Story and photos by Kenesha Fraser
Hampton Court, a predominantly East Indian village located between Devonshire Castle and Windsor Castle, is well-populated but most of the people who live there, Sunday Stabroek was told, “don’t like publicity.” The reticence of the villagers provided some reinforcement for this caution, however, Mr Ishack Basir, a stalwart who lives in the village readily provided information.
“In the early years, the Hampton Court estate was owned by a man named Brassington. Between 1925 to 1934, there were four main operating estates on the Essequibo Coast, the four being Golden Fleece, Affiance, Anna Regina and Hampton Court, which was the largest. This village had its own school, market and hospital and [was] as it still is today, a successful rice farming community.”
Mr Basir said that on the estate, there were eight logies in which the East Indians who worked as labourers lived, but after Brassington lost the local elections, he chased the Indians from the land, blasted the chimney, blocked the waterways and damaged a special pump. After doing all this damage, he migrated. According to Mr Basir, the