Built in 1671, Moved After an Earthquake, Burned in 1722: The Clarendon Church Standing Among the Cane

• St Peter’s Church in Alley, Clarendon, was built in 1671
• It is described as Jamaica’s third-oldest Anglican church
• It was relocated after the 1692 earthquake and damaged by fire in 1722
• A 1935 reconstruction used red bricks imported from England

In the middle of the sugar cane fields of Alley, Clarendon, stands St Peter’s Church, a building whose history reads like a record of every disaster that has struck Jamaica’s south coast. In a 2023 feature for the Gleaner, heritage enthusiast Dr Lorenzo Gordon traced its story.

The church was built in 1671, making it the third-oldest Anglican church in Jamaica, according to the article. It was originally put up at Whithymore, now Milk River, and was moved after the 1692 earthquake. It was rebuilt in 1715, damaged by fire in 1722, and reconstructed again in 1935 using red bricks imported from England.

The town that once surrounded it was very different. Gordon recalled that it was “once dubbed the ‘Paris of the New World’ in the 1700s, the town pulsated with the vigour of the sugar trade.” Today the church stands among the cane with modest attendance, and the feature did not report any restoration budget.

St Peter’s is a textbook case of the problem facing many of Jamaica’s oldest churches. The buildings were sited for the population and economy of the plantation era. When that economy moved on, the congregations shrank, but the building — and its upkeep — stayed.

Every rebuilding recorded in its history had to be paid for by someone. Today, with fewer members in the pews, the question of who pays to keep a 350-year-old brick church standing falls on the diocese, heritage agencies and any wider community that values it.

For Clarendon families abroad and returnees drawn to heritage tourism, churches like St Peter’s are among the island’s most significant surviving buildings. Their survival depends on recognising them as heritage property that needs a maintenance plan and a funding source, not only as places of worship.

Follow Jamaica Homes on Youtube @jamaicahomes and Instagram @jamaica_homes and on Facebook @jamaicahomesnews Send us a message or email us at onlinefeedback@jamaica-homes.com or editor@jamaica-homes.com