February 2025 Update Building Bridges of Friendship
A delegation of adult learners from the North Wales Jamaica Society were welcomed in Clarendon, Jamaica in November 2024, as they continued their exploration of the shared history between Jamaica and Wales. This was organised by Bangor based social enterprise Learning Links International, with Welsh Government funding through the ‘Taith' Project.
During Covid times, the Learning Links International team, supported the North Wales Jamaica Society to transfer our meetings online on the first Saturday each month, and quickly NWJS membership increased with people joining from Jamaica and other parts of the world. Members of the Pennants Community Development Committee from Clarendon, Jamaica, were invited to join and meeting times adjusted to accommodate. Since then, there have been further opportunities to learn together about the significant shared history, with a main focus on learning more about the Welsh plantation owners
These activities have now developed into an initiative which has brought Bangor City Council and May Pen / Clarendon Council together agreeing start to 'build bridges of friendship’ along with others from Jamaica and North Wales, under the Jamaica Wales Alliance.
During a previous visit to Jamaica in 2018, Liz Millman, Director of Learning Links International met the Mayor of Clarendon, Cllr Winston Marage, who asked for support from the Fire Service in North Wales to provide an additional Fire Truck. This request is now being taken seriously, and the Fire Service teams in Clarendon and members of the North Wales Fire and Rescue Service are working together on the logistics of transporting the first vehicle over to Jamaica.
Prior to the delegation visit to Jamaica, Garrick Prayogg, Chair of the North Wales Jamaica Society, led a group of NWJS members on a visit to Penrhyn Castle to see how this history was being told. This was followed up by a meeting with the National Trust team to explore ways that NWJS can work together with them, so that this important story of Jamaican history and the Pennant family can be better shared.
The North Wales Jamaica Society is an active partner in these efforts and provides opportunities to find out more at our open meetings each month on Zoom, with those taking part undertaking further research and visits, to develop a clearer understanding of the development of plantations in Jamaica following the British capture of the island in 1655. It is understood that Giffard Pennant, who was born in Flintshire, was part of Cromwell’s invading army, and he stayed in Jamaica to develop plantations that enabled the family to generate the great wealth that they were able to invest in North Wales, including the industrialisation of the slate quarries and the shipping of slate around the world. Penrhyn Castle was designed and built to showcase this wealth. Today it is managed by the National Trust, attracting thousands of visitors each year, however there has been little done in the past years to share the stories of the links with Jamaica.
Last November the Taith project funded a delegation of adult learners, who joined up with Jamaican colleagues and others who funded their own way, in a programme of activities that included visits and events organised to showcase the shared history of Wales and Jamaica.
The Learning Links International team and the North Wales Jamaica Society have also assisted in the establishment of the Jamaica Wales Alliance Project Committee, which manages the growing number of projects which are getting underway to support community services in Clarendon, with assistance from the Custos’s Office in May Pen, which is currently managing the first funds donated to support the community of Pennants. This came from Johnnie and Phyllida Lloyd, brother and sister members of the Douglas Pennant family. The first funded activities are currently being undertaken at Pennants Basic School where modern flush toilets have replaced the old pit toilets that were still being used. The roof of the John Austin Primary Schools is being replaced, following storm and termite infestation, and work includes improvements for water harvesting. The infestation of termites also caused damage to the Pennants Community Centre, and the Pennants Community Development Committee are working as part of the Jamaica Wales Alliance team to improve the facilities in this area once owned by the Pennant family in the hills of Clarendon.
Other projects in focus are the refurbishment of the school kitchen in Pennants, with a view to the kitchen also being able to preparing meals for older people in this isolated community. The Pennants Community Band is also flourishing thanks to the additional instruments provided, but they would welcome more donations.
With the support of Taith, which is the Welsh Government’s international learning exchange programme established to create life-changing opportunities for people in Wales to learn, study and volunteer all over the world, plans were made to develop the ‘Building Bridges of Friendship’ initiative through the Jamaica Wales Alliance.
Barrington Richardson, the Regional Director of the Ministry of Education in Clarendon, travelled over to Wales in October last year, taking opportunities to lay foundations for links between schools in North Wales and schools in Jamaica. During his visit he met with adults exploring the shared history between North Wales and Jamaica, and he attended a Reception hosted at Penrhyn Hall in Bangor with the Hon Edmund Bailey, Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd and the High Sheriff of Gwynedd.
Dr Kirt Henry. Director of the Jamaica Memory Bank also travelled over to Wales before Christmas 2024. More on this later.