Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

77 THE ORIGINS OF CHURCH VILLAGE The Central Bank occupies part of a six-acre plot donated by the Governor of Barbados in 1640 to Thomas Ball. By 1650, the land was owned by Alice Region. In February 1659 she sold it to George Bacon who two months later sold four acres of it to Colonel William Sharpe for “6,400 pounds of good merchantable muscovado sugar”. Sharpe donated a portion of the land for the construction of the parish church of St. Michael, later St. Michael’s Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1665. By 1710, most of the remaining land belonged to Joseph Salmon, whose widow Sarah sold 3,257 sq. ft. (circa 1732) to Bridgetown merchant, Thomas Harrison. In 1733, Harrison founded Harrison’s Free School (later Harrison College) which was situated in a building on Spry Street, to the north-west of St Michael’s Cathedral. That building was sold to the Freemasons in 1871 and became known as the Masonic Lodge. Church Village, the area to the east of the Cathedral, was once called Spring Garden. During the 1700s, it was owned first by James Frazier and then by Thomas Polgreen after whom the alley which passes to the east of the Central Bank is named. After Polgreen, the next owner was Thomas McIntosh who advertised it in small lots for sale or rent in 1816. Many of the newly-freed slaves settled in the area, thus giving rise to the village. Sir Conrad Reeves, who became the first black chief justice of Barbados in 1886, was born in Church Village. The artist and sculptor Karl Broodhagen also spent part of his youth in the vicinity. He confirmed that the area under the large tamarind tree, which stands in the Cathedral Plaza, was the place where the children in the neighbourhood played cricket, pitched marbles and put on boxing matches. The spot on which the Bank stands has an interesting history. In 1639, the first Sessions House or Parliament of Barbados met on or near the site. The St. Michael Parochial School, which was connected to the Cathedral, was located there in 1859. In more recent times it has been the home to, among other activities, a car dealership, a grocery store, a bicycle repair shop, a blacksmith business and the Sanitation Department. In the immediate vicinity could also be found at various times a pharmacy, a private secondary school and a motor vehicle repair shop. Chapter 3: Consolidation: 1976 to 1986