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Mandeville
Tours
DI'S
WHIRL AROUND MANDEVILLE
Diana
MacIntyre-Pike, manager of Astra is unique among
Jamaican hoteliers in that she urges her guests
to travel around and experience the real Jamaica.
Her Mandeville Town Tour - on the house for
Astra guests - takes the following route: from
Astra on Ward Avenue to Greenvale Road and then
to Manchester High School; turn R up Perth Road
and R again up Bloomfield hill to the former
Bloomfield Guest house, once the site of Bill
Laurie's popular Steak House, it recently changed
hands. But whatever it becomes, the crest of
the hill is still the best place to get a bird's
eye view of the town centre.
From
here through Grove Road to Newleigh Road and
past Bishopís High School for girls,
an Anglican institution now government funded,
on the site of the old Newleigh hotel. On to
DeCarteret School, a crumbling Victorian mansion,
once the King Edward Hotel and now resembling
more than ever the horror house in Hitchcock's
Psycho. DC, founded over a century ago as an
exclusive Anglican boy's school is now government
aided and co-educational.
Turn
R along DeCarteret Road and L into Godfrey Lands,
a pastoral residential subdividsion. A short
excursion along the Newport road reveals in
the distance L Mayor Charlton's mansion, (see
above) and on the hill ahead and R the West
Indies College (see above); visitors welcome
at both. A sign points the way to Roxborough,
birthplace of Norman Washington Manley (see
above). Back into town along Manchester Road
you pass R a JDF camp and then L St. Joseph's
Academy, a Catholic school now government aided,
and L St. Paul of the Cross Catholic Church.
Further on L is the Church Teacher's Training
College once the site of the Manchester Hotel,
then on your R the Methodist Church. Willogate
Plaza on your L has a variety of shops.
Next
stop the square where there is one way traffic
clockwise around The Green now renamed Cecil
Charlton Park after the ebullient former Mayor.
Here you may meet Shut, one of several official
greeters coached by Countrystyle Ltd. Another
of the friendly people you may meet as you stroll
on the Green is Denis Roberts, a photographer
who has operated an open-air studio here for
nearly 15 years. The Georgian Courthouse, north
of the Green is usually swarming with litigants.
It faces, across the Green, the market (busiest
on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and St
Mark's Parish Church. Just east of the Green
on Hotel St is the Mandeville Hotel, probably
the oldest in the island and dating from the
late 1800s when everybody who was anybody tried
to spend the summer there.
Manchester
road leads north and downhill past the Mayor's
parlour and offices of the Parish Council, the
Library, and two hospitals.Tucked behind them
is the SWA Craft Centre sponsored by the Women's
Club of Mandeville where girls learn and practice
home economics skills producing crochet, embroidery,
cloth dolls and pastries for sale. At the junction
with Caledonia road turn L for Manchester Shopping
Centre (just about everything you need available
here, including fast food), then R along New
Green Road and R again into Ingleside with the
Alcan Sports Club and executive residences complete
with fireplaces. (Yes, it does sometimes get
cold enough to use them.)
Or
bear left and then right along Brumalia road
passing right KLAS Radio Station, then the entrance
to the Manchester Golf Club and then the Alcan
Corporate offices, then past the Bible School,
the undulating fairways of the golf course and
the playing fields of Brooks park venue for
football matches.
TOURS
OUT OF MANDEVILLE
YS
FALLS
Off
the beaten track and approximately 24 miles
or 30 minutes from Mandeville via Santa Cruz
and Lacovia, are a refreshing contrast to crowded
Dunns River. The owners do not advertise, do
not accept large groups and there is not even
a sign on the highway. YS estate is located
just beyond Bamboo Avenue a short distance along
an unpredictable country road. One of the leading
racehorse stud farms in the island, YS also
produces beef cattle and export papayas. The
base for visiting the Falls is an extension
of what used to be a tiny crossroads rum shop.
There are picnic tables, bar, snack shop, grill,
restrooms and a gift shop. You ride a tractor-drawn
jitney to the falls over a stream and through
the pastures with grazing cows and brood mares.
The owners, the Browne family, are descended
from the Marquis of Sligo, the colourful (and
colourblind) Governor of Jamaica when slavery
was abolished in 1834. The origin of the name
YS is obscure. It has been suggested that it
derives from the Gaelic "wyess" meaning
winding which describes the course of the river.
Up
at the falls you can relax on an emerald green
lawn and just look, or you can climb to the
top beside them. The dramatic three-tiered waterfall
is most dramatic when the river is in spate
and the brown water thunders and foams, misting
you with spray as you climb. In dry weather
the postcard pretty river sings a gentler song
as it plunges and froths into green-blue pools.
Swimming is permitted and there are lifeguards
on duty. A sign posted at the base reports the
condition of the river each day. Some of the
flora at the falls, like the Cartwheel plant
are extremely rare.
APPLETON
RUM TOUR
The
Appleton Estate has been producing sugar and
rum since 1749. It is the largest of three sugar
estates/factories owned by J. Wray and Nephew,
the others being New Yarmouth in Clarendon and
Holland, adjacent to Bamboo Avenue in St. Elizabeth.
This billion dollar company began in 1825 as
a popular Kingston rum shop. John Wray, owner
of The Shakespeare Tavern at Parade in Kingston,
made his fortune blending and selling rum. Just
before his retirement in 1864 he took his fashionable
nephew Colonel Charles Ward into the business.
Ward expanded the scope of the company, acquiring
sugar estates and import agencies. Today, J.
Wray and Nephew is one of the island's leading
exporters and its core business remains the
production, blending and bottling of rum.
Appleton,
located at the edge of the Cockpit Country where
the Black River meets the St. Elizabeth plain,
produces 16000 tons of sugar and 10,000,000
litres of rum annually. This white rum is then
blended and bottled in their Kingston production
plant.
The
Rum Tour covers all aspects of production with
an introductory video presentation followed
by a visit to the distillery. En route you will
see the 100 year old donkey driven cane mill
and sample fresh cane juice, molasses, wet sugar,
high wine and finally Appleton Rum, considered
by some connoisseurs to be the finest in the
world. Should you wish you can purchase all
you want, plus other Appleton products like
Mad Annie and Rum Cream in the gift shop which
also features items made by St. Elizabeth craftsmen.
Links
& Sources:
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