1780 lower estate sugar works museum

This was a gem that hardly seems to get any visitors. Informative rooms, including the Cornish miners who mined on Virgin Gorda and some of whom stayed behind after the mining finished. Beautiful paintings to admire and buy, info on locals, flora and fauna. Below is another small room dedicated to boat building and seafaring industries.

We went here for the second time to view an art show by a local painter. That was interesting, but the rest of the museum really tells a story about the BVI in old pictures and artifacts. It is $20.00 to walk through the entire museum and no charge to view the show. The curator and I talked at length about the recipes for "sugar cakes", a local sweet treat. Definitely worth a stop.

Helpful exhibits explaining how sugar with its associated misery of slavery came to, and was later abolished in the British Virgin Islands. The lovely lady in charge of this fascinating museum was just about to close up for the day when we arrived, but she not only remained open but joined us and explained some of the exhibits and the issues. Lots to see; such as the good explanation of the importance of sugar and the BVI. On the lighter side displays / domestic artifacts from the 1920S & 1930s such as rather uncomfortable beds with no mattresses only sacks of vegetation / kitchen implements. More to see including Naval history in the basement, and places to visit / geology of the islands on the ground floor - and a store of tales from that lovely lady in charge. Small admission charge; well worth it.