- Gun Hill Signal Station
Gun Hill Signal Station, St. George is the largest and most important of the military outposts in
Barbados , with military associations from at least 1697. In the Militia Act of that year, when it was known asBriggs Hill , it was named as one of the four points where guns were to be placed to give alarm in the event of an invasion, so it is likely that the name Gun Hill goes back nearly 300 years.When the signal stations were established in 1818–1819, it became the key link in the chain, passing signals from
Highgate east toMoncrieffe on the cliffs of the St. John/St. Philip border, and north to theCotton Tower ,Grenade Hall andDover Fort (and vice versa). But Gun Hill was also the typical 'Hill Station' of the tropics, used as a convalescent station for the troops, and for evacuation of theGarrison in times of epidemics ofyellow fever and once (in 1854) ofcholera . They was only a small barrack, and a mass evacuations went under canvas.After the decline of the signal stations, the Gun Hill buildings fell into complete disrepair. They include the station with its prominent tower, a kitchen, magazine, sentry box and ruined barracks. On the hillside below is the famous LION. In 1981 the Barbados National Trust leased the station from the government and restored it with the help of a government grant.
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