Saint John

Saint John

The parish of Saint John is a parish in the east of Barbados. Saint John's Parish Church is located here, offering scenic views of the Atlantic Ocean from its vantage point overlooking the east coast of the island near Hackleton's Cliff. On the south-eastern part of the island, the coastline turns northwards to form the small Conset Bay. The Saint John's Parish Church is the first church of Saint John, which is thought to have been a simple wooden building, although its date is unknown. Together with Saint George, the parish was carved out of Saint Michael in 1640-1641. However, successive churches were severely damaged by the hurricane of 1675, the great hurricane of 1780 and finally destroyed by the Barbados-Louisiana hurricane of 1831. The current church building was built in 1836 and the chancel was added in 1876. This church is the prototype of a modest Barbadian version of a Gothic parish church, and to the left of the main entrance is a beautiful statue of Westmacott, commemorating Elizabeth Pinder.