Chairman of the National Trust Vel Lewis says Lopinot is likely to be designated a heritage district. Lewis told the T&T Guardian on Monday that a committee had been set up to consider the calls from residents who had approached the trust asking for the area to be so designated. Once this was done, he said, villagers would have to agree to maintain certain buildings and houses deemed heritage sites and certain natural areas within the area would also have to be maintained.
The community’s La Reconnaissance cocoa estate, he said, is to be maintained by the State while certain buildings in private hands that are deemed to be of historical significance would have to be maintained by the private owners. Lewis said it was consequently important for the trust to get villagers to “buy into” the idea. He said buildings within the area would become listed properties with certain conditions and once this occurred, alterations to the buildings could not be made without the permission of the National Trust.
The committee, he added, is in the process of compiling a dossier and when that was complete the trust would look at its findings to determine whether or not the area should be deemed a heritage district. Lewis said other areas being looked at to be declared heritage districts are Belmont and parts of Waterloo.
President of Citizens for Conservation Rudylynn Roberts said the organisation supported the move, but it needed to be “looked at and planned carefully so that the local residents benefit.” A lot of options, she added, were available to the residents, but turning the area into a heritage site needed to be done in a way "that would preserve the natural heritage of the space."
A conservation plan for the entire village and site is needed, she said. Councillor for Five Rivers/Lopinot, Dianne Bishop, said the idea was "something good for Lopinot itself," since the area had a lot of history.
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Adapted from www.nalis.gov.tt
Charles Joseph, Comte de Lopinot (1738-1819) came to Trinidad in 1800 after he was given a grant of land by Governor Thomas Picton to compensate for the loss of his sugar estate in Haiti after the Haitian revolution.
However, Picton received no word from the Secretary of State for the Colonies about the land. De Lopinot decided to stay, however, and bought part of a Tacarigua sugar estate on credit. Hearing of de Lopinot’s military experience, in 1805 Governor Thomas Hislop made him brigadier general of the Trinidad militia. He applied again for land in this capacity and so received a parcel.
“He and his slaves struck out into the forested mountains north of the Arouca savannah where he lived. Following the course of a river that is now known as the Lopinot River, Count de Lopinot and his slaves made steady progress through the woods, pushing more than five miles north, until at length they came to an attractive valley with a plain almost completely ringed by mountains. The air was cool and the valley seemed ideal for an estate.
“He obtained the grant of this valley, which contained 478 acres, and being totally fed up with sugar he decided to grow cocoa. He called the estate La Reconnaissance (the Look-out).
“The count and his slaves made the valley flourish and in a short time the name of Lopinot became of great importance. A great deal of cocoa was exported down the Lopinot River, and from there to Port-of-Spain. Count de Lopinot became active, politically, and in Ralph Woodford’s regime he was brought into the Council of Government. He remained a member...until his death in 1819.
“He was buried among the cocoa trees of La Reconnaissance not far from his house,” the Web site says.