Bathsheba

Bathsheba grew up as a fishing village on the Atlantic side of the parish of Saint Joseph. Its oldest landmark is the parish church on Horse Hill: Saint Joseph Anglican Church was first built as early as 1640, wrecked by the hurricane of 1831 and rebuilt in 1839; that building is now a ruin. A small chapel built nearby in 1837 was restored after a landslide and dedicated to Saint Aiden in 1904.

The hill country inland is known as the Scotland District. When the island's military signal stations were set up in 1818–19, the chain ran from Gun Hill north to the Cotton Tower, which stands near the village and is known for its views over the district, and on to the northern stations.

In the 20th century Bathsheba became known for its scenery and surf rather than for development. From the 1950s Iris Bannochie turned her family's land on the hillside into the Andromeda Botanic Gardens, later given to the Barbados National Trust, and the Soup Bowl reef break became known for its surf, drawing competitions every year.

Bathsheba's culture is that of the rural east coast: fishing, village churches, rum shops and a slower pace than the hotel coasts of the west and south. For visitors who stay, the east coast offers the feeling of a Caribbean retreat, a world away from the busy hotel strips of the south and west.

Surfing gives the village an international side. The Soup Bowl, a reef break just off the beach, hosts local and international competitions each year, bringing surfers from abroad to a village that is otherwise built around fishing.

Gardening is the other local passion. Iris Bannochie, a self-taught Barbadian horticulturalist, created the Andromeda Botanic Gardens on the hillside from the 1950s, and it is now a Partner Garden of the UK's Royal Horticultural Society. The wider parish has two more well-known gardens, the Flower Forest and Hunte's Gardens, and the outskirts of the village hold Joe's River Tropical Rainforest, about 85 acres of woodland with giant fig trees, mahogany and cabbage palms.

Bathsheba is the main fishing village of Saint Joseph, with some 5,000 inhabitants. Fishing remains part of local life, alongside small-scale tourism: a few guesthouses, bars and cafés that serve day visitors and surfers. The area is more often visited than stayed in.

The east coast is the least developed part of Barbados, and that shapes everyday life. There is little accommodation, few shops and slow public transport; buses run mainly to and from Bridgetown, and most people do their big shopping in town. The village's links to the rest of the island are an hourly bus to Bridgetown's Fairchild Street terminal and a less frequent route across the north of the island to Speightstown on the west coast.

The sea dominates the village's rhythm. The Atlantic breaks hard against the boulders, and the beach is generally too rough for swimming, so it is used for walking, fishing and surfing instead. Green monkeys, introduced from Africa in the colonial era, are often seen in the surrounding hills.

The food of Bathsheba is everyday Bajan cooking. The national dish is cou-cou and flying fish — a smooth cornmeal-and-okra mash with flying fish, fried or steamed, and a spicy gravy. Barbados is known as "the land of the flying fish", and the fish is one of the country's national symbols. Fish cakes, macaroni pie, and rice and peas are staples, and cutters, sandwiches in a bread roll, are the quick lunch.

In the villages of the east coast, informal lunch spots serve pudding and souse — a spiced sweet-potato pudding served with pickled pork — along with fried or barbecued fish, chicken and pork. Bathsheba itself has a handful of small bars and cafés, several of which look out over the beach.

Rum shops are the social centre of village life, and drinks include rum punch, mauby, a bittersweet bark infusion, and sorrel. Bajan pepper sauce is on every table. For a bigger choice of restaurants, visitors head back to the west and south coasts.