Around the Island Rail Track and Way Station
St. Kitts has one of the few remaining operational rail tracks in the Caribbean. Begun in 1910 as part of the modernization thrust in the sugar industry in the early 20th Century, the antique equipment remains in use today. This narrow gauge railway runs around the major part of the island, with several loading sites called ‘sidings’ at which the harvested sugar cane is placed into carts. There are 24 bridges that cross the ravines that emanate from the island’s central mountain range. The antique locomotives, hauling up to 40 cane carts, transport the cane to the central sugar factory located on the outskirts of the main town Basseterre. The first tract of the railway was laid between the port and the site for the Factory so that material for the construction and equipping of the factory was carried by rail. A collection of photographs taken during the construction of the railway is kept at the Basseterre Public Library.

St. Kitts Sugar Factory and Compound
“After reaching its peak in the late 1700s the production of sugar declined throughout the nineteenth century, nearly ceasing altogether on several occasions in the last hundred years. The growing of sugar beet in Europe, the emancipation of the slaves, and the increase in the number of countries growing sugarcane worldwide, all contributed to depress the industry in St. Kitts and to threaten the whole economy.

The Industry was saved from extinction in 1912 by the opening of the central sugar factory, capable of processing the whole of the island’s’ crop. This replaced the individual mills and boiling-houses on the various estates. It came into operation just in time for the revival in the price of sugar brought about by the First World War.” (Dyde 1989)

“The St. Kitts (Basseterre) Sugar Factory Ltd., was incorporated on 15th December 1910. The order for the Plant was confirmed to the Mirrlees Watson Company on the 24th. March 1911.

The public opening of the Factory took place on the 20th February 1912, and it was ready to start its first crop on the 9th March. Thus the factory was actually working within a year of the date on which the machinery was ordered, a remarkable piece of work when it is remembered that the whole of the machinery, with the exception of one locomotive, was landed at the Company’s new pier and conveyed over its new railway line to the site of the factory, which had been a cane field till work on the foundations was started.” (Twenty-Five Years of Sugar in St. Kitts 1912-1936)

Three years after all the sugar estates were nationalized in 1974, the Government acquired the St. Kitts Sugar Factory. The Factory continues to process the sugar cane that is transported to it on rail (see # 15). For several years now sugar has been produced at a loss and the future of the sugar industry is questionable. The Sugar Factory remains a national treasure and major heritage site for the island of St. Kitts.

Spooner’s Ginnery
Spooner’s Estate is located east of the town of Cayon. The site, which affords fine views of the surrounding countryside, is rich in agro-industrial history spanning both the sugar and cotton periods, and contains the only surviving cotton ginnery on the island.

Little archival evidence of the estate’s early history has survived to this day. However a map drawn in 1753 identifies Spooner’s Estate by name and indicates an animal-driven sugar mill in operation. Later records show that Benjamin Buck Greene converted the estate to steam-powered milling in the 1870’s.

Around 1900, its ownership changed hands, Sendall and Wade, the new owners, became among the first planters in the Caribbean to successfully change from sugar to cotton. In 1901, they installed the first ginnery on St. Kitts.

Spooner’s Ginnery continued to operate until 1970’s when the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis acquired the property. What remains today are structure and ruins from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries representing three major periods in the agro-industrial history of St. Kitts and Nevis.