The Bajan Chattel House

"Home Sweet Home" a 11 x 14 acrylic painting by Mark Phillips

The Bajan Chattel House is indeed a thing of beauty. Uniquely Barbadian, this icon of the Barbados landscape has endured and developed with the changing times.

Once considered the home of the poor working class, this is no longer the case as the modern chattel home contains all of the modern facilities, appliances and electronic gadgets that you would find in the most upscale homes on the island.

"Home Sweet Home" is a rendition of the home of one of my clients. A typical middle class family that has chosen to make themselves more than comfortable in a piece of Barbadian history.

The Chattel house, like "Pudding & Souse", is the result of historical circumstances and local inventiveness. After Emancipation, most of the land was still owned by the plantations. The former slaves who opted to stay and work on the plantations were encouraged by the Plantocracy to live in communities on the plantations where they worked. However, the homes had to be "chattel", which means "movable possession." For this reason they were built of timber and set on stone blocks locally known as the "Ground Sill". In construction today, the ground plate or the ground sill has another meaning but in Bajan terms, it was the collection of stones on which the chattel house stood.  They were constructed in such a manner as to allow them to be disassembled, packed on a mule or ox cart, (stones and all), and transported to another plantation and  reassembled, in the event that the worker changed jobs. This could easily be accomplished all in one day with minimal damage to the structure!

Traditional Chattel House. A 11 x 14
acrylic painting by Mark Phillips

The traditional chattel house was an example of architectural ingenuity. The steep gable roof, constructed of corrugated iron, was adapted to suit the climate of heavy rains and winds. The angle of the roof deflects the wind rather than providing a platform for it to lift off. Many chattel houses had distinctive shutters and hoods over the windows that allowed for maximum  ventilation whilst still providing privacy and protection from the elements.

The front enclosed veranda or as my grandmother called it, "the gallery" was the heart of the home. This is  where we were allowed to play as children. That was until visitors came, as this was also the area where guests were entertained. Then we were required to be somewhere else so that the grownups could talk.

In the late 1960's , when I was still attending primary school, we lived with my grandfather.

My grandfather, "worked for the Government", and was an influential man in the community. We had the only telephone and the only TV, (a little black & white Zenith), in the area. These were both kept in the "gallery" which always seemed to be, not only the heart of the house, but the heart of the village as well. People frequently came to "beg for a phone call" or to retrieve a message left for them. On evenings, the neighbourhood children came to sit on the floor with me and my little brother to watch Sesame Street on the magical TV box.

Chattel House. A 9 x 12  acrylic painting
by Mark Phillips

Today as more and more Barbadians purchase land and realize their dream to "own a piece of the rock", the need to build chattel houses is no longer there. However, the practicality and simple beauty of this distinctly part of our Bajan heritage will continue to dot our landscape for generations to come. 

The chattel house has found a new lease on life  and is serving us well as shops and other places of business. There are shopping complexes in “chattel house villages” at St. Lawrence Gap and Sunset Crest, Holetown. These are wooden structures with some of the features and ambiance of the original structures. True replicas of the finest examples have been built in the Tyrol Cot Heritage Village, to showcase this unique, creative  icon for visitors and future generations.

As always, thank you for reading. Until next time when I will again share some more of my work and a little of the history of this blessed place that I am privileged to call home,  please leave a comment.  And, I will really appreciate if you share this post with your friends. And, to make sure that you don't miss any future posts, please enter your email address in the subscribe by email box on the right. 

Mark Phillips
Artist
Email:- mark@phillipsbajanart.com
Website:- www.phillipsbajanart.com
Online Store:- PhillipsArtStore