FALMOUTH HARBOUR

The remains of old wharves and warehouses along the seacoast are among reminders today of the towns former importance. As many as twenty-seven ships docked the harbour at the same time, unloading slaves, foods stuff, dry goods, fine furniture and house hold wares.

In exchange for sugar, rum, log wood, limes and dyes. In those days the ships depended on the trade winds to blow them back home. Sometimes they had to wait in the port for up to one month for the right wind.

Falmouth Harbour

Falmouth Harbour

In 1803 the town had a stone cage built for the drunken sailors. Each ship carried twenty-seven sailors and while they waited they would create uproar in the town. Some times when the sailors got drunk they would walk around Falmouth and get into fight and arguments, so much that the Town Fathers decreed that the sailors could not be in Falmouth later than 6pm in the evening, if caught they were to be jailed for the night.

This had an effect on the town, for in 1803 the town had a stone cage built for the drunken sailors. Apart from the sailing ships from North America or England, Falmouth Harbour was alive with a great deal of local traffic, including canoes of fishermen. Falmouth Harbour was not deep enough to accommodate larger vessels so trades were diverted to bigger harbours.

FALMOUTH COURT HOUSE

Falmouth Court House

Original Georgian design... Falmouth’s original Court House was built in 1815. Later the building was almost completely destroyed by a fire in 1926. Until the present one was renovated in it’s original Georgian design except for the rooflines and windows. Today the Court House house’s the office of Trelawny Parish Council and The Resident’s Magistrates Court.

WEDNESDAY MARKET

The stone cage that was built for the drunken sailors was later knocked down, Falmouth market took its place, Falmouth instead became Trelawny’s main market town, a status it still enjoys. Each Wednesday a bustling 'BEND DOWN' market spills out unto the street. Traders set out fruits, vegetables, bootleg, cloths, shoes etc, causing a whole day traffic jam.

CORNWALL DISTRICT PRISON

This building is located on Rodney Street in Falmouth. It occupies the former Cornwall District Prison and is one of the town’s Historic structures. In the old days the prison consisted of a jail and a workhouse or ‘House of Correction’. The house of Correction was a notorious place of torture (before the full abolition of slavery). A favourite method of punishment in this and other prison was the Treadmill.

After Emancipation in 1838, Falmouth’s House of Correction and other correctional facilities became a prison for criminals, while the jail was for minor offenders The prisoners wore heavy iron bolts attached to their legs and were compelled to lift their legs while walking.

Black prisoners wore iron collars around their necks, and were chained two by two when they were set out to maintain the roads of the parish. Falmouth prison discipline was poor and prisoners were sentenced to hard labour enjoying a ‘soft’ life.

MARTHA BRAE AND THE MARTHA BRAE RIVER

Martha Brae is a small coastal village
that was the first capital of Trelawny.

Rock, a small village near the coast, was also a shipping port. When the river silted up and made the navigation at Rock difficult, the new capital Falmouth was created Martha Brae was said to have been the site of the Spanish settlement of Melilla.

MARTHA BRAE RIVER
Martha Brae River is one of Jamaica’s finest river and Trelawny’s longest water way, entering the sea near Falmouth which supplied water when the town was first established, before the river was bridge travellers used the Martha Brae ferry.

LEGEND OF THE MARTHA BRAE RIVER

She agreed to lead them to the Gold Mine...
Martha Brae was supposed to be a Tiano girl who was tortured by the Spaniards to reveal the location of the hidden Gold Mine. She agreed to lead them to the Gold Mine, but later she changed her mind and called on her powers which changed the course of the river and drowned her and the Spaniards, closing forever, the entrance of the Gold Mine.