Speightstown

Speightstown

Understand Monument to the English landing Holetown and Speightstown are the two main settlements but it's basically one long ribbon development along the coastal Highway 1B. Tourist literature often refers to the sea here as the Caribbean but that's 100 miles west, over the horizon beyond Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent. This here is the Atlantic and can get rough, but it's normally in the "Goldilocks zone" of being calm enough inshore for family bathing, yet lively enough further out for surfing, wind-surfing and the like. Holetown is where the British first landed in 1625, the hole being the haven and freshwater creek; it was first called "Jamestown" for King James I / VI. More settlers arrived in 1627, plantations and transatlantic trade were established, and the area grew up to be the first capital of the colony. Then the Earl of Carlisle founded a new settlement with a better natural harbour to the south which overtook it, and is nowadays Bridgetown. The west coast ports however stayed in business, trading especially with Bristol. 20th…

Source: Wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 4.0.