THE ENTITY CHARGED with preserving the island’s natural and built heritage is throwing open the doors to its Open House programme early this year.
Barbados National Trust general manager Miguel Pena revealed the biggest event on the Trust’s calendar will be starting this month and will run until March 2017.
A new feature will also be four properties welcoming visitors on Saturdays, the first of which was Tyrol Cot last Saturday.
“The move to pull it up to December is to take advantage this year of the fact that there are so many diasporic Barbadians on island who are coming home for Independence, and the feeling was that many of them may be staying until Christmas,” Pena told the DAILY NATION.
He added that the December start would also coincide with the beginning of the winter tourist season.
Tyrol Cot will be followed by the historic Cathedral Church of St Michael and All Angels (February 4); Middle Earth, in St Joseph (March 4), and then a surprise debut.
“The reason we decided to feature some of the houses, four properties, on Saturday was to respond to the desire of many Barbadians to attend our Open House programme. A lot of Barbadians simply cannot come out on Wednesday afternoons,” he said.
Pena said the Open House programme was the trust’s biggest fund-raising event and the proceeds helped with the restoration of its properties.
“Over the years, the response has been very good. We would get an average of about 200 people per open house but we have had open houses where we have about 600 people. So we are hoping that people take advantage of the Saturdays,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sir Henry Fraser, who delivered the afternoon’s lively lecture, not only revealed the history of Tyrol Cot but gave an insight into the life of the Adams family (Sir Grantley and his wife Grace, who shared Tyrol Cot for a short time with their son Tom and his wife Genevieve), who called it home.
He also used the opportunity to urge people to donate and support the work of the trust.
Sir Henry noted that Barbadians appeared to believe the trust was wealthy.
“The National Trust continues to be in serious debt because the people of Barbados admire the work of the trust but the Barbadian population seems to think the National Trust has money trees. We are almost always on the edge of bankruptcy and we are desperately in need of funds to support the heritage that we attempt to save,” he said, adding that the Open House programme was an “attempt to raise money to keep heritage properties going”.
This year’s properties also include the Exchange Museum and Masonic Lodge in Bridgetown, Fustic House in St Lucy and Stony Hill, St Philip.