Tourists and residents alike have expressed much appreciation to two workmen and the St. Gerard’s Roman Catholic Church for undertaking to repair the historic rock wall between that premises and the Wallblake Road.
The wall has been in a state of disrepair for some time now, but its condition recently deteriorated causing an unsightly spectacle with large clusters of stones spilled very near to the road.
The repair work was carried out by Hugh Christian, popularly known as “Crompo” and Austin Brooks alias “Iduber”.
“I have been working on rock walls like this for a long time. We have been on this one for two weeks now trying to patch it up and get it together,” Crompo said. “A lot of passingtourists have been taking pictures and making some very complimentary remarks.”
He went on: “This was once a plantation wall to protect crops from animals and I believe it is well over 100 years old. It is roughly about 800 feet long, and is just one of a number of similar old walls in Anguilla. Some of them are now covered with bush, but in the past they have served a very good purpose.”
Crompo thought it was a good idea to repair the Wallbalke plantation wall given the cultural history of the island, the need for conservation and the close proximity of the wall to the road in full view of passers-by.
Both Crompo andIduber spent much time carefully and patiently rebuilding the rundown sections of the wall, only to find some of the stones occasionally falling out again. In order to stop the slide, they applied concrete at the top of the wall. While this may have introducedan unnatural element to the rock wall, it has nevertheless worked well as a binder.
The workmen are grateful to a number of motorists for driving carefully along the busy traffic area, thus providing much protection for them
