Built in 1658, 30 years after Barbados was first settled, St. Nicholas Abbey is one of just three Jacobean mansions remaining in the Western Hemisphere; the other two are Drax Hall, also in Barbados, and Bacon’s Castle in Virginia, USA. The elegant curvilinear gables and ornamental detail typical of Jacobean architecture make it one of the most stunning examples of the architectural style surviving today.
The plantation and mansion house passed to Berringer’s granddaughter Susanna, who married George Nicholas, and the name was changed to Nicholas. It was sold in the 1720s to Joseph Dottin, who gifted it to his daughter Christian on her marriage to Sir John Gay Alleyne – the most eminent Barbadian of the 18th century, whose name is associated with Mount Gay rum. Sir John added the triple arcaded Georgian portico. Some credit Sir John with the planting of the mahagony avenue, others attribute this to this author’s great grandfather, Thaddeus “Bush” Deane, who managed the plantation in the 19th century. From 1810 until 2006 the property was owned by the Cumberbatch family and their descendants the Cave family. It seems that Sarah Cumberbatch and her husband Charles Cave combined the names of the Nicholas Plantation with St. Nicholas Parish and Bath Abbey near their home in Bristol, to create the romantic name St. Nicholas Abbey. The last Cave owner, Lt. Col. Stephen Cave, took up residence in 1978, and this author was his physician! Col. Cave managed the plantation with heroic energy and he opened the house to the public. Larry Warren, brilliant Barbadian architect, and his wife Anna acquired the property in 2006 and restored it, interpreting it and building on its history to create the amazing “product” that is St. Nicholas today.
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