Betty's Hope

It was established in 1650, shortly after the island had become an English colony, and flourished as a successful agricultural industrial enterprise during the centuries of slavery.

Christopher Codrington, later Captain General of the Leeward Islands, acquired the property in 1674 and named it Betty's Hope, after his daughter.

[1][2] Betty's Hope estate is in a rural area where the geological formation, in a rolling landscape, is limestone.

[2] History of the sugar plantation at Betty's Hope is traced to the early 1650s when Governor Christopher Keynell founded it in Antigua.

[1] Under the ownership of the Codringtons, the emphasis centered on sugar, following the earlier dominance of tobacco, indigo, and ginger crops in Antigua.

[3] The Codrington owners distinguished themselves by ensuring that Betty's Hope was developed and functioned as the most efficient large-scale sugar estate in Antigua.

[5] In 1944, Betty's Hope was sold by the Codringtons to the Antigua Sugar Estates Ltd.[7] The reasons for discarding the windmill technology for cane juice extraction was the introduction of steam.

Consequent to this change, the machinery in the windmill was shifted to the boiling house complex and reinstalled next to the new steam engines.

[3] In the 18th century (1737 as per a plaque at the main entrance), at Betty's Hope, twin windmills were used to crush sugar cane.

The visitor center museum is now located in an old cotton house store room where exhibits of plantation's history with estate plans, pictures and maps, artefacts and a model of the central site are displayed.