Studley Park

Noisy parrots

Studley Park is a quiet little village on the Canal Number One Public Road, 15.5 miles from Vreed-en-Hoop. The National Gazetteer shows the village as the last before the Conservancy, but this not the case as there is one beyond it called Good Hope.

The village is big enough to hold a few hundred, but is home to less than 100 people, owing to migration, it was said. The villagers who once depended on sugar cane farming for their livelihoods have put their energies into pineapple and citrus farming since the closing of the Wales Estate.

“I was born and raised in Studley Park,” said Pandit Somnauth Sharma. “My mom was born at Hamburg Island and her parents came to Canal Number One at Studley Park in 1920. My mother’s grandfather was an indentured [servant] and [when] he had finished his indentureship, he was awarded a place in Canal and they all moved here. My father’s father came as an indentured [servant] bound to the Vreed-en-Hoop Estate and he was awarded a place at Best Village. My father lived at Endeavour across the road [opposite Studley Park]. He saw my mom when he came to cut grass for his cow. They eventually got married. We were eight siblings. I’m the seventh.”