Rita Pemberton

THE NAME Gilpin is currently associated with one of the oldest, most popular and prestigious traces in the Tobago rainforest.

This two-mile trace leads to some of the treasures of the forest and provides some of the most desirable visitor experiences in the area. Along this trace, exotic rainforest flora can be seen, and in addition, it provides excellent birding opportunities, especially for sightings of the rare white-tailed sabre-wing hummingbird, which was thought to be extinct until it was discovered there in 1974.

But, aside from its tourism and environmental role, there is another important dimension to the story of Gilpin.

Gilpin was one of the two villages in the far recesses of the hilly areas of north Tobago, a considerable distance from the Bloody Bay estate.

This village was established off the main road (a track), within the precincts of the rain forest. This settlement, which was deliberately sited far from other human habitation, was a bid by the newly freed population to challenge plantation domination of land resources and lead an independent existence.

DESIRE FOR

INDEPENDENCE

Distance, isolation and lack of facilities were not daunting for the villagers, for whom it was of utmost importance to liberate themselves from the restrictive, repressive, and exploitive stranglehold of the tentacles of the plantation and establish themselves in spaces they could call their own.

However, it is very instructive that the village was founded on the remnants of an estate. Its presence reveals that despite the imperial ban on settlement in the area, and the popular view that this restriction was rigidly obeyed, there was some clearing of parts of the rainforest.

One Englishman, after whom the trace is named, defied the law and established and ran an estate on the forbidden territory, down in a gully 'behind God's back' and out of sight of the island's administrators. When he gave up cultivation, the land was sold and/or occupied by freed Africans.

The villagers of Gilpin established a symbiotic relationship with Dead Bay, the other isolated village in the area, which was the path to Parlatuvier, for access to essential services.

OLD TOBAGO

NAMES AND WAYS

Gilpin was home to a small close-knit community, who included the Baptiste, Blake, Burris, Horsford, James, Lewis, Moses, Thomas and Winchester families.

Water for domestic purposes was obtained from springs and the Bloody Bay River. There was no commercial activity in the village, and groceries had to be bought at a shop at the junction of the trace and main road, or in Parlatuvier.

The trace could not accommodate vehicular traffic, so donkeys became the main means of transport.

There were no schools, so children attended the Anglican school in Parlatuvier. After Hurricane Flora, an RC church-owned building which housed school and church was constructed, and the priest, who was based in Delaford, led a service every other Thursday, usually after school was dismissed.

Gilpin was a largely sel