at a house hibiscus plant, with an open window in the background, what looked like a head appeared. It disappeared when my line of vision shifted a few inches either way. I marked the spot and took the picture. An hour later I could not find the image anywhere.

Acknowledgement

The author wishes to thank Ms. Enid Mitchell for proof reading the manuscript at short notice.

Special considerations

The scouts from the 6th Clarendon Troop, who accompanied me to the First Caribbean Jamboree in Kingston, Jamaica, 1952, and the others who for various reasons were not able to go. It was a wonderful experience.

Happy hunting: Ernest, Headley, Louis, Clement, Kenneth, Granville

All members of the Hayes Cricket team who struggled, and with tenacity, skill and discipline, won the Clarendon Lawson Cup Competition in 1955, for the first time.

Perspectives

JAMAICA IN RELIEF

Vere is a part of Jamaica. In 1494 the Spaniards became the first Europeans to make contact with the Tainos or Arawaks who were living in the island. The country which they claimed as their own remained Spanish until 1655.

The island is very rugged in parts, and one way to appreciate this robust beauty is to make an overnight hike into the Blue Mountains on a clear day. Get to the peak region at the crack of dawn, just before that wonderful source of eternal light hugs the earth in its warm embrace. Through the glistening dew drops, and the resplendence of nature, one begins to understand why Nanny of the Maroons lived in these thickly wooded areas.

While struggling through the strain of the final push to the top, feel the freshness it provides and savour the challenge of the final steep climb. Once there, take hold of the metal trestle which identifies the zenith, and gaze through the early morning haze, at Kingston and its harbour to the south, and in the opposite direction, Hope Bay, Buff Bay and St. Margaret’s Bay to the north. Jog the memory a little, and remember that within that short distance of twenty five miles, as the crow flies, we are over seven thousand feet up. Great mountaineers call this the top of a hill, we call it the spectacular Blue Mountain Peak.

With back pack towards the rising sun, look ahead, through the clouds doing their early morning dance, and as far as the eyes can see, the seemingly endless mountain range continues.

It was early one morning as an eight year old, when I saw my mother reading the ‘Gleaner’ newspapers with tears in her eyes. I asked her why she was crying. Her reply was that some boys from a school in Kingston set out on a hike on Good Friday, to cross the Blue Mountains, and no one had heard of them since.

She also said that airplanes dropped food in the area hoping they would find some and not starve, because they carried very little food with them. Search parties were quickly assembled by experienced mountaineers. Soldiers also joined the search and after several days, clothes belonging to the boys were picked up at a river gorge, and there the trail ended. It was a chilling situation. People waited with abated breath for news. Several long days later, the boys struggled into Fruitful Vale, on the north side, with a wood cutter as their guide. That happened over seventy years ago.

A book, written by one of the boy scouts, called ‘Lost in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica’, chronicled the events

Like a backbone the mountain ridges separate the island into, north and south. On the north side, the rivers are short, fast flowing rapids. On the south, the rivers are generally wider, longer and slower. Together they help to define a land where its citizens, brought together by the events of history strive to be One People.

Withywood

When England wrested the island from Spain, they found a certain part of the island, covered by withes, a variety of the milk weed plant, and called it Withywood. [Historic Jamaica]

This area may have been the habitat of butterflies for eons, before the Tainos, or Arawaks who came between AD 600 and 900 [The Story of the Jamaican People]

Within the limits of information available, the Monarch and the other butterflies, from Point Pelee in Southern Canada carry out an annual, Fall migration to warmer climates. Areas of destination include some forests in Mexico, where a variety of the Milk Weed grows and, is now an