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Bermuda's Paget Parish

Exploring this central county bordering Devonshire, Pembroke and Warwick

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer by e-mail to this file use "bermuda-online.org/seepaget.htm" as your Subject

Recommended hotels are shown in bold. Some have the facilities shown by the following symbols. Hotels shown with 5-2 Stars reflect the symbols shown on Expedia.com.

Accommodation

Symbols

- 5 Star hotel

- 4 Star hotel

- 3 Star hotel

- 2 Star hotel

• Hotels

• Cottage Colonies & Private Clubs

• Guest Houses

• Efficiency Units (Self Catering)

• Clear View Suites and Villas (Self Catering with restaurant)

Other symbols

- business center	- business facilities	- Ship view	- dining
- disabled access	- fitness	- golf course	- meeting room
- pool	- public buses	- public ferries	- shopping
- walking area

Introduction

Paget Parish's crest, from the fourth Lord Paget

Paget Parish is on Main Island, the same size as the other eight parishes. It is on Bermuda's South, Middle and Harbour Roads. It was named after Elizabethan patron and English aristocrat William Paget, fourth Lord Paget (1572-1629). 

Born in the year of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, he spent much of his life under suspicion in England because of his father's ardent Roman Catholicism. His father fled to Spain and was considered a traitor. His son turned Protestant and grew to hate all things Spanish but was still mistrusted by Queen Elizabeth, even after serving with Lord Essex in the Calais Expedition of 1596. He avoided the same fate as Essex. He was finally restored to his paternal lands and honors by King James in 1605. In 1612 he became a member of the Virginia Company which then included Bermuda. He was one of the illustrious band of gentlemen "Adventurers" who invested in the Bermuda Company to colonize the Bermuda islands from 1615 onwards. 

He was the largest shareholder in the original Paget Tribe named after him in 1617, later Paget Parish. He is buried at West Drayton in Middlesex, England. 

A basic map

Early settlers called the Tribe Crow Lane. Crows were there and "lane" meant a "sheltered waterway." Today, Crow Lane is the easternmost area of Hamilton Harbor, a busy "roundabout"  (rotary) and small park.  This Parish is not as far from the Bermuda International Airport as western Parishes. Its northern side is served by Bermuda Government ferry boats. Its middle and southern areas have buses.

Parish constituencies

• Paget East
• Paget West

Avocado Lodge Park

A Bermuda National Park. A small but interesting facility off Middle Road a little west of the US Consul General's Office and partly down Corkscrew Hill.

Alfred Blackburn Smith Nature Reserve

8.7 acres, it is not public but open to guests and members of the Coral Beach Club and Bermuda Audubon Society. It was donated in 2003 by then owner Elfrida Chappell, daughter of the late Mr. Smith, to the Bermuda Audubon Society and named as such after him. He gave it to his daughter as a 21st birthday present in 1935. It is one of the last undeveloped tracts of undeveloped Bermuda upland forest. It offers spectacular views of the South Shore.

Bermuda Gardens

A few - not all - are accessible to the disabled in a wheelchair.

Bermuda College

Off South Road. See Education in Bermuda. It has some some fine academic buildings. It is a technical institute, community college, hospitality training center, business school and further education center for adults. It also has a library, open to the public, on a membership fee basis. Bermuda Government owned and operated as a guango, it is the equivalent of a junior college. It is NOT a university as it does not award degrees. It owns - but no longer operates (it leases) the Stonington Beach Hotel. 

The present Bermuda College president, Dr. Charles Green, Bermuda Government appointed, lives in Shamrock Cottage on Matthew's Lane, one of the Bermuda College properties, on a grace-and-favor basis. Hundreds of thousands of dollars - possibly as much as $500,000 - were spent in 2006 on renovations there, without any of it having been put out to tender,  in breach of Government's Financial Instructions, which require three quotes for spending in excess of $5,000. 

Shamrock Cottage was reportedly in a poor condition before the arrival of Dr. Green to the Island in 2004, to such an extent that burglars were able to break-in and steal belongings from vice-president Larita Alford, who was then living there. Renovation work included the gutting of the house, an upgrading of the plumbing and electrics, a new kitchen and extensive work to the exterior.

Bermuda National Trust headquarters at Waterville

National Trust properties throughout Bermuda are open to visitors - for a fee for those who are not members in Bermuda or places abroad that reciprocate the membership, or free for members. Americans who are current members of The Royal Oak Foundation should ask if they are entitled to free admission to all properties open to the public, because they are if they visit the United Kingdom. Members of National Trusts in Australia, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey (UK Channel Islands), Fiji, Japan, Isle of Man, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Scotland and Zimbabwe are admitted free if they remember to bring current their membership cards with them to Bermuda. Bermuda based members of the Bermuda National Trust can visit National Trust premises in the same countries for free when visiting there, if they take their Bermuda membership cards with them.

This organization owns several museums and more other private properties than any other organization in Bermuda, many of which it rents out to overseas people. Its historic headquarters of "Waterville" shown here has small but nice gardens including roses. Waterville Park, also part of the property, is on the shore. The grounds but not the house are open to the public. They are adjacent to and join Crow Lane Park.

Description of each property and how it is graded by the organization

All are historic buildings or areas. HM is an historic monument.

Bermuda Open Houses and Gardens

Bermuda Railway Trail

Birdsey Studio

5 Stowe Hill, Paget PG 05. Telephone (441) 236-6658 or 236-5845 or fax (441) 236-9123. Artist and sculptor Joe Birdsey Linberg is the daughter of the late renowned artist Alfred Birdsey (1912 to 1996). She is married to Norwegian architect Sjur Linberg. A nice attraction if you like Bermuda art. Numerous tourists stop here to admire the art and tranquil garden setting of interesting plants.

Bus routes

Visitors and new residents who use the Bermuda Government pink and blue buses should always first obtain a free copy of the schedule, to know when the service operates, when it stops and what fares apply.

• Dockyard. The # 8 bus service from and to the city of Hamilton on the outward and inward routes services the Middle Road of Paget Parish and is the most frequent service. This main road has many interesting attributes, showing off much of typical urban, suburban and rural Bermuda. It's the only Parish stretch of any main road in Bermuda completely inland until Southampton Parish beyond Paget Parish going west, so you won't see any open water in Paget Parish once you start out. Avoid the crowded rush hour buses.
• Maritime Museum or the shorter Barnes Corner. The # 7 bus service from and to the city of Hamilton on the outward and inward routes services most of the main South Road in the Parish on the way or back. The second most frequent service in the Parish, it has many nice views and sightseeing attractions. Avoid the crowded rush hour buses and other times when cruise ship passengers also jam up the buses to get to and from the South Shore beaches.
• Part of South and Ord Road. The # 2 bus route from and to the city of Hamilton on the outward and inward routes is the least frequent of these three. It serves Elbow Beach but not more of the South Road.

Camden

See in Bermuda Botanical Gardens. 

Crow Lane

A Bermuda National Park near a busy highway a mile east and south of the City of Hamilton.  It overlooks and fronts Hamilton Harbor. Its name comes from when the whole area was populated by crows. Sit on a bench or under a tree, see the views of the harbor and city.

Left: Crow Lane Park facing the City of Hamilton (photo Keith A. Forbes). Right: Johnny Barnes (photo Government Information Services)

Today, the park is peaceful, but on June 2, 1730 it was used to tar and burn at the stake Sally Basset, a black slave, convicted of poisoning slave owners Sarah and Thomas Foster or, as some other accounts say, Francis Dickinson of Southampton Parish.  She maintained her innocence but her stand against slavery was well known. Complicating the case was that by 1729 she was considered old and was  placed on the auction block. It is alleged she instructed her granddaughter Becky in the use of poisons, to poison her owners. She was regarded by whites of the day as a ringleader of poisoning plots.  Thus this is a stop on the African Diaspora Heritage Trail. It is from the roundabout (rotary in the USA) near this park that Johnny Barnes, a remarkable Bermudian senior citizen, has made it a tradition for decades of waving a cheery "Good morning" - in all weather - to commuters exiting the parish to enter Pembroke Parish to work in or near the City of Hamilton.

Elbow Beach

A Bermuda National Park area. Off the South Road and on the South Shore and 10 minutes from the City of Hamilton, the beach here is popular. The #2 and #7 bus routes get you here. The beach has two sections. One is private above the high water mark, accessed free for guests of the Elbow Beach Hotel and a cost to others. The public side has no facilities - access it via Tribe Road No. 4l and a flight of steps finally repaired in 2002 after hurricane damage in 1999 (fine for the able, but impossible for the disabled in a wheelchair). West of it is Coral Beach, a private beach.

Ferry stops

Visitors and new resident should obtain a free copy of the schedule, to know when the service operates, when it stops and what fares apply.

• Hodson's Ferry. Off Harbor Road, on the Hamilton to Paget round trip ferry route. It serves residents of the immediate area and visitors staying at the Newstead hotel nearby who are not served by buses. It is also a beauty spot well worth a brief visit for photographs. It has a gorgeous view of the Great Sound and Hamilton Harbor to the northeast. The island opposite is White's Island, owned by the City of Hamilton and a recreational site, with a favored anchorage for motor yachts just off it.
• Lower Ferry. Off Harbor Road, on the Hamilton to Paget round trip ferry route. It serves residents of the immediate area and visitors staying at hotels nearby who are not served by buses. It is also a beauty spot well worth a brief visit for photographs. It has a gorgeous view of the Great Sound to the west and Hamilton Harbor to the northeast.
• Salt Kettle. Off Harbor Road and end of Salt Kettle Road, on the Hamilton to Paget round trip ferry route. It serves residents and visitors staying at guest houses or apartments in the area. It's also a beauty spot worth visiting with gorgeous view of the Great Sound and Hamilton Harbor. The great American artist Winslow Homer painted several scenes here. Most people today have no idea Bermuda both inspired and featured in them. Homer painted at least 21 watercolors of Bermudian landscapes and seascapes. These were received with so much acclaim in 1901 when exhibited at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, that Homer was awarded a gold medal for them. Several are now considered to be among his finest works.

Gilbert Park

A Bermuda National Park. A small but interesting facility just behind the Gilbert Institute School, off the South Road. It is often overlooked by visitors.

Golf Courses

Grape Bay

Off the South Road, a good mile before you get to Elbow Beach and closer to the City of Hamilton than the latter, this is another famous private pink beach. Only residents of Grape Bay Drive, their friends, and guests of hotel properties nearby, can use it. The US Consul General, in a luxurious house with extensive grounds on Grape Bay Drive thanks to American taxpayers, has an annual July 4 party near here, for favored resident and visiting American and local Bermudian and British officials. The big fireworks display lights up the sky for miles.

Harbour Road

The Paget Parish portion is loaded with marvelous seascape views all the way. Buses don't service it because it is too narrow and twisting. The best way to see it is to get on your rented moped or hail a taxi and go towards Warwick Parish. Try not to select the morning and evening rush hours as there are few places to get out of the way of heavy traffic. You won't be able to do full justice to the seascapes. To appreciate them as they deserve, pick a time of day when traffic is light.

Hungry Bay

A lovely Bermuda bay, Bermuda National Park and Nature Reserve. The land part of it has a private beach to the right of Tribe Road No. 1 which begins at the Peace Lutheran Church and ends south at the sea. Enter the bay at the small public wharf at the bottom (or if you are a resident or friend of one, via Seabright Avenue and then then left on Seabright Lane, straight down to the dock going down to the sea before the lane turns right). 

At the top left of the photo is the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. At the middle right, top, the open-space grounds of the Bermuda Botanical Gardens can be seen. the bay is also a lagoon and swamp, a smaller version of the Florida Everglades, more like a series of Louisiana bayous, a part of Bermuda 99% of tourists and locals never see. 

Photographs above and below and text by Keith A. Forbes

In Hungry Bay, turn left at Crow Island and left again to go into the north-east section. Look for a waterway on your right as you face the land. It is a mangrove enclosed opening to the swamp. Enter at your own risk, preferably via someone who knows the swamp and has an aluminum or rubber inflatable dinghy or kayak. (The author himself provided this service until 1989, but not since then). Assist in rowing, paddling and fending off mangrove branches. Swim if the craft overturns or is punctured. Wear old clothing, or swim suit with an old shirt, old sneakers or docksiders. Or go via road and path instead of by water, on a periodic Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo tour with a volunteer guide.

You can go for miles up the canals. The best time of day to access the swamp by water is at least an hour before high tide crests. It will help bear you right in. Note native Red Mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), evergreen trees reaching up to 25 feet via numerous aerial roots from lower branches. Their aerial roots, with root systems resembling eggs of gigantic spiders, indicate they are the red variety. Aerial roots act as props to give them plenty of stability. They have air-breathing organs on their prop roots, which carry air to the roots in the salty mangrove swamps where the sediment is poor in oxygen. The prop roots excrete some of the salt the tree brings in. They are seldom torn up by storms or gales and are vital to our coastlines because they stop the shores from eroding. They grow only in mud at the edge of salt lagoons and bays. They have pendulous fruits.

Also see Black Mangroves (Avicennia nitida), gray-foliaged evergreen trees up to 40 feet high with numerous air-breathing roots growing upwards to 6 inches from the mud around the base of the trunk. They grow in the mud of salt lagoons and bays like these, excellent trees for bees and birds. Black mangroves are slightly smaller than the red variety, with breathing roots rising straight from the water. They also supply air to the underwater roots. On the back of their leaves, you may see salt crystals. This is how the tree gets rid of its salt in the water it consumes.

Mangroves are less aggressive than other trees. They cannot compete with trees and shrubs using fresh water, so they have adapted themselves to living in salt water. Hear the red and black mangrove trees and their young ones murmuring, sucking and expelling water. Both types of mangroves have waxy leaves to conserve fresh water.

For the survival of the species, mangrove seeds start growing on the parent tree to ensure they are not lost in the mud at the foot of the tree. Sprouting seeds fall into the water below and find where they can establish roots of their own. This mangrove area provides nurseries for fish and crabs including marine and local, protected land Hermit Crabs, another protected local species of Giant Land Crab (see photograph above of the holes it digs) - more right here than anywhere else in Bermuda - and mangrove crabs, and habitats for a variety of wild fauna. The coffee bean snail is another well-known resident. Young barracuda, snappers and grunts live here, as do adult damselfish, bream, wrasses and parrotfish, some very large. The water is calm and less salty than in the ocean and mangrove leaves provide a good supply of food.

Also in or near beautiful deep water lagoons are nesting birds such as herons and egrets, under their marine forest canopy. Listen to tree frogs at dusk. Elsewhere in Bermuda, their chorus is soothing, but here it is mysterious and sensuous, a mating call indeed, with answers. Mangroves act as sand and soil traps, keeping waters clear and protecting coastlines during storms. When you're ready to leave this tranquil place, the outgoing tide will guide you back to Hungry Bay (lower right).

If you go by land instead of by water, there are some charming coastline areas nearby to explore to the south east. Walk along the cliffs, for superb ocean views (but no beaches). Also in the area, at the entrance to the bay and via a bit of a climb of a cliff for the agile, is the old ruin of Hungry Bay Fort, one of the many tiny coastal batteries used in early colonial days by British Army soldiers to guard Bermuda against invasion by Spain, France and the USA.

Islands

Only those in the Parish are shown here. See others.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital

Lower Ferry

See "Ferry stops."

Middle Road

One of the three major roads in Bermuda. It runs through the Parish going west, parallel to South Road and Harbor Road. The single bus route on this road is the #8, from the city via this Parish, west to Sandy's Parish and from there back to the city.

Paget Marsh Nature Reserve

Off Lover's Lane at the Middle Road, or via Valley Road at the Middle Road, this is on accessible private property. There are nearly  26 acres of prime nature reserve, the second largest in Bermuda. The central portion is owned by the Bermuda Audubon Society and the Bermuda National Trust has extensive land on either side. A boardwalk, mostly on Audubon property, a 315 foot attraction, takes visitors over five separate areas. $350,000 of its cost is the gift of American philanthropist and Bermuda resident Dennis Sherwin, a former Bermuda National Trust president. The nature reserve has fine palmetto and cedar trees and a mangrove swamp. A pond in the marsh, near the swamp, funded by Audubon, was filled in with garbage in the 1920 era but re-established to create rare new wetlands for migratory birds. The reserve is the last place on the island where a forest remained intact after colonists first arrived in 1609. But rising sea levels - caused by whirlpools of warm water called gyres -  may be causing the loss over a period of time of up to 70% of the cedar trees. In 2002, sea levels were the highest in Bermuda for 300 years. They have risen 9 inches since 1926 and the rate at which the water is rising has increased every year. Because it is otherwise a safe refuge for endangered trees and plants, please take only photographs and leave only footprints.

A recent addition is the pond, in which attempts have been made, not successful to date, to catch and transfer from Warwick Pond some live specimens of the precious endemic the Killifish (Fundulous bermudae), found in a special tank at the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo - about 2.5 inches long, with a low dorsal fin, light brown to pale greenish yellow, darker on the ventral surface, with dark, indistinct greenish-brown bands on the sides. Still largely unknown to the general public. First described in 1874 by Gunther. Male and female have slightly different coloring. First illustrated in Beebe and Tee-Van's 1933 "Field Book of Shore Fishes of Bermuda. " A favorite place is a fresh to brackish water pond, especially when fringed with mangroves. 

Paget Parish Council

Appointed under the Parish Councils Act 1971. See under "Parish Councils" in Bermuda Government Boards. Awards an undergraduate scholarship to a parish resident for an approved university abroad.

Paget Plaza

A small but select shopping area, with a food store and a gift store.

Pomander Road

This pretty quiet road is near Trimingham Hill. It winds past the commercial Aberfeldy  Plant Nursery, the car park to the Bermuda National Trust, residences and small select guest houses (see "Accommodation"). It ends at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club. It has nice water views of Hamilton Harbor.

Rebecca Middleton Nature Reserve

Ten years after the repeated rape, sodomy, murder and torture in Bermuda - on July 3, 1996 - of Canadian teen Rebecca Middleton, this half acre Paget nature reserve of wooded hillside near Ord Road, on a stretch of the Bermuda Railway Trail, was formally named in her honour on late February 2006. It is owned by the Bermuda National Trust (BNT). It was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Cook. Mrs. Cook’s maiden name is Middleton, and although no relation to Rebecca, she was particularly upset by the case and wished the land to be a permanent memorial. BNT president Hugh Davidson said the gift would continue a vision of an ‘Emerald Necklace’ of green spaces throughout the Island. He added: “The protection of this land will also help to preserve the wooded rural environment of this stretch of the Railway Trail."

Restaurants

See Bermuda Cuisine.

Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club

"Mangroville," 25 Pomander Road, Paget PG 05, or P. O. Box PG 298, Paget PG BX, Bermuda.  Phone (441) 236-2250. Membership required. The second rather nice yacht club in Bermuda, with new members welcome. It is in a superb location overlooking the waters of Hamilton Harbor, with a nice view of the city. Lunch is served daily and dinners are by appointment or for special events. Extensive facilities include 2 tennis courts and facilities for mooring boats, plus a small basic studio unit for upwards of $80 a day for a member or a sailing person recommended by one. 

Salt Kettle

It is near Hamilton Harbor, in the peace and quiet of Salt Kettle, with beautiful views and excellent walking. The bay and its land area including Salt Kettle Lane and Salt Kettle Road are particularly attractive when approached by the very convenient Government ferry on the City of Hamilton to Salt Kettle route or when passed on the Warwick ferry from the City of Hamilton to Darrell's Wharf route. There is no direct bus route here as Harbor Road, which provides access to this area, is too narrow. The nearest bus service is the number 8 route and the nearest stop is about a mile away at the Cobb's Hill Road stop at the Paget and Warwick junction. But there is a Ferry service.

St. Paul's Church

On Middle Road, the Anglican or Episcopalian parish church. The church has its own graveyard. One of the graves is that of 1940, November 26, commemorating the death in Bermuda of Harold Sidney Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Rothermere, born April 26, 1868, Hampstead, London, England. A British newspaper proprietor who, with his brother Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, built the most successful journalistic empire in British history and created popular journalism in that country. A shy individual, he let his brother handle the public and journalistic side of the business, while he handled financial matters. He is buried in grave 271, a prominent one, by itself. 

Seabright Avenue

A quiet, hilly to start with residential road that begins at South Road just west of the Lutheran Church. It has a number of homes, plus a Bermuda Telephone Company substation, Leading off it is Seabright Lane, going down to Hungry Bay. It is not generally known that from the City of Hamilton 3 miles away sewage is not piped from individual houses as is common in USA, Canada, UK, etc. Instead, a pipe pumps the city's raw sewage all the way from the city, under Seabright Avenue, to the Seabright Outfall located south of Hungry Bay. 

In 2008 it was discovered that sections of the pipe had been either exposed or damaged. Waste could be pumped directly into the ocean if the pipe springs a leak because no back-up plan is in place to handle the sewage in an emergency. According to a report compiled by Canadian consultant Associated Engineering in May 2008, the current system has had a number of maintenance issues. Problems with the inner section have included concrete protection erosion and complete exposure during extreme storm events. During a recent site visit, damage to the concrete embedment over the pipe in the near shore was observed. The Corporation of Hamilton continues to address damage to concrete embedment within this section of the outfall. The middle section of the outfall extends to a distance of 1,640 feet offshore and consists of a 14-inch nominal diameter HDPE pipe held in place with anchor chains. This section of the outfall traverses the inner reef and passes through an existing cave in the reef structure. During severe storm events, this section of the outfall has been exposed on several occasions. The existing outfall system has provided reliable service to the Corporation of Hamilton, but does require occasional maintenance. Problems with the inner section have included concrete protection erosion and complete exposure during extreme storm events. The middle HDPE section has also required maintenance and has cracked, requiring the use of repair clamps. The outer HDPE section has not required any known maintenance. The middle section of the outfall is considered the most vulnerable. Ocean and seabed conditions in the inner and middle sections make replacement of the pipe with a deeper buried pipe difficult. Fears have been expressed of a possible environmental catastrophe. The Corporation is now looking at drilling into the ground so that a pipe would be completely covered and protected. But that is a huge expense. In its report, Associated Engineering suggests a method known as Horizontal Directional Drilling as a possible alternative to the current system and identified a number of locations as possible "launching sites" - the current Seabright Avenue location, Ocean Avenue, Ariel Sands, Palm Grove and Devonshire Bay Park. The firm estimated that the cost of the project would be between $9.3 million and $12.6 million, depending on which site is selected.

Supermarkets

Market Place Group has two stores,  the Modern Mart on South Road, bus route 7,  and A-1 Paget on Middle Road, bus route 8.  

Most supermarkets are open every day (call to check times) including Sunday (from 1 pm to 5 pm). They are not as expensive as convenience stores. 

Unlike in the UK and USA, liquor cannot be bought on Sunday. 

Be prepared and budget in advance for Bermuda food and other prices. Store prices are very high compared to USA. Most visitors have no idea food shopping is so expensive. What a couple can buy in the USA to last them for a week will be less expensive than buying food in Bermuda for two days. 

Waterville

See under "Bermuda National Trust."