A BRIEF HISTORY OF BLAIRMONT SUGAR ESTATE

Ramoutar Seecharran
Blairmont sugar estate started life as Balthyork estate. It was a slave plantation owned by Mr James Blair.
It had a factory on it and processed raw cane from neighbouring estates. Balthyork reached its peak in
1831 when it had 349 slaves on its premises. Emancipation and the introduction of Indentured labourers
upset the status quo. Once operation normalised, James Blair expanded and merged with Zorg-en-Hoop
and Bush Lot sugar estates.

In 1880, a merchant from New Amsterdam, Mr Harry Davson, acquired Balthyork and renamed it
Blairmont. Davson invested in a new sugar factory in 1916. Being modern and efficient, its capacity
exceeded the tonnage of cane grown on the property. Owners of Providence and Bath plantations found
that it was more profitable to process their cane through Blairmont's factory. As a consequence,
Providence factory closed in 1921 and Bath in 1925.

The modern factory built by Harry Davson

Bookers acquired Blairmont from Davson in 1955. In 1960, Bookers expanded Blairmont to reap the
benefit of "economy of scale" and brought in an additional 4,000 acres of virgin land under cultivation.

Irrigation water for the fields is obtained from Mahaica/Mahaicony/Abary (MMA) agricultural scheme.
This water flows by gravity through the canals. Estates such as Skeldon, Albion and Rose Hall have to
pump water from Canje Creek, adding to operational cost.

Morale at Blairmont, like Plantation Port Mourant, has always been high. This could have been for the
following reasons:

 Davson lived in British Guiana so he knew the psyche of his workers and knew how to motivate
them. The Gibson brothers who owned Port Mourant also lived on the estate. Most other
plantation owners were "absentee" landlords!
 Blairmont, like Port Mourant, had a narrow-gauge railway which took workers to the fields so
they arrived fresh and ready to execute a full day's work. On other estates without such
infrastructure, workers had to walk to work thus reducing their productivity.
 The loco was also used to bring workers' families from Rampoor Settlement to Blairmont to do
their shopping in New Amsterdam.

Remnant of Blairmont Estate's loco

Rampoor Settlement
Blairmont has always had perennial problems with pests such as rats and weeds like Antelope and Tanna
grasses and Karilla (baan karilla (mormodica dioica)). Rats are controlled by baiting with poison and
weeds by a spraying gang.

Blairmont Estate's weed control spraying gang

Cane rat (Holochilus brasiliensis) at Blairmont Estate

Blairmont currently has 13,649 acres under cultivation and has a capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum of
Demerara Sugar. The factory can grind 103 tonnes per hour of raw cane. The sugar produced is bagged for
bulk transport to Georgetown and packaged for export.
 Blairmont factory today

The profitability of Blairmont estate exculpated it from the PNC government's pogrom which saw PPP-
stronghold estates such as Skeldon, Rose Hall, Enmore and Wales closed.

Map of sugar estates in Guyana prior to PNC's closure

Demerara sugar for export, packaged at Blairmont estate