View source for Woodford Hill, Dominica

'''Woodford Hill''' (15°34'59.99", -61°19'0.01") is a village in [[Saint Andrew Parish, Dominica|Saint Andrew Parish]] in north-eastern [[Dominica]]. Woodford Hill was an estate extending from [[Eden River (Dominica)|Eden River]] to [[L’anse Noire, Dominica|L’anse Noire]]. An [[Amerindian]] village existed at the mouth of the [[Woodford Hill River|Woodford Hill river]] about 1,400 years ago.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Archaeology – La Soye|url=https://dominicageographic.com/archaeology-the-first-european-settlement/}}</ref> The present day village of Woodford Hill is on the western boundary of the old estate.  It  is made up of various sections including Small Farm, Mount Sylvie, Falang, Larieu, Fond Cole, Joe Road, and Big Cedar.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Honeychurch|first=Lennox|date=2004|title=A to Z of Dominica Heritage|url=https://www.lennoxhonychurch.com|website=LennoxHonychurch}}</ref> According to the 2011 census report, Woodford Hill had a population of 1,034 (545 male and 489 female).<ref>{{Cite web|title=2011 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS|url=http://www.dominica.gov.dm/cms/files/2011_census_report.pdf|website=Dominica.gov|publisher=Central Statistical Office}}</ref>{{Infobox settlement
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==History==
When the French arrived to Dominica in the early 1700s they called the former Woodford Hill estate La Soie, after the Bois La Soie bush. The entire parish in which it is situated was called Quarte de La Soie. The area was put up for sale by the crown when the [[British Empire|British]] occupied Dominica in 1763. A significant portion was bought by Napleton Smith. As a result, the present [[Antillean Creole|Creole]] name for the village of Woodford Hill is Simit (the ‘cockoy’, or English Creole pronunciation of Smith), in reference to the estate owner.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Honychurch|first=Lennox|title=Slave Valleys, Peasant Ridges: Topography, Colour and Land Settlement on Dominica.|url=https://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/dominica/conference/papers/Honychurch.html|website=University of the West Indies}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=McCanse|first=Anna|title=Dominica (Other Places Travel Guide)|publisher=Other Places Publishing|year=2011|isbn=9780982261972|pages=168}}</ref>
Robert Aberdein was the owner of the Woodford Hill Estate until around 1826. After that point Faur Mourillon was a joint owner with F.V. Mourillon until their last known association in 1832.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Woodford Hill [Dominica]|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/estate/view/1229|website=Legacies of British Slave-ownership database}}</ref> During the mid 19th century, the estate was owned by Charles Leatham who was nicknamed the “sugar king of Dominica”.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Dominica 138 (Woodford Hill) Claim Details, Associated Individuals and Estates|url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/claim/view/9854|website=Legacies of British Slave Ownership}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons|publisher=Oxford University|year=1855|volume=37|pages=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Honychurch|first=Lennox|date=2003|title=Inter-Island Migration and Cultural Change: The Impact of Montserratians on Dominica.|url=https://www.open.uwi.edu/sites/default/files/bnccde/montserrat/conference/papers/honychurch.html|website=University of the West Indies}}</ref>  Following [[Emancipation of the British West Indies|emancipation]], British slave owners received monetary compensation based on the classification of the individual and level of productivity of the territory. John Constable, a London West India Merchant, was the awardee of £2875 19s 7d in compensation for the 146 enslaved people of Woodford Hill Estate.<ref name=":0" />
The area had gently sloping land and was one of the largest sugar producing estates on island. Five years before the [[emancipation of the British West Indies]], 112 enslaved people worked in Woodford Hill, producing 66,000 lbs of sugar, 2,550 gallons of rum and 400 gallons of molasses. The ruins of the sugar plantation can still be seen by the seashore. The post-emancipation village of Woodford Hill  developed on hilly land between the former Woodford Hill Estate and Hodges. At the end of the 19th century Woodford Hill was 1,123 acres large and the estate was bought by Estates Investment Trust of Dominica who owned it until they sold it to Captain William James Ross Stebbings in the 1930s. Stebbings was appointed by the King to be an unofficial member of the Executive Council of the Presidency of Dominica in 1934. <ref>{{Cite web|last=Pascal|first=Elsa|date=May 2016|title=The Dominican Contribution to the World War 1 Effort|url=http://worldwarone.cacoeu.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Elsa-Pascal-investigates-The-Dominican-Contribution-to-World-War-One.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=13 April 1934 |title=The London Gazette, 13 April, 1934 |pages=2388 |work=The London Gazette |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34041/page/2388/data.pdf |access-date=9 June 2023}}</ref>
In June 1937, Stebbings notably gave notice to fishermen who had boats beached at Woodford Hill and Cariboa Bays to remove the boats and announced that in the future he would not allow anyone to use these Bays without special permission. He followed this by instituting proceedings against two fishermen and obtaining severe fines and costs against each of them. In response to the fines, the villagers of Woodford Hill and [[Wesley, Dominica|Wesley]] approached Mr. Lennox Pelham Napier, the elected member of the Legislative Council for their district and husband to [[Elma Napier]], and asked him to prepare a petition to the Government to restore their right to use the area. Napier prepared the petition which was signed by an overwhelming majority of the people of Woodford Hill and Wesley. Before the petition was read at Council, Stebbings approached Mr. Napier and suggested a compromise resolution, which he accepted. In 1938, Captain Stebbings consented to allow a small strip of Woodford Hill beach to the Northern side of the bay to be used by the public. He also agreed to allow the villagers the right to wash their clothes at the mouth of the Woodford Hill river. At the time, he refused to compromise on Cariboa.<ref>{{Cite news |date=8 January 1938 |title=Cariboa Bay: An Appeal for Action |pages=4 |work=Dominica Tribune |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0004618/19380108/030/0004 |url-access=subscription |access-date=}}</ref>
The estate was then acquired by Frobel Laville in the 1940s who sold it to  Ernest J. Foley and Geoffrey B. Band in 1948 who established Antilles Products Limited. They owned it until Geest Banana Company, founded by Dutch brothers John and Leonard van Geest, purchased the estate in 1954.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Clegg|first=Peter|date=2002|title=THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS BANANA INDUSTRY: COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITY AND COLONIAL NECESSITY|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27865279|journal=Social and Economic Studies|publisher=Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies|volume=51|pages=155–174}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020|title=PIX & NOTES 2: Seaplane Service|url=https://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/homepage-carousel/pix-notes-2-seaplane-service/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Hill |first=Mike |date=21 May 2021 |title=How Preston made a fortune from bananas |work=Lancashire Post |url=https://www.lep.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/how-preston-made-a-fortune-from-bananas-3246054 |access-date=23 April 2023}}</ref>
In 1974, the [[Dominica Labour Party]] government, under the leadership of [[Patrick John]], acquired 400 acres of the estate along the coast from Geest Industries and other landowners for the building of an airport and other projects. These projects were supposed to be developed under an agreement with [[Barbadians|Barbadian]] weapons smuggler Sydney Burnett-Alleyne. Mass protests led to the resignation of Patrick John and the planned projects were not forthcoming. In the late 1970s and 1980s Geest divided the rest of the estate into farm lots and they were sold mainly to villagers of the northeast.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Allfrey|first=Phyllis Shand|date=March 10, 1978|title=Miss Charles Exposes Geest Takeover Deal|work=The Star Dominica|url=https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072476/00592}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Baker|first=Patrick|title=Centring the Periphery: Chaos, Order, and the Ethnohistory of Dominica|publisher=University of the West Indies|year=1994|isbn=9789766400002|pages=146}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=PIX and NOTES 3: 50 years of planning an international airport|url=https://theworldnews.net/dm-news/pix-and-notes-3-50-years-of-planning-an-international-airport}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Trouillot|first=Michel-Rolph|title=Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|year=1988|pages=130, 188, 194}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1993|title=Dominica : Much ado about... bananas|url=http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0hdl--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-0l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL2.23.15&d=HASH0179e8a6dca946b339c05641.3.1&gt=1}}</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{Settlements in Dominica}}
[[Category:Populated places in Dominica]]
[[Category:Saint Andrew Parish, Dominica| ]]