Parishes of Barbados

Barbados

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of Barbados

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The country of Barbados is currently subdivided into sub-regions known as parishes. According to the Act of the Barbados Parliament they are officially styled as the "Parish of ("Parish name") as opposed to the U.S. styled naming convention with the name "Parish" coming after the name.^[1] The areas are called "parishes" because of the island's religious Anglican history under the Church of England. The differing size and shape of each parish were primarily influenced by the mega plantation estates of cotton, sugar cane and tobacco that existed during the colonial years of Barbados. As various chaples of ease were created during the 1600s across the island, some local churches were elevated to parish church status, leading to the formation of new parishes surrounding those freshly created churches.

By 1629, the English settlers after landing at James Town formed six original parishes on the island which were^[2]:

• Christ Church,
• Saint James,
• Saint Lucy,
• Saint Michael,
• Saint Peter and
• Saint Thomas.

In 1645, the land holding of Barbados increased and the shape of the original six were reconfigured giving way to an additional five parishes^[2]:

• Saint Andrew,
• Saint George,
• Saint John,
• Saint Joseph and
• Saint Philip.

Thus Barbados was converted into the current eleven parishes of today. As was common under the British system, each Parish had a single main parishional church (or cathedral in the case of Bridgetown having been elevated to city status), which acted as a sort of capital for each parish.^[3][4] The parishes each held their own Local Government Councils until these were abolished in 1959, following a brief administrative districting experiment within Barbados until 1967.^[3]

Today

The nation's capital Bridgetown, which is located within the parish of Saint Michael, may one day be made into its own district. Within the country, travel is unrestricted to everyone in moving about from parish-to-parish. With the rise of urban sprawl and new construction projects across the country many neighbourhoods and even parishional border-lines today are ill defined.

The eleven parishes are:

See also

• Civil parish
• Constituency Councils
• Geography of Barbados
• History of Barbados
• Transportation in Barbados

• Barbadian vehicle registration plates

• List of cities in Barbados
• ISO 3166-2:BB

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Parishes of Barbados

• Barbados Parliament: The defined Parish area borders of Barbados
• Barbados Parishes
• Barbados Statistical Service (BSS)
  • Barbados Government census by Parish

v • d • e Parishes of Barbados Christ Church · Saint Andrew · Saint George · Saint James · Saint John · Saint Joseph · Saint Lucy · Saint Michael · Saint Peter · Saint Philip · Saint Thomas