Archive records reveal that a Boulton & Watt Steam engine was sold to the Worthy Park sugar estate in Jamaica in 1846 from Soho, Foundry in Birmingham.
Photograph: Welcome to Worthy Park Billboard, Lluidas Vale, St Catherine, Jamaica, 2022, Tracey Thorne, from the series Intended for Jamaica
As part of my artist research, I sought to recover the history relating to Jamaica from archive records of steam engine sales to sugar plantations by the firm of Boulton & Watt, Soho, Birmingham, to Jamaica. Matthew Boulton & James Watt had been intimately involved from the 1770s in developing this trade and talks with Jamaican planters that led to the adaptation of their steam engine for use in sugarcane milling.
My blog about Lord Penrhyn and the Denbigh Sugar Plantation, explores more about the early steam engine prototype and the development of the trade between 1770s to 1800.
Using the Boulton and Watt Catalogue of Old Engines, I was able to use this list of steam engines supplied to sugar plantations to extract data to trace the sales to Jamaica recorded in that volume between 1808 and 1850. Note that this is a copy ledger created circa 1890 at Soho Foundry after the engines were supplied, and therefore it may not represent an accurate record of all the engines supplied to sugar plantations. This has led to confusion with some sources and even the The Golden Boys (statue) plaque stating that "no steam engines were sold until Matthew Boulton & James Watt retired." This is misleading and a false account of the history.
The catalogue reveals that steam engines were sold mainly to the larger sugar estates and those associated with wealthier plantation owners/families in Jamaica during the nineteenth century. Jennifer Tann (1997) states that the firm of Boulton & Watt, alongside Fawcett & Littledale of Liverpool, dominated the foreign markets in the early part of the nineteenth century.
There are around 54 entries in the Catalogue, with some missing entries marked in pencil, for Jamaica between 1808 and 1850. The first steam engine was sold to Dalvey Sugar Plantation, in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica, in 1808. The entries in the volume show that there was a peak in sales to Jamaica that occurs under the tenure of James Watt Junior at Boulton & Watt between 1811 and the 1830s. The sales then drop off to around one or two a year, with the last entry in 1850 being of a steam engine to Duckenfield Sugar Plantation, in St Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica.
It wasn't possible to look in detail at all the sales, and during the course of the project, I focused on around ten sugar plantation sites that spanned across the whole timeframe. My method for selection was based on:
a) availability of material in the Boulton & Watt archive collection
b) what other history and source material I could find to understand this history
c) and whether I could visit the site during a fieldwork trip to Jamaica.
The sale of a Boulton & Watt steam engine to the Worthy Park sugar estate in Jamaica in 1846 through the West Indian merchant Thomson Hankey & Co., for George Price of Penzance, became a key focus for my artist research.
A range of correspondence and original engine drawings relating to the supply of steam engines to Worthy Park between 1845 and 1846 survive in the Boulton & Watt Collection. The engine drawings are in good condition and shed light on how the steam engine was adapted for use on sugar estates.
The language of the drawings really evoked a sense of unease in me relating to how the dominant narratives on the history of Boulton & Watt in Birmingham have largely ignored the Caribbean history that it is connected to, which is a form of erasure. This is extraordinary considering that the material evidence directly links them to sites of historic enslavement. This history is absolutely invisible on a public level to us in Birmingham.
I found markings and words such as "Sugar Mill" or place names like 'Worthy Park' and the country of planned supply in this case 'Jamaica' powerful evidence of the trade on the engine drawings.
I am interested in the history of places, places matter, as these relate to the social history of people and communities. Many of these places exist today, and still carry place names linked to the history of plantation slavery on the island. Being able to visualise these places can help us shift our collective memory of this history, to be more representative.
Worthy Park Estate is one of only two sugar factories in operation in Jamaica. It is located in the valley of an area known as Lluidas Vale in the parish of St Catherine. Small hamlets of communities live in the area and the largest town is Ewarton. Many people in these communities are employed on the estate or related industries.
The Worthy Park brand "Rum Bar" is known across Jamaica and indeed the world, with thousands of travellers each year buying their rum at the airports as they leave the island. Their rum products are also exported to foreign markets for sale.
Photograph: Rum Bar advertisement Bluefield, Westmoreland, produced by the Worthy Park Estate and used in marketing across the island to advertise their brand of rum, 2019, Tracey Thorne.
It felt important to recover the history in the Boulton & Watt archives and as an artist response to it.
Photograph: Incoming Letter from Hankey & Co to Boulton & Watt about the steam engine for Worthy Park, in Jamaica, 1845, Boulton & Watt Collection, Library of Birmingham, Tracey Thorne,
Worthy Park Sugar Plantation was plotted in St John as a sugar estate with a cattle mill and two watermills in James Robertson’s 1804 map of Jamaica. The plantation dates back to 1670 when it was as gifted to Lt. Francis Price for his services to Cromwell during the English capture of the island from the Spanish in 1655. It was founded inland in Lludias Vale, owned by the Prices of Penzance, Cornwall.
Work by Michael Craton and James Walvin published in their book A Jamaican Plantation: The History of Worthy Park 1670-1970, in 1970 provided one of the first complete histories of a sugar plantation. I used this book as a key resource during my research and fieldtrip.
Sir Rose Price, 1st Bart of Trengwainton in the parish of Madron, Cornwall, inherited the plantation in Jamaica around 1797. He used the wealth generated from his sugar plantations to build his landed estate and gardens in a picturesque style at Trengwainton in Cornwall. Today, Trengwainton Gardens are managed by the National Trust.
Following Rose Price’s death in 1834, his heirs later claimed compensation for freeing the enslaved people on the estate. Data for Worthy Park British Legacies of Slavery database shows that the family claimed on the 28th Mar 1836 | for freeing 464 Enslaved | £3579 3s 2d.
A Boulton & Watt steam engine was ordered for the plantation estate for George Price of Penzance in 1846. Craton & Walvin wrote in their book about this purchase that 'in 1846 a magnificent new Boulton & Watt steam engine of 15 horsepower, which cost £1777' supplied to the estate.
Photograph: Boulton & Watt Engine drawing for Worthy Park, 1846 Thomson Hankey & Co, Ref No. MS 3147/5/832/c from the Boulton & Watt Collection, Library of Birmingham.
The Worthy Park Estate has been owned by several generations of the Clarke family, who acquired the estate in 1918. The company website provides a chronology of its history - estate Heritage.
I undertook two fieldtrip visits to Worthy Park spending several days each time staying in the community at Ewarton. I spent days driving through the vast sugarcane fields, meeting people and visited the sugar factory.
On my second visit, I was granted a tour inside the factory and later taken by vehicle to view the ruins of the eighteenth century windmill at an area on the site called Point Hill. The sugarcane harvest runs between January and June, and I witnessed both cane workers cutting, the transportation of sugar to the factory, and then learnt about how sugar is processed inside the factory.
The photographs below were taken during these field trips, and several of them are currently in the exhibition Intended for Jamaica alongside some cyanotypes I made in response to the archives and this history.
Photograph: On the Road to Worthy Park From Ewarton, St Catherine, Jamaica, 2022, Tracey Thorne, from the series Intended for Jamaica
Photograph: Cane cutters on the Worthy Park estate working in a field that had been burnt to make it easier to harvest the sugarcane, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Discarded chard sugarcane stalks on the Worthy Park Estate left on the ground during the loading of the cane onto carts where they are taken to the factory for processing, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Cane carts used to haul the sugarcane to the factory are pulled along by tractors, other methods including loading on to trucks where fields our further from the factory, Worthy Park Estate, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Burn and slash is a method of harvesting the sugarcane still widely used across sugar producing countries as it makes it easier to cut the sugarcane. The practice can cause issues relating to air pollution for workers, nearby residents and can lead to soil erosion, Worthy Park Estate, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Chard sugarcane stalks being held by a cane cutter, Worthy Park Estate, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Machinery inside Worthy Park sugar processing factory, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Machinery and worker inside Worthy Park sugar processing factory viewed during a tour to learn about all the different stages used today to process the sugar. The factory uses a mix of old and contemporary machinery, with British manufacturing stamps visible on much of the older equipment, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Machinery inside Worthy Park sugar processing factory viewed during a tour to learn about all the different stages used today to process the sugar. The sweet smell of sugar and the sounds of the factory created an extraordinary atmospheric experience and gave me much pause for thought on thinking about conditions in eighteenth and nineteenth century sugar mills , 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Factory worker inside the Worthy Park sugar processing factory viewed during a tour to learn about all the different stages used today to process the sugar, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: Inside the Worthy Park sugar processing factory viewed during a tour to learn about all the different stages used today to process the sugar, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
Photograph: View across the sugarcane fields to the ruins of the eighteenth century windmill on the Worthy Park Estate, 2023, Tracey Thorne.
The photograph of the billboard sign and road sign for Worthy Park and the original Boulton & Watt Engine drawings are currently being exhibited in the exhibition Intended for Jamaica, open until 14 December 2024 at the Library of Birmingham. Free entry.
This essay is part of the wider project called Sugarland and artist research which has been supported by Arts Council England. I grateful to many Jamaican's and staff at Worthy Park Estate for helping me with my artist research. Sharing this work in a blog provides a way for me to share the findings of my research (as 'document' - as a visual archaeology of sites). They represent my personal learning, the people I met along the way and the journeys that I undertook took. I have been making work in Jamaica since 2018.
All Rights Reserved: © Tracey Thorne, 2024.
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