Golden Grove Sugar Factory

Duckenfield Farm, in the parish of St Thomas in Jamaica.

In 1850 the firm of Boulton & Watt Co supplied a steam engine to power the Duckenfield Hall sugar mill on the plantation in the parish of St Thomas in the East, in Jamaica. Historically, Duckenfield Hall and Golden Grove were separate sugar plantations but later they became part of the larger Golden Grove Sugar Estate.

Photograph: Golden Grove Sugar Factory building, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

Photograph: View by the Golden Grove Sugar Factory towards the canefields, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

Photograph: White Egret sitting on the fence that surrounds the Golden Grove Sugar Factory, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

The white egret sitting peacefully on the fence reminded me of this poem by Derek Walcott -

White Egret VI (short passage from his poem)

The egrets are the colour of waterfalls, and of clouds. Some friends, the few I have left, are dying, but the egrets stalk through the rain as if nothing mortal can affect them, or they lift like abrupt angels, sail, then settle again.

Sometimes the hills themselves disappear like friends, slowly, but I’m happier that they have come back, like memory, like prayer.

Photograph: Looking through the fence that surrounds the Golden Grove Sugar Factory with the rusty old cane carts lying discarded, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

Photograph: Golden Grove Sugar Factory Sign Duckenfield Farm off the main road, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

Photograph: On the road to Golden Grove Sugar Factory - Duckenfield Farm, St Thomas, Jamaica (2022) Tracey Thorne from the series Intended for Jamaica

In 1850 the firm of Boulton & Watt Co. headed up by James Watt Jnr, supplied an Independent Steam Engine to power the sugar mill on Duckenfield Hall Sugar Plantation. It was the last steam engine supplied by the firm to Jamaica. During the post-emancipation period, sugar mills relied on formerly enslaved workers and indentured labourers to work on the estates and in the sugar mill. Critics at the time described conditions on these estates during this period as nothing short of paid slavery. Resistance and rebellion against colonial exploitation continue into the later half of the nineteenth century in St Thomas and across Jamaica.

The plantation was named after Robert Dukinfield (Duckenfield) and today the Golden Grove Factory site although closed is located in the community of Duckenfield. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, former plantation land in this area was amalgamated into larger estates. Golden Grove Sugar Factory was the main sugar-producing factory in St Thomas during the twentieth century and closed just before the 2020 pandemic.

The owners of Duckenfield Farm Sugar plantation that ordered the steam engine through their agents in 1850 were the heirs of Lady Cooper, who on the 9th Nov 1835 claimed compensation for the loss of their property - the 336 enslaved people and were awarded £6379 12s 5d in compensation.

The historical connection to Golden Grove was featured in the exhibition Intended for Jamaica in 2024 and exhibited at the Library of Birmingham. The original engine drawings for Dukenfield Hall and correspondence are held in the Library archives in the Boulton & Watt Collection.