Historic Speightstown is the second largest town in Barbados, located along the north-west coastline and prides itself with a long standing and fascinating history. The town, which started as a settlement around 1630, is named after William Speight who owned the land the town was built on. Speightstown stood as the main and busiest Barbados port that served England, “the motherland”. The town earned itself the name Little Bristol due to its strong British presence.
In 1652, there was disquiet as a result of the civil war in England, and Admiral George Ayscue, under the command of Oliver Cromwell, tried to reclaim the port of Speightstown. The Barbadians, being loyal to Charles I, refused to recognize Cromwell as their protector and for six months, Ayscue was unable to land on Speightstown. Ayscue eventually landed on the island with the help of a defector and met with representatives of Barbados at Oistins Town.
In 1652, the “Charter of Barbados” agreement was signed and Barbados became the first island to attain previously unheard of rights and privileges, in particular, tax regulation by their own, a Barbados General Assembly. This town should definitely be in your list of places to visit while on a trip to Barbados.
Speightstown has two twin cities – Reading, Berkshire, England ( 2003) and Charleston, South Carolina ( 1997 ) original parts of which were based on the plans of Barbados's then capital city. Many dispossessed indigo, tobacco and cotton planters departed from Speightstown along with their slaves and helped found Charleston after there was a wholesale move to adopt sugar cane cultivation in Barbados; a land and labour-intensive enterprise which helped usher in the era of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the British West Indies.
As the commercial hub of Barbados’ north the famed fast Speightstown Schooners carried agricultural product and fresh produce to the capital, Bridgetown.