Nevis Background
Pinney House
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The Colonial Landscape of Mountravers

In the seventeenth century, the landscape of Nevis was very different from what we see today. Cleared of most of its rain forest by English settlers, the slopes of the volcano were divided into numerous small plantations which extended from the sea to a height of about 1,400 feet.

From the fieldwork undertaken now over three years (2001-3) a clearer picture continues to emerge of the small-scale plantations of the seventeenth century and the consolidation of these small farms into the much larger estates of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. On Nevis, field survey is identifying a relict landscape of the seventeenth century.

The Mountravers estate was based around the growing and processing of sugar. Like most estates on Nevis and other islands of the Caribbean, plantations were equipped with their own industrial plants (works) where sugar cane was crushed and the juice boiled to produce cane sugar, most of it for export to the European market.

At Mountravers the ‘works’ was originally located close to the plantation house where the remains of the boiling house may be traced in the undergrowth. With the construction of the three-storey range in the early nineteenth century the ‘works’ were probably centred on ‘Pinney’s Yard’ a short distance from the house site but still within earshot of the owner or manager.

Bristol student Leonie Williams uses a magnetometer at the site of Jamestown, instructed by Dr Jim Andrews of the University of Southampton.

Page updated: January 2nd, 2005