The giant tree
A huge old saman.
giggel — CC BY 3.0 · David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada — CC BY 2.0 · giggel — CC BY 3.0 · Edgar El — CC BY 3.0 · giggel — CC BY 3.0 · giggel — CC BY 3.0
Romney Manor is an old estate house on the Wingfield Estate, on a green hillside in Saint Kitts, set in neat botanical gardens with huge trees. A yellow house with red roofs, lawns, tropical flowers and a giant saman tree spreading its branches over the grass make it a calm stop. Samuel Jefferson, great-great-grandfather of Thomas Jefferson, bought the land in 1625 and set up a sugar plantation. It was later named after the Earl of Romney, who bought it in 1713. The plantation used slave labour until 1834. Today it is a visitor attraction, home to a batik workshop and a botanical garden. You enter the garden through an old stone arch and walk between lawns, flowers and palms. The best-known sight is the great old saman tree. In the workshop you watch craftspeople draw on cloth with wax and dye. The garden looks out over forest and sea. The manor is 8.6 km in a straight line north-west of Basseterre and 4.5 km from Brimstone Hill Fortress. Entry is usually free, though a small garden fee may be asked. The road up is narrow and steep.
A huge old saman.
Flowers and lawns.
Drawing on cloth.
Wingfield Estate, near Old Road, west coast of Saint Kitts
Yes, the fortress is 4.5 km away.
Yes, batik cloth is sold at the workshop.