Alexandra ‘Alex’ Robinson, a Lecturer at University of Liverpool in London, England, was the person responsible for organizing the tour for the students. In an exclusive interview with MiyVue.com, Robinson explained that the initiative came about through her research on the first owners of the Fairview Great House.

“While I was tracing the information, I happened to find out that the house was owned by a family by the name of Manning in the 1800s. They were of Kittitian descendants but migrated to the UK where they became investors in a number of businesses there. When I was studying this I found out that the house that they bought in the 1800s that was built by the Duke of Argyll in the UK is now a school. Upon finding that out, I contacted the school and found out that it was a Convent.

“There is where I then decided to trace history and contacted the school here. So I though what if we connect the Convent in St. Kitts and the one in the UK and together they can study the coming of history,” Robinson explained.

According to Robinson, “In the UK there are plans to create a website that showcases the history between both Convents. So today’s tour was just the start of our plans to execute this project. The plan now is to have both schools work together and share our findings. The young people really are in control of this because this is about them,” she added.

One student, Joshua Morton, told MiyVue.com he was surprised at what he learnt during the visit and plans to expand his knowledge on the historical site.

“We learnt a lot of things that I never knew about this place.  It has a very rich history which I think other students should also take advantage of. What I’ve learnt here I plan to expand my knowledge more as well as sharing the information with others,” Morton said.

Clive Smith, a language teacher who accompanied the students said that the tour of the Great House said, “The visit does not only relate to history but also the language students with regard to literature. What the students have learnt here, they can now relate to it in some of the poems and other articles that they may come across that relate to the Great House.”

“I also see this as a personal development because most of the students are not familiar with these historic locations outside of the capital. Felid trips like these through this project will not help to achieve the objective of heightening the awareness of their history,” he added.

Fairview Great House is now owned by Mr. Kishu Chandiramani and has now been fully restored to its former glory with meticulous care and attention to detail as well as tremendous effort to minimize damage to the historic buildings.

The original structures on the property which include the cellar, kitchen building and two surrounding buildings, are over 300 years old.

In years past the property was owned and/or occupied by many distinguished and/or well known families or persons including the Boyd family, the Manning family, the American John Gardiner and Lawyer James Stephen.

In more modern times it was owned by the Lam family.