ELEVEN showpiece properties will throw open their doors in the next three months as the Barbados National Trust rolls out its 2016 Open House Programme on Wednesday.
The programme will offer Barbadians a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the inside of the 1855, now burnt out and abandoned Glendairy Prisons located Station Hill, St Michael.
Scheduled to run through the height of the winter tourism season, the programme will highlight such locations as an historic house of God, the abandoned penal facility and a palatial home on the plush West Coast.
Kicking off the programme is the Victorian property, Ryland, in Chelsea Road, a stone’s throw away from the Garrison Historic Area.
It will be followed by the oldest chapel of ease on the island, the 1882 All Saints’ Church in St Peter. The site dates back to the 1650s and contains beautifully restored stained glass windows.
The itinerary also includes some of the island’s plantation homes like Holder’s House, St James; Halton’s Great House, St Philip; George Washington House on Bush Hill and Pollard’s Mill in St Philip, as well as Bleak House, the St Andrew home of environmentalist Richard Goddard; Welches, the artistic hub of the Walker family that is on show twice this season, and Codrington College in St John.
The Open House programme, the highlight of the National Trust programme, runs from January 13 to March 30. (HLE)