Speightstown

{{other uses}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Speightstown | type = Town | image_skyline = Speightstownbds.JPG | image_caption = Causal view of Queen's Street, Speightstown | pushpin_map = Barbados | coordinates = {{coord|13|15|16|N|59|38|27|W|type:city_region:BB|display=inline,title}} | coordinates_footnotes = <ref>{{cite web | url = https://maps.google.com/maps/place?ftid=0x8c43ef905895147d:0xefca27cbf151c29e | title = Speightstown, Barbados | publisher = Google Maps | accessdate = 20 August 2011 }}</ref> | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = [[Barbados]] | subdivision_type1 = [[Parishes of Barbados|Parish]] | subdivision_name1 = [[Saint Peter, Barbados|Saint Peter]] | area_footnotes = | area_total_km2 = | elevation_footnotes = | elevation_m = 11 | population_footnotes = <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://population.mongabay.com/population/barbados/3373505/speightstown|title = World population data}}</ref> | population_as_of = 2013 | population_total = 3634 | population_density_km2 = auto | website = [https://www.barbados.org/spght.htm Official website] | footnotes = }}

'''Speightstown''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|p|aɪ|t|s|t|aʊ|n}}), also known as ''Little Bristol'', is the second largest town in [[Barbados]]. It is situated {{convert|12|mi|abbr=out}} north of the capital city of [[Bridgetown]], in the northern [[parish]] of [[Saint Peter, Barbados|Saint Peter]].

The area is named after William Speight, a member of Barbados' first [[Barbados House of Assembly|Assembly]] during the Settlement years, and the former owner of the land where the town is located.

==History== Speightstown was formally settled around 1630 and in the earliest days of settlement was Barbados's busiest port ([[Automated Manifest System|AMS]] [[Seaport Code]]: '''27213''', -- [[UN/LOCODE]]: '''BB SPT '''<ref>[https://service.unece.org/trade/locode/bb.htm Barbados codes], United Nations - Code for Trade and Transport Locations (UN/LOCODE) via UNECE</ref>). Ships laden with sugar and other commodities left Speightstown bound directly for London and especially [[Bristol]]. For this reason Speightstown is sometimes known as Little Bristol. The "quaint town" has now become the centre of a tourist area as well as a northerly shopping district.

The town itself is currently the subject of an archaeological research project, the Speightstown Community Archaeology Project (SCAP), which was established in 2010 and involves a collaboration between archaeologists and students of the [[University of Winchester]], the [[University of the West Indies]] ([[Cave Hill, Saint Michael, Barbados|Cave Hill]]) and [[Barbados Museum & Historical Society|Barbados Museums]]. To date work has focused upon an historic buildings categorisation of the town, graveyard memorial survey and excavations at the eighteenth-century coastal fort at [[Maycock's Bay, Barbados|Maycock's Bay]] to the north.

==Geography== === Boundary === Through Statutory Instrument (S.I) 1984 No. 141, Road Traffic Act, CAP. 295, ROAD TRAFFIC REGULATIONS, and under Schedule Section # 6:<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://208.109.177.6/en/showdoc/cr/1984_141/se:105?splitmode=true#Pd61946487e5056 |title=Road Traffic Act |access-date=2018-02-17 |archive-date=2018-02-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218090249/http://208.109.177.6/en/showdoc/cr/1984_141/se:105?splitmode=true#Pd61946487e5056 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Boundaries of Bridgetown, Speightstown, Holetown and Oistin are cited as follows: 2) "Speightstown: (a) the section of Highway 1 from the entrance of the Alexandra School to Scantleburys Drive; (b) the section of Church Street from its junction with Highway 1 to its junction with Round the Town Road; (c) the section of Chapel Street from its junction with Highway 1 to its junction with Round the Town Road; (d) the whole section of Gooding Alley.

==Twin towns – sister cities== Speightstown has been twinned with:

*{{flagicon|ENG}} - [[Reading, Berkshire]], [[England]] (since 2003)<ref name="Reading twinning">{{cite web|url=http://www.reading.gov.uk/council/town-twinning/|title=Reading - Town Twinning|access-date=2013-07-14|work=Reading Borough Council|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509063652/http://www.reading.gov.uk/council/town-twinning/|archive-date=2013-05-09}}</ref><ref>[http://www.reading.gov.uk/communityandliving/towntwinning/General.asp?id=SX9452-A77F74B8 twinning] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527204855/http://www.reading.gov.uk/communityandliving/towntwinning/General.asp?id=SX9452-A77F74B8 |date=2011-05-27 }}</ref> *{{flagicon|US}} - [[Charleston, South Carolina]] (since November 1997), the original parts of which were based on the plans of Barbados's then capital city. Many dispossessed indigo, tobacco and cotton planters departed from Speightstown along with their slaves and helped found Charleston after there was a wholesale move to adopt sugar cane cultivation in Barbados; a land and labour-intensive enterprise which helped usher in the era of Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in the [[British West Indies]].

==Notable residents== *Actress [[Claudette Colbert]] spent six months annually in Speightstown after her retirement where she died and was laid to rest.<ref>{{cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=1996-07-31 |title=Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, is Dead at 92. |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> *Athlete and actor [[Oliver Skeete]] was born in Speightstown.

==References== {{Commons category}} {{Reflist}}

[[Category:Populated places in Barbados]] [[Category:Saint Peter, Barbados]] [[Category:Populated places established in the 17th century]]