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1222 Cruise ship entering through Town Cut in St. George’s Harbour
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Posted on 15.09.2014, 20.09.2014, 06.02.2016
St. George's (formally
, the Town of St George), located on the island of the same name, is considered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee "an outstanding example of the earliest English urban settlement in the New World. Its associated fortifications graphically illustrate the development of English military engineering from the 17th to the 20th century, being adapted to take account of the development of artillery over this period." Originally called New London, it claims to be the oldest continuously-inhabited English town in the New World, and it was the capital of
Bermuda until 1815.
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1223 St. George’s Town and Harbour
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The permanent settlement of St George began in August 1612 with the arrival of a governor, a clergyman, and 60 settlers, to be joined a few months later by 600 more people. A watchtower was built on
Fort George Hill and the foundations of several forts were laid to guard the entrances to
St George's Harbour and
Castle Harbour. The mid-18th century was a time of economic stagnation for the town, but military activities during the
American Revolution (1776-1783) saw the beginning of a boom. St. George's remained a strategic military location for the next two centuries until the US naval base closed in 1995.
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| 2268 Snapshots of St. George's (1) |
The layout of the Town is one that has grown organically over nearly four centuries. At its heart is
King's Square (or Market Square), adjacent to the harbour, and providing the link between the harbour and the two main east-west roads that connect the Town with the rest of Bermuda:
Water Street, giving access to the quays, and
York Street to the north, the main street of the Town. The streets to the north provide a network of what began as narrow, winding lanes and alleys.
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| 2269 Snapshots of St. George's (2) |
The
architecture of Bermuda
is unique, and has changed little in its basic elements since the end
of the 17th century. The simple, well proportioned houses, of one or two
storeys, are constructed with load-bearing masonry walls, rendered and
painted in pastel colours, and roofs of stone slabs painted white.
Between roof and wall are a series of eaves painted a third colour,
which is also used on the wooden shutters of relatively small windows.
The roofs are designed to catch water, of which there is no fresh supply
in Bermuda apart from rain. The walls are designed to restrict damage
from hurricanes.
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1224 Tucker House Museum on Water Street in St. George's
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Tucker House Museum, located on Water Street and hosting also an bookstore named Book Cellar, is an perfect example of Bermuda's architecture. It was built in the 1750s, by Henry Tucker, a famous and an influential Bermudian who lived in this house from 1775 with his family. He was the president of the Governors Council in Bermuda between 1775 to 1807, and his ancestry can be traced back to the second Governor of Bermuda who arrived in 1616 and contributed making Bermuda a self governing colony.
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| 1231 St. Peter's Church in St. George's |
Their Majesties Chappell, St. Peter's Church, is the oldest surviving Anglican church in continuous use outside the British Isles, and also the oldest continuously used Protestant church in the New World. It was established immediately after the founding of the settlement, although the original building was quickly destroyed. Bermuda is famously stormy, and it was necessary to rebuild the church more than once over the following century, the final structure being of limestone walls, with a limestone slate roof lain on a framework of Bermuda cedar.
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1232 Three-decker Pulpit of St. Peter’s Church in St. George’s
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2012 marked the 400th year since the founding of St. Peter's Church, and was also the
Diamond Jubilee year of Queen Elizabeth II, so the Queen granted St. Peter's the title
Their Majesties' Chappell. The church's interior is simple, with exposed cedar beams. The font of the church is 500 years old, older than the settlement of Bermuda. The walls of the church have commemorative plaques on the inside, and there are gravestones set in the outsides. In the fifth postcard is 17th century Three-decker Pulpit. Here was the meeting-place of Bermuda's first Parliament in 1620.
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1233 Interior of St. Peter’s Church in St. George’s
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The top deck was for the Sermon, the middle for the Service and the
lowest for the Parish Clerk. Bermuda's first Parish Clerk was Stephen
Hopkins, later one of the Pilgrim Fathers. The stone basin (In the sixth postcard) dates from about 1450 and is the oldest artefact in th church. This baptismal font continues to serve generation to generation. It is made from two pieces of English stone, with eight sides ornamented with crosses, and is reputed to have been brought to Bermuda by the first settlers.
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| 2270 St. Catherine Fort in St. George’s |
St George was a garrison town from its earliest days, and military installations developed on the eastern side of the Town. These were constructed in the standard British military style but using local materials. At the end of the
American Revolution, Britain made St George's Island its main New World naval base. The existing fortifications were radically redesigned and rebuilt in the 1780s and 1790s. The advent of rifled artillery in the 1850s led to yet further modifications.
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| 2271 St. Catherine Fort seen from Achilles Bay Beach |
Located at the northern tip of St. George's,
St. Catherine Fort stands between the
St. Catherine Beach and
Achilles Bay. In 1609, Sir George Somers's ship
Sea Venture was wrecked on a reef near this area. The crew came ashore where the St. Catherine fort now stands, and started the first settlement in Bermuda. In 1612 the first governor arrived in Bermuda and built a wooden fort here. The original St Catherine fort was built around 1614, but it was renovated at least five times.
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