Hanover occupies the northwestern corner of Jamaica and is the smallest parish in the country by area. It was established on November 12, 1723, segregated from neighboring Westmoreland, and named in honor of King George I, the German-born monarch of the House of Hanover who then reigned over Great Britain. Its territory, wedged between mountains and sea, combines fertile valleys, hills and a coast indented with coves and peninsulas.
Despite its small size, Hanover had notable economic importance in colonial times. Its valleys filled with sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans, and its capital, Lucea, came to be in the early days a port even busier than Montego Bay, exporting sugar and rum to Europe.
That early prosperity left a notable colonial heritage —forts, churches, Georgian mansions— that today, little exploited touristically, makes Hanover a treasure for the curious traveler, capable of gathering in a small space a surprising variety of history, nature and small-town life.
The capital of Hanover is Lucea (pronounced 'loo-see'), a quiet and picturesque port town overlooking a well-protected bay. Its historic charm, which many travelers pass by on the way to Negril, includes an ensemble of colonial buildings, a lively market and two singular monuments that define its physiognomy.
The first is Fort Charlotte, built by the British in the mid-18th century to defend the northwestern corner of the island and named in honor of Queen Charlotte, consort of George III. It still keeps part of its cannons pointing to the sea, witnesses to the era when the European powers disputed the Caribbean.
The second, and undisputed symbol of the town, is the Lucea clock tower. According to tradition, the clock —German-style, with a dome that recalls a Prussian helmet— was destined for the island of Saint Lucia and arrived in Lucea through a delivery error. The inhabitants refused to return it and paid by public subscription the difference in price to keep it. Since then it has presided over the town and is the most beloved emblem of Hanover.
Hanover has a place of honor in the political history of Jamaica: in Blenheim, a small rural district of the parish, was born around 1884 Sir Alexander Bustamante, one of the founding figures of the modern nation. A charismatic union leader, imprisoned during the labor riots of 1938, he founded the BITU union and, in 1943, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).
Bustamante was the first prime minister of Jamaica after independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and is today a National Hero. His birth house in Blenheim, a modest peasant dwelling, has been preserved by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust and turned into a commemorative site, a testimony to the humble origins of the man who would come to lead the country.
That from such a small and rural parish came one of the great heroes of independence is no coincidence, but a reflection of the role that the peasantry of the west played in the labor and political struggle that transformed Jamaica in the 20th century.
Hanover lived off sugar and rum during colonial times, with plantations spread across its fertile valleys and Lucea as a prosperous exporting port. After abolition and the sugar crisis, the parish kept an agricultural and fishing character, with coastal towns of local life like Green Island, little touched by tourism.
Its coast, dotted with coves, reefs and peninsulas, keeps in many stretches a natural and authentic physiognomy; in others, however, great luxury resorts have risen that take advantage of the northwestern beaches. This coexistence between the Jamaica of small towns and the Jamaica of the all-inclusives defines the present of the parish.
The interior, of hills and crops, prolongs that rural vocation. Touring Hanover is a glimpse of a lesser-known Jamaica, where colonial history and the everyday life of the coastal towns go hand in hand far from the crowds.
Hanover's position, right between the two great tourist hubs of the Jamaican west —Montego Bay to the east and Negril to the west—, makes it a place of passage and, increasingly, a destination in its own right. The western end of the parish looks onto the Negril area, whose famous West End of coral cliffs extends over neighboring Westmoreland but whose surroundings include corners of Hanover.
With its quiet beaches, its nature and its leisurely pace, the parish offers a serene and genuine alternative to the bustle of its famous neighbors, ideal for those who want to get to know the real, small-town Jamaica without giving up the proximity of the great attractions of the west.
Touring Lucea and its surroundings —the fort, the clock tower, the market— and venturing into the rural interior or going down to the coves of Green Island is to discover a deeply authentic Jamaica: small in size, but great in history, heritage and personality.