Penal - History

History

Indentured labour from India began arriving in the colony in 1845. In order to establish and propagate a local source of cheap labour, they were offered a cash incentive of five pounds in lieu of a return passage between 1860 and 1880. The incentive programme was abolished since by 1880, Indians were fully 30% of the national population and therefore were established. Many Indians made use of their five pounds to purchase crown lands at one pound per acre. In the sugar rich Naparimas, the south border comprised a series of marshlands which were poorly drained and mosquito infested. These lands were surveyed by Warden of Siparia, Otto Radcliffe Clarke and sold to Indians who were expert at draining the marshes for the cultivation of rice. Watercresses were also grown in abundance and in a drier area of the swamp called the Pengyal (a Tamil word I am told), a small agrarian settlement had sprung up with enough Indians to warrant the Presbyterian Church’s Canadian Mission to the Indians, setting up a school and chapel here in 1905. A mosque and cemetery also existed in the village in a place called Batchiya. The area was adjacent to hilly places to the south and east, being just four miles from Siparia. In these hills, small plots of cocoa cultivation began and soon flourished as a cash crop. Cocoa spread as far as a track laid out from the settlement to the Rock River in Moruga. Since the settlement had become Penal on government ordinance maps in 1910, the track was called the Penal Rock Road. On this road were several significant cocoa estates. One was owned by a Scotsman named McIntyre who established a prosperous holding, and constructed a lovely residence, complete with indoor plumbing (a marvel for those days) and archetypal gingerbread fretwork in 1918. His descendants, sired with an Indian woman, still live in the old family home. Another important estate was the property of the German, Wilhelm Meyer, who was stripped of his lands under the Enemy Alien Ordinance of 1914 which saw Germans in the island pressed into a concentration camp at St. James during the hostilities of WWI between Germany and England. Meyer’s estate also had a quarry for gravel in a hilly area off the Penal Rock Road in an area called Morne Diablo or Devil’s Mountain. This became the present Morne Diablo village. The estate was advertised for sale by Siparia warden, Otto Radcliffe Clarke in 1914. Along the Penal Rock Road, a Canadian Mission School was erected in 1920 for the children of the dozens of Indian families who settled and grew cane in the area. The peasant cane farmers had their cut canes carted to a scale in nearby Barrackpore where a terminus of the Usine Ste. Madeline railway existed. Back in Penal, development came when the Trinidad Government Railway extended its line from San Fernando to Siparia in 1913. This was no mean feat of engineering since it meant pushing the line through marshy areas near the hamlet of Cooliewood (now called Gandhi Village) and Debe. The line had to be laid on a bank of gravel to raise it above floodwaters which rushed over the lowlands during the rainy season and two strong bailey bridges were constructed over the Godineau and Curamata Rivers. Since the trajectory of the line passed a bit north of Penal, the Penal Railway station was almost a mile east of the main settlement on a road which led to cocoa and sugar cane growing areas in San Francique. The coming of the railway meant that vast quantities of rice and vegetables could reach the market in San Fernando and Penal flourished. In 1930 oil was discovered around Penal and in Barrackpore. A large tract of land on Clarke Rd. (named for Otto Radcliffe Clarke) was cleared and offices, bungalows, a medical centre, clubhouse and mess hall were constructed by United British Oilfields Trinidad (UBOT). Oil was secured in tank farms at Barrackpore, Penal Rock Road, San Francique and Clarke Rd. and then piped to the refinery at Pointe-a-Pierre. A small power plant supplied electric lights and a large dam was built in 1939 to supply the facility with water. Since the almost completely homogenous peasant Indian population of the area was inadequate for the brute labour of the oilfields, hundreds of negro labourers flocked in and formed a distinct neighbourhood in the area of Penal Rock Road ½ mile mark. Unlike Pt. Fortin where UBOT shared the better amenities of life with the native population, its presence in Penal had no impact whatsoever on the locals who continued without electricity and pipeborne water. In 1939, Sunbeam Cinema was opened, powered by a Delco generator, and was followed by Regent on Clarke Rd. in the 1940s. The latter catered mainly to the white expatriates of the UBOT installation (later assimilated by Shell) by showing the latest Hollywood flicks while Sunbeam aired primarily Indian movies. In the early 1950s, a market was constructed for the large number of produce farmers in the area. Previously, a makeshift market had occupied the triangle of land formed by the SS Erin Rd., Clarke St. and Penal Rock Road where a mall exists today. In 1962, Penal broke from Siparia Parish when the Penal RC. Chapel and School were opened along with the prestigious Holy Name Convent for girls. Nearby on Clarke Rd. the state constructed the Penal Junior Secondary School while a mile northwards in Abdool Village, a government primary school was established. Penal grew by leaps and bounds in the 1960s and 70s both as a centre for the nearby oilfields and became famous for its Saturday market which became something of an attraction. In 1965, the railway closed, but the SS Erin Rd. had already replaced it as the main artery into the village. In 1990, Penal became its own municipality and ceased being part of the Ward of Siparia, when the Wards and Counties system of local government was dissolved and the Penal Debe Regional Corporation came into being. In 2001, the Shiva Boys’ Hindu College was established on Clarke Rd. The Honourable Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, is from Penal and plans for a highway has begun construction. Today, Penal is a bustling and growing commercial center which has outgrown surrounding towns such as Siparia and is a far cry from the sleepy village pictured in 1950.