by Kevon Browne
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN)—The Ministry of Environment’s Parks and Beaches Division has partnered with the St. Christopher National Trust to restore and clean up the historic Spooner’s Cotton Ginnery in Cayon.
The Trust is responsible for six sites: Stone Fort Ghaut, Spooner’s Ginnery, the Old Treasury Building, Mansions Estate Yard, Charles Fort, and Belmont Estate.
Etsu Bradshaw-Caines, Executive Director of the St. Christopher National Trust, in a message, expressed concern about the upkeep of the site and shared an impassioned plea to respect these heritage sites.
“We are responsible for six sites, one of which is the Spooner’s cotton ginnery. Today I’m happy to say that we have partnered with the Ministry of Environment, and they have provided the services of cleaning up the cotton ginnery for us. That is something that’s very important. Unfortunately, sometimes as persons, we see a place that’s vacant, and we tend to use it as a place where we can discard of certain unwanted items. And this is one of our concerns, and this is one of the pleas that I would like to make to us as the persons, the nationals, the owners of this site, that we continue now to keep it clean, now that the Parks and Beaches crew has done an excellent job to clean it up for us.”
Spearheaded during Environment Month, the clean-up stabilises the site to preserve St. Kitts’ unique agro-industrial heritage.
Also as part of Independence celebrations, the completed grounds preparation directly supports upcoming activities, specifically the free Spooner’s Knowledge Fair scheduled for Friday, September 11, 2026.
“Independence, that’s one of the moments or the occasions where we’re very proud, very proud as nationals, very proud of who we are, very proud of what we own. And so, I want to take this opportunity, and it will be also under the patronage of our minister, Hon. Dr Joyelle Clarke, because the St. Christopher National Trust comes under her purview as the Minister of Sustainable Development. We will be having a knowledge fair. We are partnering with GEF-SGP UNDP on September 11 to have a knowledge fair. But the question might be, why here? Here because this place has a lot of potential, a lot of potential.
It’s a place where we can have functions.”
The Spooner’s Knowledge Fair is being hosted in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility Small Grants Program (GEF-SGP) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Restoring landmarks like the ginnery protects cultural identity while generating new education and heritage tourism opportunities on the island.
Bradshaw-Caines asked the wider community to support the upcoming event highlighting the Spooner’s Ginnery and the Spooner’s community.
“But why aren’t we doing this on a regular basis? Resources.
So, this is also a plea for members, persons with support, and I’m asking everyone to come on out at 10 o’clock on September 11, and they will see the continued activity here under Dr Clack’s ministry, under the St. Christopher National Trust, in partnership with Jeff SGP and UNDP.” – Etsu Bradshaw-Caines, Executive Director of the St. Christopher National Trust.
