Tracing the sale of steam engines from Soho in Birmingham I discovered an order for William Atherton's Green Park Sugar Plantation, in the parish of Trelawny, Jamaica.
The firm of Boulton & Watt under the stewardship of James Watt Jnr supplied a steam Engine in 1815 to power the estate's sugar mill to merchants W.P. Litt & Steele of London. The Green Park Sugar Plantation was registered to William Atherton’s heirs and the number of enslaved people registered on the estate in 1815 was 543.
Photograph: View towards the eighteenth windmill which was part of the sugar mill on the Green Park Sugar Plantation, Tracey Thorne, 2023, from the series Intended for Jamaica
As part of my fieldwork in Jamaica, I traced the sale of this Boulton & Watt steam engine, to the historic site of the former Green Park Sugar Plantation. Visiting several times over a few months to fully engage with the site and reflect on the colonial legacies still present today.
The small rural community of Green Park, which still bears the plantation's name, is located about a twenty-minute drive inland from the main A1 highway, past the Martha Brae rafting village. To reach it, you turn off onto a small track aptly named Heritage Road. I must admit, I couldn't find it the first time I visited. Although I knew the ruins of the great house and windmill existed, I got quite lost on my initial attempt as I entered the community from the wrong direction. Fortunately, some community elders noticed I was lost, and one of them kindly led me up a very narrow track to the site, which is situated at the top of the village, parallel to the road.
I later realised that continuing further along the main road and then entering via Heritage Road would have been the easier route.
Photograph: View down Heritage Road towards the ruins of the Green Park Sugar Plantation, Tracey Thorne, 2022 from the series Intended for Jamaica
As I drove down the track on my left was a group of two old buildings one of them being the ruins of William Atherton's Green Park Plantation Manor. He completed construction on his manor house around 1764. I am guessing that this was the service entrance as I found two much grander entrances on other parts of the building.
Photograph: View towards the ruins of the Green Park Plantation Manor, Tracey Thorne, 2023
Photograph: Marble Plaque for William Atherton on the grand entrance wall leading into Green Park Plantation Manor, Tracey Thorne, 2022
William Atherton (1742-1803), was a wealthy merchant from Lancashire who owned sugar plantation estates in Jamaica. Atherton was born in Preston, Lancashire, the fourth son of William and Lucy Atherton - shown in the portrait below. He was the son of a successful and wealthy silk mercer. His father was a Preston Alderman and was elected Mayor of Preston in 1732 and 1738. Prescot history refers to his father having been born in 1715.
Colonial Art: Portrait of Mr & Mrs Atherton, Oil on Canvas, Walker Art Gallery, WAG 1353, by Arthur Davis c 1743
Atherton travelled to Jamaica as a merchant and subsequently became the overseer of a sugar plantation. His family had been involved in the Atlantic slave trade since at least 1737 and were known as Liverpool privateers.
He later became a plantation owner and enslaver, owning two Jamaican sugar estates: Green Park Plantation and the nearby Spring Vale Pen Plantation in the parish of Trelawney.
Atherton was a significant enslaver and data from the UCL Legacies of Slavery database reveals his estate heirs after he died continued to own a large number of enslaved people on these plantations. In 1816, his plantations at Green Park Estate and Spring Vale Pen recorded a total of 795 enslaved people.
In 1836, his heirs and estate claimants received compensation of £10,172 17s 9d for the emancipation of 544 enslaved people from Green Park.
Photograph: Grand entrance Atherton's Green Park Plantation Manor, Tracey Thorne, 2023
Photograph: A room with a view from Atherton's Green Park Plantation Manor where he could have seen across to the windmill and sugar works that were close by, Tracey Thorne, 2023, from the series Intended for Jamaica
Photograph: Second Marble Plaque for Green Park Plantation Manor on the opposite side of the grand entrance, Tracey Thorne, 2022, from the series Intended for Jamaica
Photograph: View standing by the Green Park Plantation Manor looking towards the windmill where a local business owner (right) now grows lawn grass for hotels around the windmill, Tracey Thorne, 2022
As an artist, I'm drawn to the legacy of British sugar plantations in the Caribbean—a history that feels both distant and painfully present. These plantations, built on the exploitation of enslaved people, fueled the empire's wealth while inflicting unimaginable suffering.
This history isn't just in the past; it lingers in our present. Through my photography, I reflect on this legacy, unearthing buried truths and acknowledging the ways it continues to shape our world today.
In my work at this historic site, I uncovered a wealth of broken ceramic pieces encased within a shower block installed in the 20th century. These fragments, once part of luxurious items enjoyed by plantation owners, were hidden beneath layers of modern construction. Discovering these broken ceramics was a valuable find, offering a tangible connection to the past and underscoring the stark contrast between the opulence of the elite and the suffering endured by many.
Photograph: Broken British ceramic shards embed into a concrete wall inside Green Park Plantation Manor, Tracey Thorne, 2022
Reflecting on this legacy, the artefacts and architecture from the plantation deepened my understanding of how the grandeur of the past is intertwined with this brutal history and gave me much pause for reflection. The land itself, scarred by the weight of its own history, seems to be in a quiet, ongoing process of healing. As nature slowly reclaims what was once a site of immense suffering, there is a sense that the earth is trying to mend the wounds left by human hands, seeking to restore balance and peace to a place once marked by pain.
Photograph: Jamaica Tree Fern Green Park Plantation Manor, Tracey Thorne, 2022
As I stood upon this land, I gazed upward, allowing the weight of reflection to merge with the quiet expanse of the sky.
Each small fragment, like shards of a fractured history, intertwines to form the collective memory of those we never knew. Every delicate piece carries the essence of countless untold stories, binding us together in a shared legacy of loss and connection across time and space.
Some of the photographs on Green Park are featured in the current exhibition Intended for Jamaica at the Library of Birmingham until 14th December 2024. This includes a set of large cyanotypes of ceramic shards and an archive case which explores the connections between Josiah Wedgwood and James Watt who were both involved in selling ceramic goods to the colonies during the eighteenth century.
The project was supported by Arts Council England.
Comments