By Verna Penn Moll

Tropical Trade
Marketplaces have always been socially and economically significant to every society. The public market in Road Town, Tortola, provided a central emporium for marketing crafts across the Territory and was one way of encouraging industry amongst the enterprising women and men of the villages. It was first established under the overhang of the Home Industry building, also known as The Bungalow, a single-storey building where straw work and other local crafts were displayed for sale. The building did not have any raised stalls and extended to the approach of the public wharf, where it sat in full view of the imposing 1866 Administration Building and Post Office.

The market was usually held on Saturdays, with goods transported there on donkeys, mules, horses and even on the heads of villagers. There would be various ground provisions and other local produce for sale, including fruits and vegetables, fish and meat, pastries, candies, jellies and jam, cassava bread and dairy products like cream and butter.

Some villages had their own specialities, like East End’s renowned straw-work hats and baskets, made by its women, and brooms, made by its men. The villagers from Belle Vue, Free Bottom, Harrigan and the central and western villages contributed ground provisions, fruits and vegetables, whilst Anegada villagers supplied guinea corn, fish and lobsters.

The market also served as a main hub in which to organise exports and imports. Cargo boats shipped out live animals –– mainly cows, goats and sheep –– and returned with butter, lard, wine and dry goods, like sugar, flour and cornmeal, for the village stores. People also ordered handmade fish traps, pots and seine nets, and discussed the construction of new rowing boats and fishing sloops.

Indeed, as in Ancient Greece, the marketplace in the Virgin Islands has also always been a traditional meeting place to exchange information, ideas and schemes, from cooking recipes and new ways to make money to strategies on how to advance the economic development of the islands. In 1977, after years of relocating, and with the support of the Colonial Development and Welfare Committee, the Road Town Farmers Market finally settled in its present location on Wickham’s Cay near the roundabout.

Time Travel
Beef Island lies off the eastern extremity of Tortola but has come to play a vital part in the economy of the whole territory. The modern Queen Elizabeth II Bridge is the most recent means of access to Beef Island and, therefore, a link to the island’s history and folklore. Once home to Amerindians and later a shelter for pirates, pre-Emancipation planters grew cotton on it. More recently, one of the main sources of income to the Virgin Islands was the exporting of cattle raised in Beef Island to St. Thomas. Now, with the opening of Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, tourism and financial services have replaced agriculture as joint powerhouses of the island’s economy.

In the past, one had to make the crossing from Beef Island to Tortola on a rowboat or simply by swimming. A rope-pulled wooden barge was installed in the 1960s; using manpower, the barge would take across anything that could be loaded. Finally, between 1965 and 1966, British Royal Engineers built a one-lane cantilevered bridge that could be lifted to allow high-masted boats to pass under it. A charming tollbooth was erected at the side of the road near the bridge, and a bridge keeper/toll collector was appointed to collect the toll and raise the bridge when necessary.

First opened by Queen Elizabeth II herself, it is said that when she was ready to cut the ribbon to inaugurate the bridge, the scissors carefully selected for the occasion could not be found. However, they suddenly appeared, as if by magic, and poised themselves in Her Majesty’s hand.

As tourism and financial services prospered, the airport and yacht facilities on Beef Island were enlarged, road traffic increased and the charming drawbridge had to be replaced by a higher, more conventional two-lane bridge, which opened in 2003. It was found that maintaining the tollbooth exceeded the income from tolls, so the collecting of tolls was abandoned. The promise to replace the system is still outstanding. However, the unused tollbooth remains in place and the footings of the old Queen Elizabeth II Bridge can still be seen close to its successor.

Black and white photo courtesy of Penny Haycraft.

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