FARLEY HILL NATIONAL PARK

Farley Hill National Park is one of the more popular areas under the control of the NCC and it has been gradually restored to take its place as one of the natural treasures of the island.

Visitors to Farley Hill will marvel at the vast landscape which greets them. The Great House, now an outline of ruined stone, belonged to an age of plantation houses of the seventeenth century. However, it did not achieve its final form until after the middle of the nineteeth century. The earliest part of the house - originally known as Grenade Hall - is thought to have been build in 1818. It was initially owned by Joseph Lyder Briggs in 1850, who in turn gave it to his son Thomas Graham Briggs in 1856. In 1857, after his marriage, Graham Briggs added the south wing, the library, dining room along with a billiard room and bedrooms to the House and then named it "Farley Hill".

After the death of Mr. Briggs, the house was given to his brother-in-law, Mr. Benjamin Courbank Howell, and for almost half a century, the Howell family lived there. When the family moved from Farley Hill, the property was rented at $25 per month, and then it remain empty. In 1940, it was sold to Mr. W. W. Bradshaw, but it was in such a state of decay, that it could only serve as a weekend resort.

In 1956, Farley Hill was partially restored to its former splendour for some of the sequences of the film Island in the Sun. Large quantities of wood and other inflammable material were used for the restoration, and a few years later, fire destroyed everything, but the walls.

In 1965, the Government of the day, headed by the Rt. Hon. E. W. Barrow, recognised the importance of preserving features of historical interest, and purchased the property and declared it a national park.

Today, even though the Farley Hill Great House is now a ruin, work is still being been done on the grounds. The saplings and dead trees were removed and a large lawn was developed, along with numerous flowering shrubs. The landscaping of the park is a never-ending process and this work continues on a daily basis. Adjoining the park, is a fine stand of woodland of about thirty acres, which are destined to host a wide variety of trees.

Antigua Whitewood : oldest tree at Farley Hill

THE TWO OLDEST Antigua Whitewood French Peanut VERY LARGE OLD SPECIMENS Barbados Mahogany Tamarind Elephant Apple Norfolk Island Pine Cabbage Palm Date Palm FRUIT TREES Mammee Apple Avocado Pear Mango Soursop Barbados Cherry Pomme Arac OTHER Traveller's Palm Sago Palm Palm Lilly Bay Leaf, Bay Berry Teak Tulip Tree Jumbie Bead Circassian Bean Petrea Farleyense Fern

Cabbage Palm: one of the very large old specimen found in Farley Hill