Blue Hill is one of eight

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

of the island of

Saint Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...

, part of the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha is a British Overseas Territory located in the South Atlantic and consisting of the island of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha including Gough Island. Its name wa ...

in the South

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It is sparsely populated and comprises the western third of the island. The district is entirely agricultural with no industrial activity.

Description

Terrain in the district is quite varied with steep ridges and a limited amount of flat ground, as befits the island's volcanic origin. Blue Hill's main settlement, with the location of the community centre, is Blue Hill Village. The district also includes the settlements of Barren Ground, Head o' Wain, and Thompson's Wood, together with a few scattered

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

s. The only school in Blue Hill closed in 1990, only two years after it had opened, but there is a Baptist Chapel at Head o'Wain and an

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

, St. Helena & The Cross, just next to The Depot, a small hill on the ridge that separates Blue Hill from Sandy Bay. Planning permission was received to build a

resort A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that tries to provide most of a vacationer's wants, such as food, drink, swimming, lodging, sports, entertainment, and shopping, on the premises. The term ''resort ...

at Broad Bottom in November 2015, but construction has yet to begin as of November 2016. Blue Hill is the largest, most remote, most rural, least populated and least densely populated of the eight districts of Saint Helena. Its population has fluctuated from 177 in 1998 to 153 in 2008 and 174 in 2021.

History

Troops of the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

landed at Swanley Valley on 20 December 1672 and were guided inland by an English traitor. They defeated the garrison of High Peak Fort and briefly occupied the rest of the island until the English recaptured it in May 1673. During the Boer War, the British transported over 5,000 Boer prisoners of war to St Helena between 1900 and 1902. After problems developed between prisoners from the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

and the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

, the British transferred the Free Staters to a new camp in Broad Bottom in early 1901. They were repatriated at the end of the war in late 1902. In 2011 a facetious proposal was published in ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' (and reproduced in the ''St Helena Independent'') that Blue Hill be made into a "retirement village for exiled dictators", citing its isolation and small existing population.

Notes

Bibliography

External link

* {{Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Districts of Saint Helena Populated places in Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Second Boer War concentration camps es:Cerro Azul