Fort St. Jago, , : a conservation study

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Author/Creator Hyland, Anthony David Charles Date 1979 Resource type Dissertations Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Volta-Tano Watershed, Ghana, Elmina, Fort St. Jago Rights By kind permission of Anthony David Charles Hyland. Description A detailed assessment of Elmina Fort in 1979 within the context of Ghana's emerging conservation movement at that time. It also describes the nearby town of Elmina, and the use of the fort at the time. It concludes with recommendations on how the fort can be conserved and used in the future. Format extent 125 pages (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org FORT

FORT ELM*INA GHANA ST JAGO

For the Diploma in Conservation Studies, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies FORT ST JAGO ELMINA GHANA A CONSERVATION STUDY Anthony D C Hyland University of York 1979

I- 6*A *Wft ., k o k, 1 -ad ...,-. ~z W4 - ~a\ I 1 Frontispiece: View of Elmina from across the bay. 4^

CONTENTS Table of Contents Table of Illustrations Acknowledgements Abstract of Dissertation Preface Chapter 1 Introduction: Changing Attitudes to Conservation in Ghana. 5 Chapter 2 The Town of Elmina. 11 Chapter 3 The Historical Development of Fort St Jago. 27 Chapter 4 Architectural Description of the Fort. 43 Chapter 5 The present use and condition of the building. 55 Chapter 6 The future of Fort St Jago 61 Chapter 7 Recommendations. 80 Bibliography and Sources 95 Appendices: I Coastal forts and castles of Ghana, listed in chronological order of foundation. II Coastal forts and castles of Ghana: summary of O'Neil's Report of 1951. III Coastal forts and castles of Ghana: present condition and use. IV The English invasion of Elmina, 1782. V O'Neil's description of and recommendations for Fort St Jago, 1951. VI Measured drawings of Fort St Jago, 1978/79. VII The present use of the Fort as a resthouse - the results of a questionnaire. VIII Design drawings for the restoration and rehabilitation of Fort St Jago.

ILLUSTRATIONS 1 Frontispiece: View of Elmina from across the bay. Figures, photographs and drawings in the text: 2 Casteel del Mina, drawing from Dapper, 1668. 3 Fort St Jago, from the lagoon. (Photograph (C) Niels Bech). 4 Town Plan of Elmina. 5 View of Fort St Jago from St Joseph's Hill. (Photograph (C) Niels Bech). 6 Portulan by Pedro Reinel, c 1535, with a drawing of St George's Castle. (NMM, Dept of Navigation, 213: 2/). 7 Drawing of Elaina, dated 1603. This fanciful drawing bears little relationship to the actual appearance of the castle and the town in the Portuguese period: it does, however, shew the chapel on St Jago Hill. (NMM, Dept of Navigation, 241: b/I). 8. Plan of the castle and town of Elmina, after Commersteijn, c 1640. This plan shews the first Dutch redoubt on St Jago Hill. (AR, 619/77). 9 Plan of the town of Elmina, byJ C Bergeman, 1799. (AR, 781). 10 View of Elmina, on the approach from : coloured aquatint by W Bartels, 1845. (NM, Dept of Pictures, 80 D 76 R 82, neg 248). 11 Bombardment of the old town of Elmina, 14 June 1873. (Illustrated London News, 19 July 1873, p 68). 12 View of Fort St Jago from the Castle, c 1900. (After a photograph by Rissink in the CNO Collection, The Hague). 13 Elmina: Admiralty map of 1898. (BI./ML, SEC 11: 1713). 14 Asafo Company headquarters, Dutch Cemetry Lane, Elmina. 15 Map of Ghana showing forts and castles. 16 Drawing of St George's Castle and Fort St Jago, 1665. (From Prince Eugen's Atlas, Vienna). 17 Gross Friedrichsburg, Princes Town: Plan (after Lawrence). 18 English fort, Komenda: Plan (after Lawrence).

19 Tilbury Fort, Essex: aerial view. (Photograph (C) Aerofilms Ltd). 20 Fort St Sebastian, Shana: Plan (after Lawrence). 21 Prospect of St George's Castle, with a view of Fort St Jago, 1682: engraving by Kip, after Barbot. (NNN, Dept of Pictures, 80 I 76 R 82 a). 22 Drawing of an elephant in the garden at Elmina, 1700. (after Bosman). 23 Ground Plan of Fort St Jago, by Trenks, 1774. (AR,780). 24 Plan of Fort St Jago, by C.F. Gevers, 1830. (AR, 25 Ground Plan of Fort St Jago, by M Jones, 1880. (PRO, MPG 1029). 26 Upper Floor Plans of Fort St Jago, by M Jones, 1882. (PRO, MPG 1029). 27 Plans of Fort St Jago in use as a hospital during the Second World War. (after plans in the National Museum, ). 28 The approach to Fort St Jago. (Photograph (C) Niels Bech). 29 First Floor Plan, Fort St Jago: measured drawing, 1978/79. 30 Corner of a bastion at St George's Castle during restoration, c 1955. (Photograph (C) GNMB: Courtauld Institute neg A 57/943). 31 View of ravelin, Fort St Jago. 32 View of Outer Gateway. 33 Inscription on inner face of outer gateway. 3A View of W bastion from NW outer wall walk. 35 View of inner gateway from SE outer wall walk. 36 View of courtyard from N bastion. 37 View of courtyard looking SW. 38 Staircase from courtyard to N bastion. 39 Staircase from N bastion to second floor office. 40 View along SE upper wall walk. 41 View of S bastion. 42 View inside carpentry workshop in W bastion. 43 Rear view of fort showing N bastion, after restoration, 1957. (Photograph (C) GMMB; Courtauld Institute neg A 57/1689). 44 Rear view of fort in 1978. 45 Front view of fort after restoration, 1957. (Photograph (C) GMMB; Courtauld Institute neg A 57/925). 46 Front view of fort in 1978. 47 Area between Fort St Jago and St George's Castle: plan and section showing proposed improvements to access road to the fort). 48 Future development of Fort St Jago: alternative proposal 1. 49 Future development of Fort St Jago: alternative proposal 2. 50, Future development of Fort St Jago: alternative proposal 3. 51 52 Future development of Fort St Jago: conservation of energy proposals.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Preparation of this dissertation has followed many years of residence in Ghana, and exploration and study of Elmina. Many organizations and individuals in Ghana have contributed over the years to PW knowledge of Elmina, and some have collaborated with me in the preparation of material for this dissertation. Particular mention should be made of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, its Director, Prof Richard Nunoo, its Inspectors of Monuments, Messrs G E Assan and Alhasan Isaka, and former Inspector of Monuments, Mr W L K Obuobisa; my former colleagues on the staff of the Department of Architecture, University of Science & Technology, (UST), , Messrs Niels Hech, A Al-Hassan, W F Hill; the architect, Mr F C 0 Lamptey, who carried out the measured drawing survey of the fort in July 1978, assisted by Messrs D A Lartey and J Sarkodie, draughtsmen of the GMMB; and Drs Albert Van Dantzig and Jan Van Landewijk, of the University of Ghana, Legon. Since starting work on this dissertation, I have been helped by many individuals in England and overseas: members of staff of several libraries and museums, particularly Miss Pauline Stocks, of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Mr T R Padfield, of the Public Record Office, Kew, and Mr John Hopkins, Librarian of the Society of Antiquaries, London; Mr E Kaye, of UAC International; Mr John Ashurst, of the DOE Ancient Monuments and Historic Buildings Division; Prof C L Temminck Groll, of the Technical University of Delft, and Mr A F Lancker, of Breda; Prof A W Lawrence, now living in retirement in Yorkshire; Mrs Rowena Lawson of the University of Hull; my Director of Studies, Dr Derek Linstrum, and my supervisor, Mr Stuart Sutcliffe, of the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, York; and not least, mV wife Vivien, for sharing my love and enthusiasm for Fort St Jago and for contributing ideas for its future development. The text of Chapter 2 is a slightly condensed version of part of the text of the conservation study of the town of Elmina, undertaken some years ago by Mr Niels Bech and myself, and now awaiting publication: figures 4 and 47 were prepared for that report. Illustrations are drawn from a variety of sources: Abstract Fort St Jago is a fine copybook example of a Dutch colonial fort of the 17th C Baroque period, and one of a line of similar forts along the coast of Ghana. After tracing the growth of the conservation movement in Ghana, the history of the town of Elmina, and of the fort, the author examines the present condition and use of the building as a resthouse operated by the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, and investigates alternative possibilities for the development of the building. Finally, the author sakes recommendations for the future development of Fort St Jago which should give the fort a more positive role in Ghana's development while conserving its historic fabric. Figs 2,3,5,22,28 Figs 6,7,10,21 Figs 8,9,23,24 Fig 11 Fig 13 Figs 16,17,18,20 Fig 19 Figs 25,26 Fig 27 Figs 30,43,45 Photographs (C) Niels Bech. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague Illustrated London News British Library Map Library Lawrence, A W: Trade Castles and Forts of West , Jonathan Cape, London. Photograph (C) Aerofilms Ltd. Public Record Office, Kew National Museums, Accra Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Accra. Abbreviations used in the text AR BI/ML C, Cc CNO DOE GMMB ICCMOS MRCGC N, NE, etc NMM PRO PWD UAC UST Permission to reproduce the above illustrations should be obtained from the copyright holders. Remaining photographs and drawings are by the author. Quotations have been made in the text of this dissertation from a variety of sources; permission to reproduce quotations has been obtained from the following holders of copyright: Prof A W Lawrence Ghana Museums and Monuments Board. Typing: Photocopying: Binding: Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague British Library Map Library Century, centuries Stichting Cultuurgesechiedenis van de Nederlanders Overzee (Dutch Overseas Cultutal History Foundation) Department of the Environment Ghana Museums and Monuments Board International Council of Monuments and Sites Monuments and Relics Commission of the Coast North, North-east, etc. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Public Record Office Public Works Department United Africa Company University of Science & Technology, Kumasi Mrs S E Rollason, York Rank-Xerox, Leeds, and Copy Shop Plus, York Symington Bookbinders, York. 2 Cast el del Mina, drawing fron Dapper, 1648.

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PREFACE The cause of architectural conservation is still new in tropical Africa, and little account is taken of it in formulating national development policies. Ghana, however, with its unique legacy of forts and castles, was one of the first countries in tropical Africa to recognize the value of its architectural legacy from the past, and to take steps to protect and conserve it. Initially, the forts and castles were the only buildings to be protected by law, under the Ordinance of 1949 which established the Monuments and Relics Commission of the . After Independence in 1957, this body was reconstituted as the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, (GMMB), and the scope of its building conservation policy was extended to cover the more important surviving indigenous monuments in the country, principally the traditional shrines (fetish houses) of Ashanti, and the Sudanese mosques of the Northern and Upper Regions. It is now taken for granted in Ghana that the future of the forts and castles is assured, that they will continue to be maintained and kept in good repair by the State, and preserved as ancient monuments. This scenario, however, cannot be taken for granted: the rapidly escalating costs of conservation work in Ghana, and the pressure, not only on the financial resources of Government, but also on the physical resources of the coastal settlements that contain the forts, of Ghana's expanding population, will inevitably threaten the future of these historic buildings; and the cost benefit of maintaining the forts and castles in their present roles will be increasingly questioned.

It is my intention in this dissertation to study one such building in depth, to trace its history, record its present form and condition, investigate possible new uses for the building, and make proposals for its rehabilitation, conversion and management. By so doing, it is my intention to establish a model for the dozen or more similar buildings along the coast of Ghana that are in a similar condition, and that together represent a major untapped national resource. The fort I have selected for study, Fort St Jago at Elmina, is one of the finest and best preserved of the smaller forts: it is also the one best known and most visited by the public. At present it has a neglected air, having lost its role as headquarters of the Monuments Division of the G1MB, a role it played handsomely for many years. It is operated, in a makeshift fashion, by the GMHB as a resthouse, but it certainly does not pay its way; and in consequence, the regular repair and maintenance that the building needs, is not being carried out. It is also a building that I have known and loved for many years, and stayed in many times; and so it saddens me to see it in its present sorry state. It has recently been asserted that ",Preservation Pays" (1): the corollary of this assertion is that preservation should be made to pay. It is my belief that the forts and castles of Ghana can be made to pay for themselves, and to contribute a healthy credit balance in the . It is in affirmation of this belief that I present my conservation study of Fort St Jago. £dena botwe eku, Asamankoma, katakranka, Aborekyir kaakra, eyE hu a nnki, eko so a, maba. - traditional aphorism in Fante, vernacular language of the Elmina people. Elmina, city of ingenious stone cutters, The home of the brave and tough Asamankoma; This little which the coward shrinks to enter And from whence the daring on entering No longer desires to return.(2) 1. Bi -eey, M rc s and Haiu , X : SAVE Britmins Herte, London, 1979 2. W-rtenbsrg, J S: Sao Jore d'EJ Mina. rer West Afric settleent, llfraonbe, 1951.

- - ~ ~7b~71~i~i Wrt St Jagr, from the lagoon. (Photograph (C) Niels Sech).

CHAPTER 1 1. For example, De Marees, 1602 2. For example, Reindorf, 1889 INTRODUCTION: CHANGING ATTITUDES TO CONSERVATION IN GHANA Unlike many countries in the Third World that have recently gained their independence, Ghana is a country with a long history, a rich culture, and a strong sense of national identity. Her history had been preserved for centuries by oral tradition, before being recorded in the published accounts of early European travellers to the Guinea Coast,(') and the more recently published history books written by scholars, (2); her culture is most profoundly expressed in ritual and ceremony, embellished by music and dance and a score of crafts. But neither Ghana's history nor her culture need buildings for their expression: historic events may have taken place within buildings that have survived, but the buildings, with rare exceptions, are not valued for that reason. For the Europeans who built and occupied the forts and castles, their conservation was essential; but the Africans, among whom the early Europeans settled, and with whom they traded, do not appear to have placed any particular value on buildings as such. The traditional economy of the native states before colonial rule did not require the conservation of buildings. The depredations of the climate, and of the animal world, allied to the abundance of familiar building materials, made the conservation of buildings not only superfluous but a waste of time. Sacred objects (regalia, cult objects, relics of the dead) and sites were commonly venerated, but buildings apparently not. They were functional and utilitarian, like clothing: a man wore ('habited') and lived in ('inhabited') what he could afford, and he discarded both when they wore out. Evidence of this attitude can be found in the bewildering variety of descriptions of the Asantehene's palace in Kumasi in the 19th C - from Bowditch, who first drew it in 1817(3), to Baden-Powell, who finally sacked it in 1896(4): throughout this period it was continually changing, in appearance, condition of maintenance, and even location. A similar lack of veneration can be detected in the history of the Ya Na's palace at Yendi: until the beginning of this century, each successive ruler demolished the palace of his predecessor and built a new palace on a new site(5). The sites of the former palaces however, remained sacred, because the deceased rulers were buried there. Contrast this historical attitude with the attitude of the colonial powers on the coast. By the end of the 18th C, over 40 castles, forts, and trading lodges had been built along the coast, by half a dozen competing European powers, over a period of three hundred years. (The surviving castles and forts are listed chronologically in Appendix I). The finest of these, St George's Castle at Elmina, was the first, and remained one of the finest European buildings in the tropics. Together, this series of buildings represented an enormous investment in money and human lives: at its peak, between 1650 and 1700, the wave of building activity in was of major political as well as economic significance to half the nations of Europe. In the early 19th C however, after the legal abolition of the slave trade, business in all the European settlements along the West African coast slumped, and it was the mere presence of substantial buildings on the Gold Coast that obliged the British, the Dutch and the Danes to retain their tenuous sovereignty in and around the forts. The fact that the forts represented a considerable capital investment was as much the determining factor in ensuring that the forts remained under European sovereignty, as was the financial interest of the traders whom the forts protected, or the political interest of those nations under whose flags the forts operated. The saying 'We shape our buildings and our buildings shape us' certainly applies to the trading colonies on the Gold Coast in the early 19th C. Conservation of the forts was effected in a negative way, though; minor forts were allowed to fall into ruin in order that the major forts might survive: repairs and alterations were carried out in a patchy and piecemeal way, on the whole. The forts were probably regarded, in the main, as troublesome burdens on the economy which had to be maintained. There were exceptions, of course: the early 19th C was the age of the Romantic Movement, and so it is hardly surprising that the romantics should love the castles as 'castles'. William Hutchinson, first British Resident in Kumasi, and a contemporary and fellow countryman of Sir Walter Scott, retired to , as unofficial commandant of the fort, where he lived, and I quote, "in his castle like an English baron in the feudal times. .. .His silken banners, his turreted castle, his devoted vassals, his hospitality, and even his very solitariness, all conspire to recall to mind the manners and way of life of an old English baron in one of the most interesting periods of our history, whilst the highly chivalrous and romantic spirit of the gentleman alluded to, is strictly in union with the impression" (6) Laetitia Landon, one of England's leading poets in her day, had similar romantic notions about , for a few weeks, before she died there; as had Laura Boyle, author of The Diary of a

4a Prospect of the English Castle at Anomabu, 1726. Drawing by William Smith. (UAC Library). 3. Bowditch, T E: Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, London, 1819 4. Baden-Powell, R S: The Downfall of Prempeh, London, 1896 5. Dawuni, Alhassan: The Palace of the Ya Na Yendi. Dip. Arch. thesis, U S T, Kumasi, 1971. 6. Lander, Richard and John: Journal of an Expedition to explore the course of the Niger, London, 1832. p. 7. written 1915/16 8. Boyle, Laura: Diary of a Colonial Officer's Wife, Collins, London, 1970, pp. 158,160 9. For example, Gaunt, 1912. Colonial Officer's Wife (7), about Christiansborg: she likened it to Elsinore and imagined the ghost of Hamlet's father walking on the battlements(8). But these views are the exception, rather than the rule: the prevalent attitude was utilitarian and unimaginative. When Christiansb6gi Castle was badly damaged in the earthquake of 1862, not many years after the Danish Government had sold their West African possessions to the British, it remained in ruins for a long time: and when a use was finally found for the ruinous, but still extensive buildings, it was a very unromantic one. A gimcrack timber superstructure was built on top of the massive stone core of the castle, and the place converted into a lunatic asylum. It was Sir Matthew Nathan, a former fortifications engineer with the British Army, who was Governor shortly after the end of the century, some years after the government had moved from Cape Coast to Accra, who had the sensitivity and foresight to restore Christiansborg to its former, more noble use, as residence of the Governor. Subsequently, the Public Works Department (PWD) took increasing responsibility for the repair and maintenance of the forts and castles, and the colonial government found a variety of uses for them - as prisons, law courts, post offices, local government offices, resthouses, lighthouses: it is apparent, however, from the descriptions of visitors(9), that maintenance, if it was carried out at all, was carried out in a very makeshift and haphazard fashion. It was not until after the Second World War, with the establishment of the Monuments and Relics Commission of the Gold Coast, (MRCGC), that legislation was introduced protecting the forts and castles. This last development represented a significant step forward; and in 1951, Mr B H St J O'Neil, Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments in Britain, was invited by the Gold Coast Government to inspect the forts and castles of the Gold Coast, and to make recommendations to the Monuments and Relics Commission for their preservation. During the three weeks that he spent in the country, O'Neil was able to visit 19 of the 30 odd surviving forts and castles in the country; and in (10) his subsequent report to the Commission , he made specific recommendations for the conservation of 16 of them, and in general, recommended that "repairs should be put in hand forthwith, by a separate organization including both archaeological and structural specialists under the Monuments and Relics Commission of the Gold Coast; that the services of Professor A W Lawrence(1) of the University College of the Gold Coast should be obtained, if possible, to supply the archaeological element in the organization; and that the services of Mr H A Peters of the PWD should be obtained, if possible, to take charge of the structural work involved, after further training with the Ministry of Works in the United Kingdom." A summary of O'Neil's recommendations for each fort and castle is set out in Appendix II to this dissertation. Acting on O'Neil's recommendations, the MRCGC established, in 1952, a Monuments Division, under the direction of Prof Lawrence, which was charged with the responsibility of recording, maintaining and restoring where necessary, and generally ensuring the preservation of all the surviving castles and forts. A comprehensive programme of work was drawn up by Lawrence; and although he left Ghana in 1957, 4b View of Christiansborg. Lithograph by George Webster, 1806. (NMM, Greenwich). 10. O'Neil, B H St J. Report ..... on the Castles and Forts of the Gold Coast. Accra, 1951. 11. Professor of Archaeology; formerly Professor of Classical Archaeology of the University of Cambridge. 12. Historic Buildings Decree, 1969 the works he envisaged continued, under the overall direction of Richard Nunoo, Director of the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board since 1957, and supervised by the Inspectors of Monuments trained by Lawrence, Messrs W L K Obuobisa and G L Adinyira, and were virtually complete by the mid 1970's. The present condition and use of the forts is summarised in Appendix III. On paper, the future of the forts and castles of Ghana looks assured: an organizational establishment for the care of the nation's monuments has been created, and the conservation of the forts and castles has been 'built into' the nation's economy. Legislation ensures their protection by the State and the right of public access(12). But conditions in Ghana have changed considerably since the 1950's: the structure of central and local government, the nation's economic base, and the Ghanaian people's cultural and educational objectives, are very different from what they were then. Unexpected changes in use in some forts and castles has created new problems, as for example in St George's Castle, Elmina, suddenly vacated by the Ghana Police in 1973, after having been proudly cared for by the Police for many years: and rapid population growth in the coastal towns is creating a growing demand for accommodation and for public services that cannot be met from the limited resources of local government, but which the under-utilized forts and castles could help to alleviate. In the last fifteen years or so, the UMMB has gradually diversified the scope of its Monuments Division: a handful of other European buildings on the coast, a number of traditional indigenous buildings (shrines in Ashanti, Sudanese mosques in the North) and prehistoric and archaeological sites, have been investigated and restored or consolidated, and are now being protected. That this development has taken place is admirable, and the increasing responsibility accepted by the GMMB for the protection and conservation of indigenous buildings is right and proper: but one may question whether the present resources of the Board, in money and manpower, is equal to the task. The capital value of the properties for which the State has made the Board legally responsible, is increasing year by year, and so are the costs of maintenance and repair. But the funds available to the Monuments Division are not increasing proportionately, nor is the number of staff increasing to cope with the mounting workload. Consequently, periodic maintenance of monuments in the care of the State is carried out at wider and wider intervals, and essential repairs are deferred until men and materials are available. New uses will have to be found for the majority of ancient monuments in the care of the State, uses which will generate sufficient income, either directly or indirectly, to pay the cost of maintenance and repair. G uL F 0 F ELMIN/\ -rDWN MAP~

CHAPTER 2 THE TOWN OF ELMINA Location and topography Elmina lies 13 kilometres west of Cape Coast, in the of Ghana, on latitude 50 04' N and longitude 10 21' W. Formerly the headquarters of the Dutch dependencies in West Africa, Elmina is now a small coastal fishing town on the . The topography of Elmina is particularly favourable for the development of fishing and maritime trade, with a sheltered bay for anchorage, a river mouth providing easy access for the loading and unloading of boats, and a long spit of land separated from the mainland by a river, ending in a massive outcrop of rock. The river is the Benya, or so-called Salt River, by which the waters of the Benya Lagoon discharge into the sea. The original settlement was to the S of the river, on the long low spit of land between the river and the sea; but now the town is almost entirely situated on the northern side of the river, built around and about a succession of low hills which form a peninsula between the lagoon and the sea, (fig 4). To the east of the town lies the wide sweep of the bay; to the south the Salt River, and beyond the spit of land, the sea; to the west and north, the town is bordered by the marshy fringes of the lagoon; the main link with the mainland being at the north-east end of the town, where the sandbar between the lagoon and the sea is reinforced by a low outcrop of rock that follows the line of the shore for a few kilometres to meet the mouth of the Sweet River. 4 Town Plan of Elmina.

The main part of the town is dominated by three hills, namely, St Jago Hill, southernmost of the three, which rises precipitously from the north bank of the river to a height of 23 metres above sea level, and on the summit of which stands the Fort of St Jago; St Joseph's Hill to the northwest, rising to a height of 32 metres above sea level, and crowned by the buildings of the Roman Catholic Mission; and Java Hill to the north, 26 metres above sea level and largely covered with houses: with the exception of the saddle between St Joseph's and Java Hills, and the rising ground to the northeast of the town in the area of Government Gardens, the rest of the town lies below 3 metres above sea level. The three hills, like the outcrops of rock at the sea's edge, are outcrops of the deep bed of Sekondian sandstone that underlies the town. The town of Elmina is bounded on three sides by the Benya Lagoon, an extensive area of shallow water, marsh, mangrove swamp, and salt pans. Although salt has been extracted from the lagoon for centuries, this has been on a comparatively small scale until recently, and the greater part of the lagoon has been covered with mangroves. Expansion and modernisation of the salt extraction industry in recent years has lead to the extensive clearing of mangroves and the construction of salt pans. Into the lagoon flow three small streams, the Udu, the Anwin and the Anomadua. In addition, Elmina town is drained by artificial channels, which discharge either into the sea or into the lagoon. The historical evolution of Eimina. The traditional, vernacular name of Elmina is Edina. Before the coming of the Europeans, Edina was a small settlement at the mouth of the Benya Lagoon, one of a number of similar small settlements along the Guinea coast which had gradually grown up during the 13th - 15th Cc where conditions were found to be favourable for fishing or for the development of some marketable commodity. Edina, according to local traditions of origin, is said to have been founded by one Kwa Amankwa, who migrated there from Techiman, on the northern fringe of the great forest, and settled there on the peninsula between the Benya Lagoon and the sea. The Benya Lagoon was a great asset to the people of Edina not only because of the plentiful fish it contained but also because salt could easily be produced from it. The extraction of salt from the lagoon soon led to considerable trade developing between the inhabitants of Elmina and traders from the hinterland, the principal commodities being salt and fish from Edina, and gold and ivory from the interior. Portuguese rule in Elmina, 1482-1637. In 1471, Portuguese navigators first made landfall on this part of the coast of West Africa, and so initiated the European/African encounter in this part of Africa. A wealth of documentation records this 500 year long encounter. The most comprehensive survey of the historical material is A W Lawrence's article of 1961(l): the most useful introduction is Wolfson, 1958. For descriptions of Elmina town, de Marees, 1602, Bosman, 1705, and de Marree, 1817, are particularly useful, (see Bibliography). The Rijksarchief at The Hague, the British Library Map Library, and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, each contain extensive collections of maps and views of Elmina.

6 Fortulan by Pedro Reinel, c 1535, with a drawing of St George's Castle. (NNM, Dept of Navigation, 213: 2/4). 1. Lawrence, A W: 'Some Source Books for West African History', in Journal of African History, Vol II, No 2, 1961, pp 227-234 2. Lawrence, A W: Trade Castles and Forts of West Africa, London, 1963, p.31 The Portuguese were the first Europeans to explore the western coast of Africa: situated as they were at the southwestern tip of Europe, they were quick to exploit their position when the sack of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 threatened the traditional overland trade routes between Europe and . By 1462, the Portuguese had charted the mouths of the Senegal and Gambia rivers: by 1470, they had reached that stretch of coast that later became known as the Gold Coast. Here, unlike the endless swamps and lagoons that lined the coast further west, "they met firm ground with a succession of headlands and bays that provided sheltered anchorage, invariably opposite a village of fishermen or cultivators. Here, too, ivory could be bought, and gold ornaments were being worn in a profusion astonishing to European eyes - for at that time, all Europe suffered from a scarcity of gold," (2). The Portuguese quickly recognized the great economic potential of the area, and called the whole stretch of coast, "A Mina", (The Mine). An alternative explanation of the name Elmina, is that the Portuguese had already heard the place spoken of by Arab traders, who would have called it "El Mina", (The Harbour). In 1481, King John II of , in order to secure a Portuguese monopoly of trade along the West African coast, ordered an expedition under the leadership of Diego Azambuja to build a fortress in the land of "A Mina". The expedition, of sailors, soldiers, and artisans, sailed from Lisbon on 12 December 1481, and arrived a month later off the coast of Edina. They named the place "the village of Two Parts", so called because it was divided in two by the Salt River. This particular location which had earlier been recognised by the Portuguese in 1470, had many advantages, and agreement was soon reached with the Chief of the village for the Portuguese to build there. Since the rock on which Diego Azambuja wanted to build the fortress was regarded as sacred by the inhabitants of the village, they would not allow him to erect the building there. He succeeded, however, by force of arms, in imposing his will upon them, and within a few years, he had raised a substantial castle upon the site. The history of the original construction of the castle, and its alteration and extension by the Portuguese and subsequently the Dutch, is so well documented as to require no summary here(B); the building and expansion of the town, however, is not so well documented, and attention is drawn to the more significant historical developments. The Castle was called Sao Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine) after the patron Saint of Portugal. By a Royal Charter of 15th March, 1486, the Village of Two Parts, later called Elmina (the Mine) was raised to the status of a city, the implications of which were that the native inhabitants became citizens of Portugal and the town was to be surrounded by a defensive wall of its own. The west wall of the town, some half a kilometer from the Castle, is shown on Prince Eugen's Atlas of 1665(4). One early building which is known to have stood outside the Castle was the church of St. George: the Franciscan friars who ministered there early introduced the cult of St. Anthony of Padua, which cult survived the departure of the Portuguese in the 17th century, and the mutilated fragments of whose statue became a powerful fetish in the town(5). (Fig 7 shows a fanciful view of the town at this period). In addition to the Church in the town, the Portuguese built a small chapel on the hill opposite the castle across the river, dedicated to St. Jago, which name has survived the various changes of use and 14 XXIV. DELINEATIO CASTELLI ET PROPVGNACVLI LV.SITANORVM, La cN&In, &c. --- -77Z- . Al/c/m La Mina, ais " Si Georgioeti4mcognomi natum, , L ufaani Anno z. demandato leon- . ni I. PortugalikReg extruadum rfl, vt4e;thiopi. w terrori e9et, & peregrinos fimul 4 koc litore prohiieret. Cuiwi quidemdelineationemti~i ob ocalosponere .ifum e71. A. enim liter,#, Ciftdlum vdpropugtaculum tifiim. B. Templum S. Georti,a quo Caflelumetiam nomen S. Ge. orgii otinutt. C.Pagum ad Cafellumpertintem.D.vero templum S.I acobi denotit. ownership. In 1556, a watch tower was added. 3. ibid, pp 103-179 4. Now in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. 5. Wiltgen, R Ms A Gold Coast Mission History, Techny, 1956, pp h8-49 7 Drawing of Elmina, dated 1603. This fanciful drawing bears little relationship to the actual appearance of the castle and the town in the Portuguese period: it does, however, shew the chapel on St Jago Hill. (NM, Dept of Navigation, 241: /I). For a hundred years, town and Castle were comparatively secure: but the first Dutch attack of Elmina, in 1596, revealed the increasing inability of the Portuguese to maintain their monopoly of maritime trade. After the first Dutch attack, the Portuguese built a new church in the Great Court of the Castle and demolished the old church in the town. Dutch Rule in Elmina: 1637-1872. After several more attempts to take Elmina, the Dutch finally did so in 1637. Led by Prince Maurice of Nassau, they captured St. George's Castle after first climbing and capturing the hill of St. Jago, and bombarding the castle from there. Having conquered the castle, -the Dutch immediately set about strengthening the fortifications. They built a redoubt on St. Jago Hill to protect the castle. This redoubt was replaced by a fort between 1662 and 1666, and given the name Coenraadsburg. (Fig 8 shows a plan of the town shortly after the Dutch conquest). When Fort St. Anthony at Axim fell to the Dutch in 1642, the Portuguese were effectively driven from West Africa, retaining a tenuous foothold at Cacheu (in what is now Guinea Bissau) and subsequently at Ouidah in Dahomey. For the next two hundred years, the Dutch competed with the English for pre-eminence in the maritime trade of West Africa. Elmina soon became the headquarters of the Dutch West African possessions and throughout the later 17th and 18th centuries, the Dutch continued to strengthen, extend and improve the castle.

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6. For a coprehensive description of the town at this period, see De Marree, 1817: the author lived at Elmina from 1802-O. 8. Plan of the castle and town of Elmina, after ComersteiJn, c 1640. This plan shews the first Dutch redoubt on St Jago Hill. (AR, 619/77). 8a St George's Castle, Elaina: first floor plan (after Lawrence). 9 Plan of the town of Elmina, by J C Bergeman, 1799. (AR, 781). Elmina town was still situated on the narrow peninsula between the Benya Lagoon and the sea, and remained there until it was razed to the ground in 1873. By the middle of the 17th C, the area behind St. Jago Hill was laid out as gardens for the castle, supplying fruit and vegetables as well as providing a place of relaxation. By the end of the 18th C, the greater part of the land to the south of St. Joseph's and Java Hills was under cultivation, with well laid out plantations and market gardens, some containing pavilions and other small buildings, and a well defined road layout. The pattern of (f.9 9) roads was fixed by them, as can be seen in the map of 1799. These roads can easily be recognised in the present town plan. The river had been bridged in the 17th C., and the bridge rebuilt some eighty feet upstream sometime in the 18th C. By 1799 there were several buildings between the river and the fork in the road where the track diverged to the fort: a 'Roman Chapel' stood on the present main street just beyond. A pavilion called the Beekensteijn or Beckstein stood on a spur of rising ground on the SW flank of St. Joseph's Hill, overlooking the river, and one substantial house (which can be identified as the present Marblestone House, or Mount Pleasant) away to the North East of the town. The map of 1799 shows Elmina as it was during the early days of Governor Bartels administration, at which time Elmina reached the height of its prestige and prosperity . J.H. Bartels, who was Governor from 1798 to 1804, had been in Dutch Government service in Elmina for many years previously, and had built a substantial house, Mount Pleasant, for his wife and family in 1786. In addition to major improvements at the Castle, he was responsible for the inauguration of the Dutch Cemetery, in 1802. The first cemetery stood on 19 the shore of the bay; but in 1806 was moved to a new site at the foot of St. Joseph's Hill, with a large monument, or cenotaph, in the neo-Classical manner, at its centre, for the governors. The first to be buried there was Governor Hoojenboom, who was murdered in 1808 by a group of townspeople while he was playing billiards at the "Heeren Societeit" or Gentlemen's Club. The ambitious scale of the monument, which has been preserved intact and recently restored with a grant from the Stichting Cultursgeschiedenis van de Nederlanders Overzee (Dutch Overseas Cultural History Foundation) and the quality of the imported marble tombstones in the cemetery, give a clear indication of the prosperity of Elmina at that time. This prosperity is hard to account for: in 1796, when Napoleon annexed Holland, the Dutch settlements on the Gold Coast professed loyalty to the Dutch crown, and so were effectively cut off from the for some years: furthermore, although the Dutch on the Gold Coast had made a non-aggression pact with the British following Napoleon's conquest of Holland, their traditional allies, the Ashantis, were pursuing an increasingly expansionist policy against the coastal settlements and had besieged Anomabu and Cape Coast Castles in 1807. The Danish and British abolition of the slave trade in 1803 and 1807 respectively, further increased the political instability of the coastal settlements and the likelihood of attack from the interior. The watchtower in the 'Government Gardens' was built at the beginning of the century, and two defensive batteries were built on the outskirts of the town in 1810-11, Veersche Schans (named after Governor de Veer) near the village of Bantuma to the west, where the rocky coastline 20 gives way to a sandy beach, and Fort Beckenstein on the site of the earlier pavilion of that name. But despite the political insecurity and the lack of contact with Holland, Elmina prospered: the slave trade continued, for some years after the Danes and the British had abolished it in their own territories, and increasingly, the Dutch inhabitants of the castle married Elmina women and founded families, for whom they built houses, along the present Liverpool Street and beyond. These houses, a number of which are still existing, though generally in a very bad condition of maintenance, include Bridge House, Plange House, Viala House and C H Bartels House (the present Post Office)(7) and form a valuable foil to the Castle and the fort. The town grew substantially during the first half of the century (Fig 10). But despite continued efforts to ensure the security of Elmina, Dutch influence along the West African coast waned and the British took an increasing share of the maritime trade. Further defensive outposts were built; Fort Schomerus in 1855 on what is now St. Joseph's Hill, Fort Java in 1855 on the hill that now bears its name, so named because it was settled about this time by freed slaves whom the Dutch had bought from the Ashantis, and manumitted after a 6 or 12 year contract for military service in the Dutch East Indies(8). Following the British acquisition of the Danish possessions on the Gold Coast in 1850, and increasing pressure from the European merchants and trading companies for political support for their trading activities in West Africa, the British and the Dutch governments sought ways of rationalizing their respective administrations on the Gold Coast. The historical development of European settlement on the Gold Coast had led

...... /.. L .., ../.. '...... / *MtYJ l-lk ( i.N T'$I AFPROAOM IMOM VAIKI5 OOIAMi'f 10 View of Elmina, on the approach from Cape Coast: coloured aquatint by W Bartels, 1845. (NMH, Dept of Pictures, 80 D 76 R 82, neg 248). 7. The two latter houses were surveyed and documenteiby the Faculty of Architecture, U S T, Kumasi in 1969, and published in Documentation and Conseration, 1970. 8. Van Dantzig, A and Priddy, B: A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana, Accra, 1971. to the establishment of rival forts and trading posts, of different nationalities, each competing for trade with the interior and attempting to command a major trade route. Gradually, throughout the previous hundred years, the less successful, the Swedes, the Brandenburgers, the French and finally the Danes, abandoned or sold their West African possessions, leaving the British and the Dutch with a superfluity of obsolete and uneconomic trading posts, often within cannon shot of each other. On 1 January, 1868, the Dutch and the British divided the Gold Coast between them, and claimed sovereignty over their respective hinterlands: the Dutch taking the entire coastline from the Sweet River, westwards as far as Assini, and the British the entire coastline eastwards from the Sweet River as far as Keta. The Dutch and British headquarters remained at Elmina and Cape Coast respectively. Although this arrangement may have suited the Dutch and the British, it certainly did not suit the coastal states, whose leaders resented being treated as pawns in the European power game. Partition of the Gold Coast led to considerable unrest, and disturbances occurred in a number of coastal towns. In 1 868-69, the Dutch rebuilt all their defensive outposts around Elmina, and built another, Fort Nagtglas, named after the last but one Dutch Governor, near the coast east of the town, on the site of the playing field of the present Local Authority Middle School. Although no traces of these 19th C redoubts survive on the ground, plaques from Fort Java, Fort Schomerus and Fort Nagtglas have been preserved in St. George's Castle, where they have been built into the walls of the outer lobby and the main courtyard.

Elmina under British Rule. It soon became obvious that this partition would not work, and that the cost to the Dutch of enforcing law and order was rapidly overtaking the receding profits from trade. Therefore, on 6 April, 1872, the Dutch ceded all their West African possessions, including their headquarters at Elmina, to the British. This, in turn led to further unrest: the Ashantis, traditional allies of the Dutch ever since the foundation of the Ashanti Kingdom in the late 17th century, refused to accept the session of the Dutch possessions to the British, claiming territorial rights over Elmina and the traditional states to the West. In 1873, the Ashanti armies invaded the coastal states j1 and surrounded Elmina. The British reinforced the garrison at the Castle by sea, sent in gunboats, and landed troops to the east and west of the town(9) On 13 June, 1873, after issuing an ultimatum to the townspeople of Elmina to deliver their arms at the Castle, the British bombarded the ancient town of Elmina from the castle, from the river, and from Fort S. Jago (Fig 11). The new town to the North of the river, the so-called Loyal Town, was undamaged, but the 11 Bombardment of the old town of Elmina, 14 June 1873. (Illustrated London News, 19 July 1873, p 68). old town was virtually razed to the ground, and abandoned. The site of the old town.was cleared by the British, and grassed, and kept as a public open space, as a precaution against surprise attack. This high-handed action by the British, though very much resented at the time, has had the effect of preserving for Elmina a pleasant foreshore which is now a valued amenity for the town. Many of the former inhabitants of the town left and settled elsewhere, and the population, estimated at nearly 20,000, dropped considerably. Those that remained, however, were resettled in the new town, where a large 9. Brackenbury, Henry: The Ashanti War (2 vols), London, 1874

12 View of Fort St Jago from the Castle, c 1900. (After a photograph by Rissink in the CNO Collection, The Hague). estate had been laid out to the west of St. Jago Hill some years previously. Both this estate and the Java Hill settlement of freed slaves, became increasingly built up in the following years, as is shown on the map of 1898 (Fig 13). For some years after the British take-over, Elmina retained some measure of prosperity. The port which had been developed by the Dutch at the mouth of the river,. continued to handle the bulk of the Ashanti trade, and substantial trading houses continued to be built until the end of the century. Cocoa began to be exported from Elmina. The Dutch Reformed Church built not long before, was taken over by the Wesleyan Mission, which had established a congregation in Elamina in 1837. St. George's Hotel continued to offer hospitality to travellers, and it was there that in 1880 the first Roman Catholic Missionaries to the Gold Coast since the expulsion of the Portuguese in the 17th C., said their first Mass. By 1890, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Mission in the Gold Coast were established at Elmina, with substantial Mission buildings atop St. Joseph's Hill. But with the construction of the new Sekondi harbour in 1898, and the completion of the railway from Sekondi to Kumasi in 1903, the volume of trade handled by the port of Elmina rapidly declined. The Castle served a variety of uses at different times since the British take-over, finally becoming the National Training Centre for Police Recruits. In 1921, the port was closed to trade, though it continued to be used as a fishing harbour. Cosmercial activity in the town slackened: the streets, which had been lit with kerosene street lamps since the 1840's, were no longer lit at night. The cocoa sheds stood derelict, the hotel closed and gradually fell into ruin. Elmina had become a shadow of its former self. 13 Elina Admiralty map of 1898. (BIML, SEC 113 1713).

Present-day Elmina. Through the greater part of the 20th Century Elmina has remained an unprosperous backwater. For this reason its population has remained stagnant until comparatively recently. In the 1948 census, its population was only 3,909. However, this figure shot up to 8,534 in the 1960 census and to 12,401 in 1970, which can only be accounted for by the increasing acceleration of population growth in Ghana generally. The new trunk road from Accra to Takoradi built in the late 1950's bypassed Elmina, thus relieving Elmina of the pressure of heavy through traffic, and allowing the town to retain an atmosphere of relaxation. Developments in the town and the surrounding area which the Government has recognised are necessary if the town is to have any economic foundation at all, have been projected. Among proposed developments are the extension of the harbour facilities and the development of the fish processing industry, the expansion of the salt extraction industry, and the establishment of an agricultural institute, and all these developments are now under way. Such development, however, though welcome, will inevitably increase the pressures on the present fabric and structure of the town. But the greatest potential for the future growth of the town lies in the development of tourism, for which Elmina is exceptionally well endowed. Social and Administrative Structure. Elmina is the principal town of the Edina traditional state. As an Akan community, Elmina has as the head of its traditional administration an Omanhene, or paramount chief. The Elmina constitution of 1928 listed the following as officials of the Edina state: "1Omanhene, Omankyeami (formerly a hereditary position, but appointive as of 1928), Ekuewessonhene, the civil head of the Asafo companies, and the divisional chiefs. Others in the retinue of the Omanhene include the Besonfu, official advisers to the Omanhene; the twelve Amanfu, assistants to the Omanhene in religious rites and other state functions, who can be identified by the rush caps they wear; the Supis, heads of the individual Asafo Companies; the Mbaahimbaa, noble ladies of state, including female descendants of Amenhen; and the Sahene, commander in chief of the army, appointed only in time of war." (10) All these members of the Omanhene's court feature prominently during durbars and the two annual festivals of Elmina, the Bakatue and the Brenya. In Elmina, as elsewhere in Fante states, the role of the Asafo companies of youngmen, formerly serving as units of the local militia for the defence of the town, has been modified over a long period to that of a social fraternity. Today, each Asafo company has its own headquarters, a base for its social activities and a visible symbol of its particular identity. Some are ambitious and fanciful structures, and form striking features of the urban scene (see Fig 14). Among the Omanhene's court are the heads of the ten local Asafo companies: normally in Fante communities, the number of Asafo companies is restricted to seven; Elmina, standing slightly apart from the other Fante-speaking states by virtue of its different historical development, permits ten companies. The modern counterpart of the Asafo company is the Masonic lodge and the friendly society, and Elmina contains a number of such organisations; and a large Masonic Temple has been under construction for some years nW on the outskirts of the town. It is interesting to note that Wdespite Elmina's long association with Europe and hence with Christianity, her indigenous customs and traditions have largely survived intact. Her traditional cults are still observed in numerous small shrines, Jand the ten Asafo companies appear to co-exist fairly easily alongside . .the various Christian Churches, Masonic Lodges and friendly societies. Together they all continue to play a cohesive role in the social and communal life of Elmina. eAdministratively, Elmina is part of the Cape Coast District of the U---''"- Central Region, administered by a District Council responsible to ____-__ __the Regional Commissioner at Cape Coast. 14 Asafo Company headquarters, Dutch Cemetry Lane, Elmina. 10. Information given by the Secretary to the Edina Traditional Council. "7 1 g . II"I~ 7 1! k~

CHJAPTER 3 THEHISTORICALDEVELOMMTOF FORT ST JAGO 15 Map of Ghana showing forts and castles. 5 View of Fort St Jago from St Joseph's Hill Niels Bech). The raison d'etre of Fort St Jago is defensive: this is clearly apparent, both from its location and its architectural form. The strategic importance of the site was recognized very early by the Portuguese: one of their earliest acts, after landing at Edtna, to found their first West African settlement, was to climb the hill and celebrate Mass on the summit. Shortly afterwards, the site was consecrated by the building of a simple chapel, dedicated to St Jago. -Even then, the Portuguese probably saw, in its altitude and its proximity to the castle, the one point of weakness in an otherwise ideal site for a settlement: perhaps they hoped, by consecrating the site for a religious purpose, to deny the use of the site for aggressive purposes to scrupulous Christians. In this latter hope, of course, they were disappointed. In 1637, after several unsuccessful attempts in previous years, the Dutch took IVtY ltb toATIOkM$ L ,tY'I Elmina. They realized that they could not capture the castle without A Am w,,.E first gaining control of St Jago Hill. This they did on 26 August; and after having dragged four heavy guns to the summit, they bombarded f * Y the castle from there. From the summit of the hill, they were able , wN(A K " . to bombard the castle with devastating effect, and two days later, on 28 August, the Portuguese surrendered.() 'Fearing that some enemy might repeat their own exploit, the Dutch promptly fortified the hill-top, with a quadrilateral earthwork, which at first was not flanked; the bank is said to have been only seven feet high, but a palisade is represented on it in some drawings. (Photograph (C)- 1. Claridge, W Wsistory-aof the Gold Coast and Ashanti, (2 vols) 27 London, 1915. 1, pp 91 -100.

A tower of no great height, contained the gateway, while at the back of the courtyard, a single-storeyed building housed the garrison, who came from the castle on a rota system'(2), Even this redoubt, completed in 1638, failed to satisfy the Dutch for long: it did, however, provide sufficient security to enable the Dutch to put in hand a major programme of repair, reconstruction and fortification of the castle. (O'Neil was mistaken, following Claridge, in believing that the present fort was started in 1638. Careful study of the extensive documentation in Dutch archives initiated by him after his return from the Gold Coast, and continued by Lawrence, revealed the sequence of construction, as set out below). By the middle of the 17th C, following the effective Portuguese withdrawal from the Guinea coast, the English presented the most formidable challenge to Dutch supremacy in West Africa; and following the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, competition between the two nations for supremacy at sea increased, and political relations deteriorated. A series of naval campaigns between the two nations ensued, culminating in the Anglo-Dutch war of 1664-68. In North America, Nieuw Amsterdam fell to the English in 1664, and was renamed New Yorki in retaliation, the Dutch captured the English headquarters in West Africa at Kormantin, and renamed it Fort Amsterdam. The English moved their headquarters to Cape Coast, where they had recently captured Carolusburg from the Dutch. Cape Coast was even nearer to Elmina than Kormantin, and Carolusburg was a more substantial fort than the one the English had been expelled from at Kormantin. Admiral de Ruyter, Commander of the Dutch Navy, made his temporary headquarters at Elmina, and major fortification works were put in hand at all the Dutch settlements along the coast. The redoubt on 16 Drawing of St George's Castle and Fort St Jago, 1665. (From Prince Eugen's Atlas, Vienna). 2. Lawrence, 1963, op cit, p 80.

17 Gross Friedrichsburg, Princes Town: Plan (after Lawrence) 18 English fort, Komenda: Plan (after Lawrence). 3. Hughes, Quentin: Military Architecture, London, 1974, p 144. top of St Jago Hill was rebuilt in stone, and completed in 1666. Named Coenraadsburg, it was a copybook example of Baroque fortification design (see fig 16), and a model for the rebuilding of existing forts and the building of new forts along the West African coast. Basically rectangular on plan, two great bastions were built at the two corners facing inland, and two smaller demi-bastions at the two corners facing St George's Castle and the sea. Between the bastions, curtain walls almost 10 metres high were built, to enclose a rectangular courtyard which was raised above a huge rainwater cistern. In the centre of the curtain wall facing the castle was the entrance gateway. In each corner of the courtyard, flights of steps mounted to the bastions, which were connected by continuous wall walks. Shelters, like sentry boxes facing inwards, known as echaugettes, were built at the apex of each bastion and demi-bastion. In the courtyard, built against the curtain wall behind the entrance gateway, was a circular watch tower. The basic plan form, of a rectangular enclosure within curtain walls, protected by massive bastions (or demi-bastions) at each corner, is characteristic of Baroque fortification design. Not only was it widely adopted in new fort building along the West African coast (e.g. Fort Batenstein, Butre (1656), Fort Coenraadsburg, Elmina (1665-6), Gross Friedrichsburg, Princes Town (1683) (fig 17), and the English fort at Komenda (1686) (fig 18)) so that it remained standard throughout the 18th C (e.g. Fort William, Anomabu (1753) and Fort Prinsensten, Keta (1784), it became commonplace throughout the colonial world. Examples quoted or illustrated by Hughes in MilitarV Architecture (3) include the Castillo de San Marcos, in Florida, built by the Spanish in 1672, and Fort Manoel, in Malta, designed by French engineers in 1715. Many similar forts were built by the Dutch in the East and West Indies and Brazil. In Europe, Baroque fortifications were usually more complex, polygonal on plan, and with elaborate advance works and glacis. The most representative English example is Tilbury Fort (1670-84), designed by the Dutch engineer, Sir Bernard de Gomme, which is pentagonal on plan, with inner and outer moats outside the walls(4). (Tilbury Fort was built following the Dutch fleet's incursion up the Thames in 1667, an incident in the same Anglo- Dutch war that led to the building of Coenraadsburg at Elmina). The ubiquitous deeply projecting bastions, however, connected by curtain walls, with continuous wall walks at the same level, are equally characteristic of Baroque 19 Tilbury Fort, Essex: aerial view. (Photograph (C) Aerofilms Ltd). fortifications in Europe as they are of the colonial world (fig 19). At Shama, the Dutch remodelled Fort St Sebastian at the same time as Coenraadsburg was in building (1665): two deeply projecting polygonal bastions were inserted at opposite corners of the existing building, while circular flanking works, recalling the earlier round towers of the Portuguese period, were inserted at the other two corners (fig 20): a similar juxtaposition of polygonal bastions and circular flanking works is found at Kormantin, in the Dutch remodelling of Fort Amsterdam, ,post 1665. Although the basic fortifications of Coenraadsburg were complete by 1666, a lower outer wall, following the indentations of the bastions and demi- bastions, was added in 1671. This outer wall, generally 20 Fort St Sebastian, Shama: Plan (after Lawrence). between five and six metres high above the surrounding ground level, contained atleastseventeengunportsaswellasalargenumberof 4. ibid,p 149.

1--s 21 Prospect of St George's Castle, with a view of Fort St Jago, 1682: engraving by Kip, after Barbot. (NM, Dept of Pictures, 80 I 76 R 82 a). 5. Barbot, John: A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, 1682, in A & J Churchill's Voyges, Vol 5, London, 1732, p 165. small-arm firing slits. The obvious purpose was to provide a fortified enclosure, which could be filled with fighting men in times of conflict. A pedimented gateway in this outer wall bears an inscription recording the date of this work. The present ravelin and drawbridge, giving access to the outer entrance gateway was added in the 18th C: their site is shown vacant in a drawing of 1724. The date of the buildings flanking the courtyard is uncertain. The circular watch tower within the courtyard was replaced in 1680 by the present rectangular tower, which has been built with its outer face flush with the curtain wall, and which spans the upper wall walk at first floor level. Above the wall walk, the watch tower rose a further two storeys, the upper of which was removed some time during the C. The buildings in the courtyard may have been built at the same time as the new tower: the roof of the two storey building on the rear side of the courtyard is shown in Barbot's view of 1682 (fig 21) and it is probable that the single storey range on the entrance side of the courtyard had also been built by then, for Barbot stated that there was accommodation for double the number of the regular garrison - an ensign and twenty five soldiers that normally occupied the fort(5). Both buildings were built in stone with brick dressings to door and window openings, and with a brick staircase to the first floor entrance of the block on the rear side of the courtyard. It is probable that both buildings were roofed initially with clay tiles, though no trace of these survives. In addition to housing the garrison, the fort also served throughout the later 17th and 18th Cc as a prison for European offenders. 'The death penalty, which was in frequent use, was hardly ever applied to the upper ranks. The death sentence would be carried out on the "Gallows Battery" and the corpse of the victim would be left unburied on top of St Jago Hill for the birds of prey' (6) The "Gallows Battery" referred to was probably the so- called "French Battery" at the N corner of the service yard of St George's Castle, a location which would give maximum publicity to the execution, visible as it was from the entrance to the harbour. Plans of the fort and of the town dating from the end of the 18th C show twelve small thatched buildings beside the fort at the top of the hill (fig 9): these probably provided additional accommodation for the troops of the garrison. Security, provided by the fort on St Jago Hill, was one essential requirement for the well-being of the settlement: another essential requirement was the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables. To provide these, the Dutch very early on established a garden in the valley to the N of the hill. Not only were fruit trees planted and vegetables cultivated, but a herd of cows was kept for milk and meat, and avenues of shade trees planted, for recreation(7). The slopes of the hill were also planted with trees and cultivated in the 17th C, and the soil there is unusually good, but the Dutch must have enriched it frequently, otherwise it could not have supported the diversity of trees and plants which so impressed Barbot, some forty years after the ground was first cultivated. Even so, an eventual decline in fertility could not be prevented, and by 1799, the hill had reverted to bush(8). The garden behind the hill was a popular place for recreation, and parties were frequently held there. Boman gives an entertaining account of the invasion of the garden by a wild elephant, a rare event on the coast even in 1700 (9) His drawing 6. Van Dantzig & Priddy, op cit, p 57. 7. Lawrence, 1963, op cit, p 140 8. ibid, p 148 9. Bosman, Willem: A New and Accurate Description of Guinea, London, 1705, reprinted 1967; pp. 318-322.

I. Tin :Elep entre ars leJardn- &Elmina ety e4 tue. I 22 Drawing of an elephant in the garden at Elmina, 1700. (after Bosman). illustrating the event shows the garden embellished by an elegant summerhouse, and gives an unusual side view of Fort St Jago on top of the hill (fig 22). Some time during the 18th C, the former winding track.,that climbed the hill and led to the fort, was replaced by a straight, steep road, paved in brick, and shaded by an avenue of flowering trees (Thesthsia populnea, introduced by the Dutch from the East Indies), a few gnarled specimens of which survive, as does the brick paving, under the present tarmac. Several 17th and 18th Cc views of the fort survive. The earliest to show the completed bastions and curtain walls is a drawing, dated 1665, in Prince Eugen's Atlas (the Blaue Atlas) in Vienna, which shows both the castle and the fort in an axonometric projection, (fig 16). This drawing shows the fort surrounded by an earthwork, which was subsequently replaced by the outer wall. Barbot's drawing of 1682, (fig 21), is the first to show the rebuilt tower. The most complete set of documentation of the Dutch period is by Trenks, and dates from 1 774. Johan Friedrich Trenks was a bombardier in the service of the , and appears to have lived in West Africa for many years. Signed plans by him, which are mostly of Elamina, are dated from 1774 to 1791; and his handiwork can be recognized in the anonymous series of plans of all the Dutch forts, which are dated 1790 and 1791. Trenks, though not a trained surveyor, was a careful and meticulous worker, and the accuracy of his plans, where this has been checked by site measurements, is remarkable. The most comprehensive of his plans of Coenraadsburg is the plan of 1774, which shows the current use of every room in the fort, (fig 23). ma Q~~ø d .

10. Crooke, J J: Records relating to the Gold Coast Settlements, 115 4, Dublin, 1923, reprinted London, 1974; pp. 51-55. 23 Ground Plan of Fort St Jago, by Trenks, 1774. (AR,780). The first floor of the block at the rear of the courtyard contained the Commanding Officer's apartments; the powder store and the prisoners' cells were below these, on the ground floor. On the other side of the courtyard, flanking the guard room, were the constable's, the corporal's and the sergeant's bedrooms. The calibre of the guns is carefully recorded on Trenks' plan: care of the guns was Bombardier Trenks' responsibility, and at Fort St Jago, a particularly important one. Coenraadsburg remained a purely military establishment throughout the Dutch period: the security of St George's Castle and the town depended on Dutch retention of the fort on top of St Jago Hill. Although there were long periods of comparative calm, peace could not be relied on: and whatever the political situation in Europe, commercial rivalry between the European trading companies on the Guinea coast could and often did break out into actual hostilities at any time. One such outbreak was the English invasion of Elmina of 1782. On the morning of 17 February, the English mounted a determined assault on Fort St Jago, which continued until the 21st, when they were forced to withdraw ignominiously. A contemporary English account of the campaign(I0) is quoted in Appendix IV. Whereas throughout the 18th C, the predominant threat to the coastal forts was from rival Europeans, in the 19th C, following the abolition of the slave trade and the establishment of peace in Europe after the Napoleonic wars, the threat to the coastal forts came predominantly from the Africans. The early 19th 0 was the period of greatest Ashanti power: the Asantehene (the king of Ashanti) claimed sovereignty over the coastal states; and whereas the Dutch and the Fanti

RETFORTCOENRAADSBuRe, OPI C1.1 7'*o 1,51 '6, q/ 4",. 'Ifee v- "llatec"'L ilcx e -A

11. Horton, Africannss Letters on ..... the Gold Coast, London, 1870, pp, 46-48. 12. Pope-Hennessy, Jamess Verandah, London, 196, p.128. 24 Plan of Fort St Jago, by C.F. Gevers, 1830. (AR, were traditional allies of the Ashanti, the Fante tribes along the coast, who were allied to the British, were pathologically afraid of the Ashanti. During the 19th C, fighting broke out frequently between the Fante and the Ashanti, which resulted in war between the British and the Ashanti on several occasions. The political situation on the Gold Coast remained tense and unstable throughout the 19th C: twice during the century, the Dutch found it necessary to increase the security of Elmina by building new fortifications on the outskirts of the town. And although no significant alterations or additions were made to Coenraadsburg, (fig 24 records its condition in 1830 drawn by midshipman Gevers), the fort was continuously garrisoned. Following the partition of the Gold Coast between the British and the Dutch in 1868, the political situation worsened, and hostilities broke out between the Dutch and their disaffected Fante subjects who were formerly under British protection at Komenda and other former British settlements west of Elmina. In 1870, a large Fante force invaded Elmina from the landward side, and only heavy fire from Coenraadsburg prevented the town from falling to the Fante(11). On 6 March 1872, the Dutch finally pulled out of West Africa, after handing over their West African possessions to the British. The British Governor, John Pope- Hennessy, sailed to Elmina from Cape Coast for the handing-over ceremony, and shortly afterwards, moved out of Government House, Cape Coast, and took up residence in St George's Castle. He lived at Elmina for several weeks, to demonstrate to the Elminians the reality of the British annexation(12) At the same time, the Dutch garrison in Fort St Jago was replaced by a British garrison, initially of troops of the First West India

Regiment, subsequently of Hausa troops. But neither the Elminians, nor their Ashanti allies, willingly accepted the British annexation; and in 1873, an Ashanti force invaded Elmina. The greater part of the townspeople rose in support of their old allies, and on 12 June, the colonial government declared martial law. Two days later, the old town was bombarded, both from the castle and from the lagoon (fig 11), and the British army engaged in action against the Ashanti. The sixth Anglo-Ashanti war had begun. Martial law remained in force at Elmina until 12 February 1874, six days after the British sack of Kumasi, and Fort St Jago continued to house a garrison for several years after that. The British colonial government continued to use the fort as a prison, and once the threat of attack had receded from Elmina, the garrison was withdrawn from the fort, and provision made to increase the prison accommodation. Plans of 1880 (figs 25 and 26) show the two rear bastions roofed, to provide wards for male prisoners, a third storey added on top of the block on the rear side of the courtyard, to provide further ward accommodation for male prisoners, and a second storey added to the single storey block on the near side of the courtyard, to provide two rooms for the gaoler and one room for European prisoners. Female prisoners were provided for in one room on the ground floor of the rear block. In adding one more storey to the rear block, the rear wall walk was built over and enclosed, to provide a series of punishment cells, thereby destroying the continuity of the defensive wall walk. A latrine and a kitchen were built, on the seaward demi-bastions, and cast iron ventilators, in the form of former gun carriage wheels, were built into the walls of most rooms, presumably to increase air movement, for at last the benefits of fresh

ADmOEITRTORf. 1ri Zi TIURt L @G -PAN sTp. FLOOR.2 - ORIIJ5AN - 5cA.I- 25 Ground Plan of Fort St Jago, by M Jones, 1880. (PRO, WG 1029). 26 Upper Floor Plans of Fort St Jago, by M Jones, 1882. (PRO, MPG 1029). -PLAN _OF '8 O'D-5 AST-COLOKY * Kl air were beginning to be recognized. The kitchen on the S demibastion probably served only the gaoler and whatever European prisoners were in custody: the kitchen in the courtyard, built by the Dutch and shewn on Trenks' plan of 1774, presumably served the needs of African prisoners in the rear block. ,"N 40 The plans of 1880 show both rear bastions roofed: so do the PWD plans of 1919, now in the National Museum, Accra(13). By this time, the demi-bastions had also been roofed, and there had been a general rearrangement of the accommodation, although the building was still in use as a prison at this time. It is not clear when the demibastions were roofed: a photograph of c 1900 in the Rissinck collection, Amsterdam, shows both seaward demi-bastions unroofed, both rear bastions roofed. Female prisoners in 1919 occupied all three rooms FORT STJAGO INusaASA . I on the first floor of the block on the near side of the courtyard, PFTR FWD po~wm& 1, 4 C WOMI and enjoyed the use of a kitchen at the rear of the S deal-bastion. The covered E demi-bastion contained a kitchen for male prisoners, with a massive fireplace for cooking on built where the latrine TMT RO MAL WA formerly was. Ground floor rooms on both sides of the courtyard are shewn as used for stores, while the first floor rooms at the rear of the courtyard, and the adjacent covered bastions, still formed male prison wards. The gaoler's quarters had been moved to the top floor of the rear block. Pencilled alterations to the plans, undated, show the building in use as a hospital, which was the case during the second world war, when the massive influx of troops into the Gold Coast greatly increased the demand on the existing hospitals in the country. The C H Bartels house in the High Street of Elmina was also requisitioned for use as a hospital at this time, and has remained in Ministry of Health ownership since then. The building of ...... FO R.T ST AGO 4 27 Plans of Fort St Jago in use as a hospital during the Second F USE AS A OSPITAL OURING "HE ,.EGOND W WAR World War. (after plans in the National Museum, Accra). t PWO CF.AWIM&, ACCIRA the prison farm at Ankaful, less than 10 kilometres away, in the late 1920's would have reduced the need for prison accommodation in Fort St Jago, although Cape Coast Castle has continued to house a prison until the present day. Figure 27 shows the fort in use as a hospital, and is based on the pencilled alterations to the POD plan of 1919. After the second world war, and the subsequent closure of the hospital, the fort, for the first time in its history, was under-used. The Leprosy Control Dept occupied a few rooms, but the building certainly presented an appearance of disuse when O'Neil visited it in 1951. Because of its historic importance and architectural significance, O'Neil recommended its careful restoration, (see Appendix V for his report and recommendations). Contrary to his recommendation, the roofs of two of the bastions (at the N and S corners) have been removed: this has certainly proved to be a good move, for the bastions in their present state, open to the sky, are magnificent. In line with O'Neil's recommendations, however, was the decision, carried out by Lawrence in 1953, to make the fort the Headquarters of the Monuments Divibion of the Monuments and Relics Commission. Drawing and secretarial offices occupied the first floor of the rear block, and the office and apartment of the Inspector of Monuments occupied the second floor above. The enclosed W bastion housed the joinery workshop, and the roofs of the N and S bastions were removed. The three rooms at first floor level on the near side of the courtyard, opening off the seaward wall walk, were converted into resthouse accommodation, served by a bathroom and toilet installed in the covered E bastion, and a new small kitchen installed at the rear of the S bastion. Under Lawrence's direction, the building was carefully investigated, conservatively restored, and imaginatively used. Prof Lawrence left Ghana in 1957, as did Mr Peters, the first Inspector of Monuments. Mr Peters' successor as Inspector, Mr W L K Obuobisa, continued and completed the programme of restoration that Prof Lawrence had begun; and living in the fort until 1970, he was able to humanize the place with personal touches (e.g. the flower boxes in the courtyard). Under his direction W C's and septic tanks were installed for the first time, and electricity and piped water supplied from the town. A bath house and W C for the use of junior staff were built in the outer wall walk, and the old Dutch kitchen in the courtyard brought back into commission. The building as one sees it today is very largely as Obuobisa left it in 1970. Minor alterations and repairs have been made since then, but in the main, the building still retains the appearance of a working fort. Comparison, however, between photographs of the building taken shortly after the completion of the first phase of restoration in 1955, and photographs of the building taken last year, reveals obvious deterioration as a result of inadequate maintenance during the intervening period. The present condition of the building is described in detail in a subsequent chapter. 13. British Library Map Library, No. 65350 (27).

Ai I dm I ~ i -_ - r 26 The. approach to FortL 3t Jago. (Photograph

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT As I have indicated in the previous chapter, Fort St Jago has been surveyed and drawn several times during its history, and successive plans have been particularly useful in indicating the different uses to which the fort has been put at different periods. The building was again surveyed and measured in July 1978 in preparation for this dissertation, and the full set of measured drawings is contained in Appendix VI. Fort St Jago is a copybook example of a colonial fortress of the Baroque period, and this is soon apparent to the visitor. The British additions are clearly distinguishable from the original Dutch work, and can be removed, in the mind's eye, to reveal the four corner bastions, linked by a continuous wall walk, of the late 17th C Coenraadsburg. What is not immediately apparent to the visitor, however, is the slight distortion of the copybook plan. The courtyard, which appears to be rectangular on plan, is not even a true parallelogram- the face of the block on the rear side of the courtyard is almost 8 degrees out of alighnment from the perpendicular to the transverse central axis. The reason for this would appear to be that the fort is built, not in the centre of the flat top of St Jago Hill, but to one side, with a comparatively large area of flat ground on the NE side of the fort, and with the ground falling away quite steeply on the SW side. I have discovered no explanation for this. The easiest ascent of the hill, which is on the line of the present road, brings one to the SW end of the summit, and it may be that the fort was built in this CHAPTER 4 position in order that the visitor should be confronted with an impressive facade. I cannot believe that visibility from the fort or the securi* of its defences would have been in any way impaired if the fort had been built in the centre of the plateau. (It is possible that the earlier Dutch redoubt had stood there, and that the new fort was built to the left of the redoubt, to avoid having to demolish it before the fort was complete; but in the absence of any archaeological investigation of the plateau, such speculation remains hypothetical). It is probable, however, that when the setting out of the fort on site had reached the far corner (i.e. the W bastion, furthest from the castle), the ground was falling away so steeply that it was not considered practicable to project the bastion as far as its counterpart to the N, and the rear curtain wall was realigned to suit the revised position of the W bastion. Ad hoc adjustments to the plan would subsequently have been necessary to the S bastion and the curtain walls on the SW and SE sides, resulting in the slight distoltion of the plan. The building is constructed throughout of Sekondian sandstone, a hard and durable stone of the Ordovician-Silurian period, dark reddish-brown in colour, which was quarried from the side of the hill. Imported Dutch brick is used for dressing door and window openings, vaulting some ground floor rooms, and for constructing the rainwater cistern that underlies the courtyard. The British continued the use of local stone for building their extensions, but whereas the Dutch buildings in the courtyard were roofed with clay tiles, the British extensions are now roofed in corrugated asbestos cement. Carpentry work throughout the building dates from the British period, and is in imported Californian pine. Joinery work C ~ - FIRST FLOOR PLAN 29 First Floor Plan, Fort St Jago: measured drawing, 1978/79.

30 Corner of a bastion at St George's Castle during restoration, c 1955. (Photograph (C) GNMB: Courtauld Institute neg A 57/943). survives from all periods of construction: the outer and inner gateways have their original late 17th C doors; some other door and window frames survive from the Dutch period, but in the main, doors and windows date from the British period, except where recent replacements have been inserted during the latest (Ghanaian) restoration. Generally, the quality of workmanship is sound but crude: architectural ornament is used sparingly and without sophistication. The greatest care was taken, wisely, with the construction of the bastions, and of the paving to bastions and wall walks. (Fig 30 shows a detail of one of the bastions of St George's Castle, with the external render removed during restoration: a the building of the fort was contemporary with the strengthening of the bastions at the castle, it is probable that similar care was taken with the dressing and fixing of the stones at the apex of the bastions at the fort). All stonework surfaces, except for paving to courtyard, wall walks and bastions, are rendered in lime mortar and whitewashed. The building stands on top of St Jago Hill, with its transverse axis inclined at an angle of approx N 380 30' W. The plan is basically symmetrical about the transverse axis, apart from the slight distortion referred to above, and the asymmetrical roofing of the W and E bastions, and this basic symmetry is apparent on the entrance (i.e. the SE) elevation (Appendix VI sheet 9). The approach road that climbs the hill brings the visitor face to face with the fort, more or less on the line of the transverse axis: the road terminates at a small roundabout, from the far side of which a flight of steps rises to the ravelin, (added some time during the 18th C), by which the fort is approached. The ravelin is polygonal on plan, with a curved outer face; low parapet walls with continuous bench seats behind enclose a small space in which stand a cylindrical sentry box with a conical roof, to the right, and a 19th C cast iron lamp standard, to the left (fig 31). From the ravelin, a fixed timber bridge (of recent construction, in odum, a local hardwood) in two sections, supported on an intermediate stone pier, leads to the outer gateway. Originally, the outer section was in the form of a drawbridge, raised on pulley posts standing on the intermediate stone pier. The outer gateway gives access to the outer wall walk, and is contemporary with it. The gateway contains a semi-circular headed doorway, housing a pair of massive ledged, braced and panelled doors, with a projecting keystone to the arch over (fig 32). The keystone is inscribed with a crudely carved monogram, a large letter W superimposed over the letters G, C and A, which I am unable to interpret. Above the doorway is a triangular pediment, supporting an ornamental ball at the apex. The outward pediment is plain, except for the rudimentary mouldings to the cornice: the inward pediment contains an inscription, carved in stone and now badly weathered, recording the building of the wall walk. Sufficient survives to give the sense: 'The outer defence (buyte wal) was built by order of Governor (Directeur Generaal) Dirck Wilree, Anno 1671' (Fig 33). The outer wall runs continuously around the building, following the indentations of the bastions and demi-bastions on plan. At the four principal corners, the wall walks are projected to form pseudo demibastions, thus providing flanking cover to the stretches df wall between them. The walk is protected by a wall, roughly 1.800 metres high (the height does vary, owing to the undulations in the paving) containing at least 17 gun ports and many small-arm firing slits. 31 View of ravelin, Fort St Jago. r - 7 32 View of Outer Gateway. 33 Inscription on inner face of outer gateway.

Many of the gun ports had been blocked up, presumably when the fort was converted into a prison, and were rediscovered and opened up by Lawrence. Five of the gunports have had cannon restored to them (cast iron, generally of 4-8 lbs calibre), mounted on imitation gun carriages, built in brick. In the wall walk below the E demibastion, a bathhouse and a W C have been discreetly provided, built in sandcrete blockwork. The walk is paved throughout in stone, laid to fall towards a large number of drainage outlets built into the outer wall. In places, the paving is cut by recessed gutters, which conduct rainwater from the foot of rainwater pipes built against the main curtain walls, and here and there along its length, building materials are stacked, for the use of the Monuments Division; but in the main, the outer wall walk in its present form provides a pleasant place to stroll in, with a succession of picturesque and varied views revealed at each turn (fig 34). Completing the circuit of the walls, the visitor is brought back to the main entrance of the fort. Facing the outer gateway is the inner gateway, at the foot of the watch tower, which contains a semicircular-headed, double-leafed door set in a fairly sophisticated architectural frame (fig 35). Above the entablature is a plaque supported by scrolls and surmounted by a pediment, and flanked by a pair of ornamental stone balls. The plaque contains an inscription, now illegible, that recorded the foundation of the fort. The inner gateway gives access to a vaulted lobby, in the crown of the vault of which is a trap door, now sealed by a stone slab, set into the paving of the upper wall walk above. The trap door was presumably used, initially, for hoisting cannon and other heavy objects to the upper

36 View of courtyard from N bastion. 1. Drawing No. 760, Rijksarchief, The Hague. The plan and section show five vaulted bays, each 6 ft wide x 18 ft long x over 12 feet high to the crown of the vault. level. Beyond the lobby is the entrance hall, designated on Trenks' plan as the guard room, which housed until recently a small permanent exhibition of photographs, models, and archaeological fragments and artefacts. (The material thus exhibited now forms part of the Historical Museum in Cape Coast Castle). Like the rooms flanking it on either side, the entrance hall dates from the original period of construction (1665-66), with its original semi-circular-headed door and window openings dressed in brick, but with a ceiling formed of the Californian pine joists and floorboards added by the British, c 1880. The courtyard beyond the entrance hall is a pleasant place (fig 36), comparatively cool and shady, measuring approx. 26.820 x 11.680 metres. The courtyard is paved in stone, with the exception of a brick paved strip which crosses the courtyard on the line of the transverse axis. Below the courtyard is a large cistern, .lined in brick, for the storage of rainwater, access to which is by means of a manhole near the foot of the stairs at the E corner of the courtyard. As the cistern was still in use when I surveyed the fort last year, with water to a depth of about 0.600 metres, I was unable with limited time and resources to to investigate it properly. I was able to establish, however, that the floor of the cistern was approx 4.500 metres below the level of the courtyard; and by noting the positions of the incoming rainwater pipes, and by analogy with the plan proposed for the Dutch fort at Takoradi (1), I estimate that the cistern at Fort St Jago is in eight bays, each 1.800 x 8.100 metres x 3.000 metres to the springing of the vaults, inter-connected by arches in.the cross walls, which would give a capacity of about 400,000 litres. At the rear of the courtyard is the principal building within the fort, a three storey block of which the lower two floors date from the original Dutch period, and of which the top floor was added by the British, c 1880. In the centre of the courtyard elevation of this block, a double staircase, built in brick, rises to the main entrance at first floor level. Round-headed doors and windows light the ground floor rooms of this block, which are vaulted in brick: they date from the Dutch period, and match the ground floor doors and windows of the block opposite. To improve the ventilation in these ground floor rooms - cross ventilation not being possible as the block is built against the curtain wall of the fort - small rectangular openings were formed at high level in the walls on the courtyard side, during the British conversion of the fort into a prison, c 1880. Larger, rectangular windows light the rooms on the floor above, which formed the Commanding Officer's apartments during the Dutch period. The double staircase has a brick balustrade pierced by pointed lancets, a very common feature of the Gold Coast forts: similar lancets pierce the parapets to the ravelin and the watch tower. A curious feature of the double staircase is the fact that the left hand flight is noticeably steeper in pitch than the right hand flight. (The left hand flight was restored by Obuobisa; previously, the first floor landing of the staircase had been extended over it). On the left hand side of the courtyard, seen from the entrance is the lean-to kitchen, built by the Dutch against the curtain wall, with its fireplace and oven built into the thickness of the wall (fig 37): the building still serves its original use today, meals being prepared here for junior staff of the GMMB. Against the righthand wall of the courtyard an ornamental water tank has been added, and around the 37 View of courtyard looking SW. t 77 F otT 7 7r777TZ-.1_F)- r 38 Staircase from courtyard to N bastion. 39 Staircase from N bastion to second floor courtyard a number of flower beds built, an embellishment carried out by Obuobisa in the 1960's. Flights of stairs originally rose from each corner of the courtyard to the adjacent bastion (fig 38): three of these survive, but that at the S corner has been partially obliterated by the building of a kitchen at the rear of the S bastion, and the lower part of the staircase enclosed to form an awkwardly shaped store. At the first floor level, the original Dutch plan is clearly apparent, despite the later additions. From the N bastion, now open to the sky again, the wall walk can be followed continuously around the building. The N bastion contains six gun ports; three of them, on the landward side of the building, are set into a massive wall about 1.800 metres thick and about 3.300 metres high above the floor of the bastion: walls on the seaward side are lower and thinner. (The walls of the W bastion are similarly constructed, with massive walls on the landward side to withstand bombardment from the land). A pair of corbels built into the wall of the three-storey block at the N corner remain as evidence of the roof they formerly supported (fig 39). From the N bastion, the upper wall walk, between walls about 1.800 metres high, leads to the E demi-bastion. Originally open to the sky, this was roofed in the early years of this century, to house a kitchen for male prisoners. The original outer walls were raised, to provide sufficient clearance below the roof, and a large fireplace, in brick, built to provide cooking facilities. The roof is carried on a series of king post roof trusses, spanning between the N and S walls; trusses, prulins, rafters and boarding are constructed in pine. During Lawrence's restoration, a bathroom and toilet were inserted in this space, enclosed by partitions of timber framing and asbestos: essential amenities but unfortunate intrusions into the interior space of the bastion. The fireplace is no longer in use. From the E demi-bastion, the wall walk follows the SE curtain passing under the watch tower, to the S demi-bastion (fig 40). Opening off the SE wall walk are three rooms, added by the British, c 1880, which form the first floor of the two-storey block on the near side of the courtyard. The floor of these rooms is about 900 mm below the level of the wall walk: a short flight of steps within each room leads down from the doorway. Small casement shutters on the wall walk side, light each room. Originally built as additional prison accommodation, these three rooms have provided resthouse accommodation for visitors since the mid 1950's. A lofty roof space above, ventilated by ridgeline ventilator housings, ensures that the rooms below remain comparatively cool at all times, hence their popularity with visitors. The S demi-bastion is also open to the sky, its early 20th C roof having been removed during Lawrence's restoration. At its outer apex, a covered shelter, or echaugette, faces inwards. Three gun ports are provided in the outer walls of the bastion, and several small arm firing slits (fig 41). (The original form of the E demi-bastion is similar, and can be seen underlying the later additions). Here, as in the E demi-bastion and the wall walk between them, the outer wall is only about 1 .800 metres high, less protection being necessary on the seaward side of the building. At the rear of the bastion, a

42 View inside carpentry workshop in W bastion. covered area indicates the extent of the kitchen provided by the British for the gaoler, c 1880: part of this area has more recently been enclosed, by timber and asbestos partitions, to provide a small kitchen for the use of occupants of the resthouse. The large grinding stones, built in situ towards the rear of the bastion, are relics of the earlier kitchen use. For some explicable reason, the walls of the wall walk on the SW side have been raised to a height of about 2.800 metres, forming a long narrow enclosed space, open to the sky. (The raising of the walls may date from the conversion of the fort into a hospital during the second world war: such a space, open to the sky but out of the wind, would be ideal for convalescent patients). At the far end of this enclosed wall walk, a door admits to the W bastion, at present in use as the Monuments Division's Carpentry Workshop. Covered by a massive timber roof, carried on a series of queen post roof trusses spanning diagonally across the space between the two outer walls, this bastion forms a most impressive interior space (fig 42). The roof timbers, in trusses, purlins, rafters and boarding, are of Californian pine: the gun ports are not closed by shutters: as elsewhere throughout the building at this level, gun ports are closed, for security reasons, either by a removable timber cross frame or by galvanized weldmesh fixed in a timber frame. Consequently, lighting and ventilation levels in the W bastion are good: even so, additional ventilation was provided, when the bastion was roofed c 1880, by building in cast iron gun carriage wheels to the walls at high level. These gun carriage wheel ventilators are a curious Ot and endearing feature of the fort; they have been used to ventilate the second and third floor rooms of the three storey block also.

The NW wall walk can be traced between the W and N bastions where it passes through the three storey building; and although the space it formed has been sub- divided by a series of partitions, doors in the partitions provide continuous access. Additional partitions in timber and asbestos in the western half of the wall walk were installed in the 1950's to provide a kitchen, bathroom and toilet for the resident Inspector of Monuments: these rooms are no longer in use, following the provision of equivalent facilities on the second floor of the block in the early 1970's, and their fittings have been removed. In the centre of the block, a rather steep timber staircase rises to the second floor. The accommodation on the second floor consists basically of two very large rooms, originally prison wards c 1880, and one smaller room in the middle of the block. One large room, formerly the office of the Inspector of Monuments, is now empty: the other large room has been recently subdivided, by timber and plywood partitions, to form an apartment for visiting members and staff of the GHHB, and the smaller room has been converted into a kitchen. As on the two-storey block, a series of king post roof trusses support the roof above. In the 196os, an external staircase was built from the N bastion to the office of the Inspector of Monuments. Access to the upper storey of the watch tower is by means of a steep timber staircase rising from the wall walk. The upper storey, a good vantage point for overlooking Elmina and the surrounding countryside, is lit by round-headed windows, two on each of the NE, SE and SW sides, closed by timber shutters. On the NW side, a door gives access to the roof of the two-storey block. From the upper storey, a fixed ladder gives access, via a trap door, to the roof of the watch tower. From here, the viewis superb: it extends for miles in all directions, and clearly validates the choice of the site for a fortified watch tower. No archaeological investigation of the fort, or of the summit of the hill, was carried out during the period of Lawrence's restoration, or subsequently. At the time, the restoration or consolidation of the fabric of all the forts was given priority. To conclude this architectural description of Fort St Jago, it should be emphasized that this is a building of major importance, a Grade I building, for Ghana. Not only is it the most striking and best preserved example in Ghana of a copybook colonial fortress of the Baroque period, the quality of its exterior and interior spaces is exceptional. Architecturally, it lacks sophistication: visually, it creates an environment of great character.

THE PRESENT USE AND CONDITION OF THE BUILDING 43 Rear view of fort showing N bastion, after restoration, 1957. (Photograph (C) GMB; Courtauld Institute neg A 57/1689). I. Until 1957,theMRCGC. The fort remains, as it always has done, in the ownership of the State; and since 1952, it has been in the care of the Monuments Division of the GMMB(M). From 1953 to 1970, the fort housed the headquarters of the Monuments Division, and the Inspector of Monuments was resident there: since 1970, the fort has gradually shed functions of the Monuments Division. Now, the only functions provided for in the fort are carpentry and joinery work for the Monuments Division (in the workshop on the W bastion), resthouse accommodation for visitors, managed by the GNMB and booked through the regional office in Cape Coast Castle, and for members and staff of the GMMB, and living accommodation for the resident caretaker and watchman employed by the GMNB. The carpentry workshop is now an anachronism at the fort: its physical separation from the other workshops and stores and the offices of the GMMB in Cape Coast Castle makes for inefficiency, and the sooner the workshop can be moved to Cape Coast Castle the better. The fort's present role as a resthouse is now the dominant one, and needs to be carefully examined. Lawrence's vision of a chain of resthouses in the forts along the coast is an attractive and a feasible one, and under Prof Nunoo, his successor, a start has been made on realizing his vision. (At present, resthouse accommodation is provided by the GMMB in the forts at Senya Beraku, Apam, Dixcove, Princes Town and Beyin, as well as in Fort St Jago). Few visitors can fail to be charmed by Fort St Jago, and the idea of sleeping in such a romantic location or pacing its battlements under the moonlight CHAPTER5 is highly attractive. Over a period of twenty five years, thousands of people have stayed in the fort, and many have returned again and again. From information supplied by the GMMB (summarized in Appendix VII) it is clear that there is considerable demand for accommodation in the fort, that the bedrooms are usually full, and that if more accommodation could be provided, demand would probably grow to fill it. It is equally clear that the present operation of the resthouse is not profitable at present charges, and that the GMMB lacks the finance mid the management necessary to improve the facilities. The resthouse was opened in the mid 1950's, when self-catering resthouses were the normal accommodation for travellers in the then Gold Coast, as they were in most colonial territories: travellers took their servants and provisions with them, and often their cooking equipment and bedding also. Over the last twenty five years, however, conditions have changed enormously, and hotels and catering resthouses are now the norm in Ghana, even though the freedom to cater for oneself is still appreciated by a minority. Furthermore, the facilities that were considered adequate, twenty five years ago, are no longer acceptable to the majority of visitors. The original resthouse accommodation consisted of two bedrooms opening off the seaward wall walk, a common room between the two bedrooms, a bathroom, toilet and small kitchen. Basic furniture was provided: two four-poster beds with mosquito nets, a dressing table, table and chairs, and built in cupboards, in each bedroom; and a dining table and chairs, sideboard, cupboard, refrigerator and easy chairs in the common room. Bed linen, crockery and cutlery and cooking utensils were provided, and the caretaker was willing to cook for visitors if required. Initially, visitors made do with a 'thunder box', a removable earth closet, in the toilet, and the introduction of W C's in the 1960's was a welcome improvement: the connexion of the fort to the town mains water supply, end the installation of electric lighting, was another improvement. More recently, mosquito screening has been fitted to the bedroom windows, enabling the mosquito nets on the beds to be removed: but these few innovations are the sum total of the improvements that have been made to the resthouse accommodation over a period of twenty five years. To offset against these improvements, however, a gradual deterioration set in after 1973, when the offices of the Monuments SDivision vacated the building. Already in 1970, the flat on the top floor of the three-storey block, vacated by the Inspector of Monuments, had been converted into a self-contained apartment for the use of visiting members and staff of the GMB: this was, and remained, separate from the resthouse operation. In 1973, one additional bedroom was opened up, in the vacated office on the first floor of the threestorey block, followed a few years later by two smaller rooms: no sanitary or cooking facilities, however, were provided in this block, so visitors sleeping in this block had to share the existing facilities on the seaward side. Furthermore, removal of the offices from the fort, reduced the supervision of junior staff, and service to visitors declined. Breakdown of the pump lifting water to the roof tank, and failure of the town water supply, symptomatic of Ghana's economic decline, made it necessary to bring the rainwater cistern in the courtyard back into regular use, and to haul water to the first floor by hand. The resulting squalor can be imagined.

The Condition of the Building The structural condition of the building is generally sound. There is no evidence of subsidence or movement in the bastions or curtain walls, or in the buildings on either side of the courtyard; the bastions and wall walks are well drained, and the roofs are generally sound and water tight, and although minor leaks do occur in ridges and valleys, no serious damage is done because the roof spaces are well ventilated. Evidence of inadequate maintenance, however, is everywhere apparent, most spectacularly on the external walls of the fort, which have not been whitewashed since 1965, and which are now thick with black mould. Also apparent are the broken rainwater pipes, leading to the regular soaking of adjacent wall surfaces; the continual dampness of the seaward walls of the first floor walls opening off the SE wall walk, causing staining and peeling of the surface of the walls internally; the breakdown of the water distribution system; and the dilapidation of the timber and asbestos partitions. The building urgently requires redecoration: this should be put in hand as soon as possible, and would transform the appearance of the building at comparatively little cost. (Figures 43 and 44, showing the rear elevation of the fort in 1957 and 1978 respectively, reveal the deterioration during the intervening period). Regular maintenance of the roofs should ensure that the building is kept watertight: although the asbestos cement roofing is nearing the end of its useful life, it can be relied on for a few more years yet. A complete overhaul of the service installations is required, but this should be deferred until the future of the fort is known, and the specific requirements can be determined. The perpetual saturation of the seaward wall of the first floor rooms opening off the SE wall walk, caused by frequent driving rain and perpetual dampness in the salt heavy sea breeze that blows daily, must be prevented by appropriate treatment. The outer walls of the three-storey block at second floor level are similarly affected, to a lesser extent, and will require the same treatment. Sheltered conditions within the courtyard, and the enormous thickness of the curtain walls prevent the same condition developing elsewhere in the building. The environment of the fort. The environment of the fort, its situation on the summit of St Jago Hill, and the condition of the external works around the building must also be considered. For over a century, the fort haa.stood alone on the crown of the hill, and the sense of separation from the teeming, noisy town below is heightened by the contrast between the densely built-up streets at the foot of the hill, and the bare, uncultivated slopes of the hill itself. The steep, straight road, lined by a few stunted trees, and the steep concrete steps on the other side of the hill, alone link the fort with the town. The approach road, therefore, is a key element in the environment of the fort. Its scale is right: to widen it would upset the balance between the built and the natural environment. The tarmac paving is in a poor condition; worn patches reveal traces of the former Dutch brick paving below. Unfortunately, few of the original shade trees remain; fig 46, showing the approach to the fort in 1978, reveals how bare the fort looks today, compared with its appearance in 1957, shown in fig 45. There 45 Front view of fort after restoration, 1957. (Photograph (C) GNMB; Courtauld Institute neg A 57/925). has been some natural seeding from the surviving trees, but no attempt made to protect the surviving trees or to replant the avenue. The flower beds in front of the fort are kept in order by the staff of the GMMB, but the rest of the hill, its flat sumit and its steep slopes, lie fallow, except where unauthorized cultivation has taken place in odd patches here and there. The boundary of the fort land is not clearly defined: it is only the steepness of the slopes and the abandoned quarry faces that prevent encroachment by townspeople onto fort land. Even so, there has been some encroachment, in the form of mud fish-smoking ovens, on the lower slopes of the hill adjacent to the approach road: so far, this has kept within reasonable bounds. Apart from the fort, there are two other buildings on the hill, belonging to the GNB: both are makeshift buildings of timber and corrugated iron, one a garage, near the top of the hill, used by visitors, the other a store, half way up the hill. Both keep low profile, and cause no great offence: but in any comprehensive programme of development, they should both be replaced. Conclusion Conditions in the resthouse are now so poor, that they cannot be improved to an acceptable standard without major expenditure, funds for which are unlikely to be forthcoming until Ghana's economy has been restored to a healthy condition, which will take a few years. In anticipation of the eventual restoration of the economy, a com- prehensive plan of conservation, rehabilitation and development should be drawn up, for implementation when funds become available. It is the intention of this dissertation to initiate such action, and alternative possibilities are examined in the following chapter.

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THE FUTURE OF FORT ST JAGO CHAPTER 6 47 Area between Fort St Jago and St George's Castle: plan and section showing proposed improvements to access road to the fort). The future development of Elmina. Alternative proposals for Fort St Jago: 1 Restoration to Dutch period, use as a museum 2 Rehabilitation of resthouse as self-catering accommodation 3 Extension and conversion to a hotel - Energy conservation - Finance and management The future development of Elmina Under Ghana's national plan for development, Elmina has four roles: in the development of the fishing industry, in the development of agriculture and market gardening, in the production of salt, and in the promotion of tourism. Fishing, and the marketing of fish, have been major economic activities in Elmina for centuries. Following the closure of the port to oversea trade, the harbour was neglected, the river mouth silted up, and although fishermen continued to use the harbour in their traditional canoes, the industry gradually declined. The building of the new breakwater in the early 1960's was intended to revive the fishing industry in Elmina: the breakwater opened the harbour to small trawlers and boats of a larger draught than were hitherto able to use the river mouth; the building of the Fisheries Department offices and cold stores gave an impetus to the marketing and distribution of fish, and more recently, the development of fish smoking and processing has been promoted by making land available for this purpose to the SW of the harbour, between Elmina and the nearby 61 village of Bantuma. Elmina is in fact one of the few towns in Ghana that have been earmarked for the development of the fishing industry. Of further benefit to Elmina is the development of ancillary industries to serve the fishing industry: for example, two flourishing boat-building yards are now established in the town. The Central Region of Ghana has considerable potential for agricultural development, and the comparative fertility of its soil and extensiveness of its road network have not been fully exploited. Major agricultural production in the past has been geared towards export: coconut and copra, citrus fruit (especially limes), and cocoa. In order to increase production of foodstuffs in the region, it is government policy to diversify agricultural production, and to promote market gardening and sheep and poultry farming. To this end, Danish financial and technical aid was used to establish the J P Isert Agricultural Institute at Elmina, on a site 3 km W of the town, beyond Bantuma. Opened in 1977, the Institute provides extension services to farmers and training courses for agricultural technicians. Parallel with this development is the establishment of district markets for the marketing of agricultural produce: Cape Coast District Council have plans to build a district market at Elmina, on land acquired for the purpose to the NE of the town, close to the AccraTakoradi trunk road. Salt extraction has been another major industry of Eblina for centuries. Until recently, production has been on a cottage industry scale and in the traditional manner, with salt pans formed and drying sheds built at the edges of the lagoon. There has however been considerable expansion of the salt extraction industry within the last fifteen years, and modern techniques and scales of production have been introduced. The Benya lagoon to the W and N of the town has been largely drained for the formation of salt pans, and smaller lagoons further away to the NE of the town are being similarly exploited. Fourthly, tourism. Elmina has so much to offer the tourist and holidaymaker, and such a long history as a place to be visited, that it is surprising that so little money has been invested in the provision of accommodation for visitors and facilities for tourists. One of the first hotels in the country was opened in Elmina in the mid- 19th C, and continued in use until the port was closed. (The building is now in ruins). Visitors from within the country and from overseas have come to Elmina in increasing numbers ever since. And yet, even now, facilities for tourists are grossly inadequate at Elmina. The resthouse in the fort was opened in the mid 1950's; and in 1964, the University of Kumasi opened a small motel beside the beach, 3 km NE of the town. Originally intended as a resthouse for University staff, it soon opened its doors to the public; but with only eight bedrooms, it could hardly cope with the potential demand for tourist accommodation. In 1977, the University sold the motel; and the following year it was reopened under new management and a major expansion programme put in hand. Designed to increase the accommodation to 64 bedrooms, all in single-storey chalets like the original buildings, construction should now (July 1979) be nearing completion. In 1974, the Danish firm of tourism consultants, Hoff and Overgard, were commissioned by the Ghana Government to advise on the promotion of . Hoff and Overgard recognized the touristattracting potential of the historic forts and castles, as well as of the sandy beaches: their major recommendation was the provision of large holiday hotels at the major seaside towns and existing beach resorts, in sufficient numbers to encourage travel agents to promote package tours to Ghana('). (A 200-bedroom hotel was recommended for Elmina). Major investment by Government was envisaged, either ? directly, through building new state hotels, or indirectly, through financial incentives to hotel developers. Hotels of the size envisaged have already been projected for Ada, at the mouth of the river Volta, and for Cape Coast, but no development on the scale recommended has yet been projected for Elmina. 47a St George's Hotel, High Street, a 1895 (after a contemporary photograph). In 1975, the Regional Office of the Town and Country Planning Dept at Cape Coast, produced its town plan for Elmina, in which provision was made, by land use zoning, for all the above developments. Expansion of the town was planned towards the NE, to relieve the pressure and reduce the density in the old town, and to take advantage of the proximity of the trunk road. The bridge across the river, close to the castle, was identified as a major bottleneck in the communication network, and so industrial development was confined to the areas SW of the bridge, to be serviced by the old coast road through Bantuma, and to the area NE of the town, close to the trunk road. The historic core of the town would be retained, but provision made for relocating public facilities in the new area to the NE of the town. Already, a fair amount of private building has gone on 'e ..- 4- 'in this area, and the new District Clinic, which serves the town as well as the District, has already been built adjacent to the trunk road. 47k The ruins of St George's Hotel today. 1 eHoff & Overgard: The romotion o tourism in ,ha report presented to the Governaen o& I , cra, . c.M u.5 ar5~ 59 MÅ RE h 017 E x______NTIAL ELM INJ\

The coastal strip to the NE of the town was zoned for hotels and recreational uses. A conservation study of the town of Elmina was made in the early 1970's by the author and Niels Bech(2): still awaiting publication, the main recommendations of the study are the designation of the historic core of the town, and three adjacent areas of public open space - the greensward to the SW of the castle, the St Joseph's Hill area, and the Government Gardens, to the NE of the old town as conservation areas, and the creation of a town Trust. Legislation would be required to define and protect the conservation areas, and finance would be sought, from Government and overseas, for the establishment of the Trust, which would in turn disburse grants and loans for the restoration and repair of buildings within the conservation area. No specific recommendations were made for the castle or the fort, as these buildings are already adequately cared for by the GMMB, and their preservation ensured, by law; notice however was taken of the various proposals that had been put forward for the use of St George's Castle after the Police Force vacated the building in December 1972. The most appropriate proposal was considered to be the conversion of the castle into a hotel: A A Awotona, a Nigerian student of architecture at Kumasi, had established in his design thesis that the castle could accommodate a 50-bed hotel, without detriment to its historical and architectural integrity(3). In 1977, the castle having by then stood empty for several years, a short-term tenancy of the service yard of the castle was offered to the Edina Traditional Council, so that a school could be opened 48a Master Plan for 1lina, showing zoning for future development (after the Town & Country Planning Department, Cape Coast). there; and in 1978, the Edinaman Secondary School, the first secondary school in Elmina, was opened there. The occupancy of the service yard by the school is a temporary measure only; the Traditional Council has acquired a site in the new town area, and will seek funds to build a new school there. The future of Fort St Jago, therefore, has to be seen in the context of the future of Elmina: the growth of its population to perhaps 25,000, the expansion of its industries and of the tourist trade, the continued care of its historic monuments by the GNMB, and the gradual re-creation of the town's former dignity through the restoration and repair of its old houses. Alternative proposals for Fort St Jago Three alternative proposals were considered for the future development of Fort St Jago, in the context of its continued protection by the State, and in view of its present unsatisfactory condition and mode of operation. These proposals represent the three main options open to the GMMB, custodians of the building. They are: 1 Restoration of the fort to its form during the Dutch period, for use as a museum; 2 Retention of the present form of the building, and its rehabilitation for self-catering resthouse accommodation; 3 Conversion and extension of the building as a hotel. All three options imply thorough repair and restoration initially, and careful conservation and maintenance subsequently. The three alternative proposals are examined overleaf. 2. Bech, Niels and Hyland, A D C: Elmina, a conservation stuy, Occasional Report No. 17, Faculty of Architecture, U S I, Kumasi (awaiting publication). 3. Awotona, A A: Hotel, Dip. Arch. thesis, U S T, K,-1asi 1971

Alternative Proposal 1: Restoration to Dutch period, for use as a museum. . Objectives.: to reveal the architectural form of a copy-book example of a Dutch fortress of the 17th C Baroque period, to create a small museum to present the history of the fort, and to serve an educational purpose in so doing. 2. Implications: The building in its present use is under-utilized. The GMMB Carpentry workshop will be relocated in Cape Coast Castle. The resthouse will be closed down; there is sufficient accommodation elsewhere in Elmina for those who need it. Present management policy and procedure of the GMMB with regard to the provision of resthouse accommodation in the forts is unsatisfactory. There is a need for such a museum in Ghana. A curator will be required for the museum; also supporting staff. Finance will be sought from overseas to cover the cost of restoration. 3. Arguments in favour: The Trenks drawings of 1774 form a sufficient basis for the restoration. The 19th and 20th C additions to the building are of no great architectural merit, and can easily be removed without damaging the underlying structure. 4. Arguments against: It will not be possible to recover the costs of restoration and conversion from subsequent income. With a major museum at Cape Coast Castle, and public access to St George's Castle ensured by law (whatever use the Castle may be put to), there is little educational value in another museum in Elmina. One of the most romantic locations in Ghana of holiday accommodation will be closed. 5. Extent of restoration necessary:. Removal of top storeys from blocks on both sides of the courtyard; new clay tiled roofs provided to both blocks. Removal of roofs and superstructure from E and W bastions. Removal of various other excrescences. Restoration of staircase to S demi-bastion. Restoration of joinery work where necessary. Restoration of drawbridge to ravelin. Removal of all existing service installations. 6. New work reuired: Completely new service installations. Provision of museum display facilities - most appropriate location Rooms 5,6 & 7 on plan. Provision of accommodation for curator and staff - most appropriate location former Commanding Officer's Quarters, Roomsl on plan. Toilet facilities for visitors - preferably outside the building. External works, landscaping and planting. 48 Future development of Fort St Jago: alternative proposal 1.

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Alternative Proposal 2: Retention of the present form of the building and its rehabilitation as self-catering resthouse accommodation. 1. Objectives: To reveal the full history of the fort by enhancing the present form of the building, and to exploit its romantic location to maximum advantage as holiday accommodation. 2. Implications: The building in its present use is under-utilized. The Carpentry workshop will be relocated in Cape Coast Castle. The internal layout will be redesigned to provide selfcontained units of self- catering accommodation: no shared sanitary or cooking facilities will be provided. Various layouts are possible: the most favourable, providing the greatest flexibility in use, is sketched opposite. It provides 5 self-contained units of different sizes, containing a total of 18 beds. Management will be entrusted to an organization experienced in the operation of self-catering accommodation. A caretaker/cleaner and a night watchman will be required to staff the building. 3. Arguments in favour: A residential use is the most appropriate for the building, originally designed to house a garrison. The romantic location has a potential appeal for holidaymakers and tourists far greater than has been exploited until now. The demand for self-catering accommodation is increasing all over the world. Improved facilities and more accommodation will ensure a greatly increased income: revenue from visitors will more than cover the running and maintenance costs, and will provide a surplus income for the GMMB. Visitors to Elmina are brought into the centre of the town, not segregated in a tourist zone on the periphery. 4. Arguments against: The higher standard of accommodation provided will necessitate a higher charge; few Ghanaians will be able to afford this: An expatriate laager on top of the hill is undesirable. Existing facilities in Elmina are inadequate to enable visitors to cater for themselves. 5. Extent of restoration necessary: Removal of recent partitions and various other excrescences. Restoration of staircase to S demi-bastion. Restoration of drawbridge to ravelin (optional). Removal of all existing service installations. Restoration of joinery work and repairs to roof where necessary. Remedial work to exposed outside walls to habitable rooms. Clean out, restore and fully reactivate rainwater cistern. 6. New work reouired: Complete new service installations. Build new partitions internally. Provision of interpretative material for exhibition to visitors - most appropriate location rooms 8, 9 & 10 on plan. Extend parking area and provide new garage for visitors' cars. External works, landscaping and planting.

Alternative Proposal 3: Conversion and extension of the building as a hotel. 1. Ob.ec tives: To reveal the full history of the fort by enhancing the present form of the building, and to exploit the potential of the site to maximum advantage by creating a hotel. 2. Implications: The hotel, to be financially viable, will require a minimum of 20-30 bedrooms: a large extension to the fort will be necessary. The right of public access to the building will be maintained, but will have to be controlled, and restricted in some areas to ensure privacy and security for hotel guests. Public rooms will as far as possible be located in the fort, to ensure widest public access: most bedroom accommodation will be housed in the new extension, The optimum location for the new extension will be on the flat summit of the hill, to the NE of the fort: a link is feasible between the fort and the new extension by means of a tunnel through the NE curtain wall, and a bridge from the outer wall walk to the new extension. The increased volume of traffic generated by the hotel will necessitate the upgrading of the present access road or the construction of a new road. Accommodation will be provided for the resident manager: some other staff will also require accommodation on site (perhaps in an annexe similar in form but smaller than the bedroom annexe). Management will be in the hands of an organization experienced in hotel management. Revenue from guests will more than cover running and maintenance costs, and will provide a surplus income for the GMMB. 3. Arguments in favour: Opportunity should be taken of the Government's financial incentives for hotel building, which are intended to promote tourism in Ghana. The romantic appeal of the site has a potential appeal for holidaymakers and tourists that has not been fully exploited until now. Visitors to Elmina are brought into the centre of the town, and not segregated in a tourist zone on the periphery. Townspeople will benefit from the facilities provided. h. Arguments aainst: Assuming that already projected hotel developments in the area are implemented, there will be sufficient hotel accommodation in the area for visitors without this. The high standard of accommodation provided will necessitate a charge higher than most Ghanaians will be able to afford: an expatriate laager on top of the hill will be undesirable. The scale of hotel operations will inevitably result in architectural and structural alterations detrimental to the authenticity of the fort. Road improvements necessary will be out of scale with the landscape environment of the hill. The striking silhouette of Fort St Jago will be obscured by the new extensions.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT OF FORT ST TA6C> ELMINA M- TCRNATNC 3 .., iSyT6MSioN t ",YERsic -r _*4 0 14trr(-j71

E~ ck U«y EL=ggarTRac*ftlom 2,0 20 zo S~6 M," R~ SPIC>A#L -% yr^rg vm" 10 ZZA'r"- ~,~ Nf^m W6kvH.-rF-L lt R,6SIo~1 ~* W41A 11:1*4 A^ #£SIA~ofl FIRST F~ P(AM I6AK oftt4 AIK BAk C« 5A6,110" LOUMAC QRMOD FL"PL 'PLNM FUTURE DEVELOPMEMT OF FORT ST TAG 0 ELMINA ALTERNNrIVE 3 - EXTEMSIoN CONVERSIM Ib 140' 4. Arguments against, continued The high demand for water will overload the town's water supply distribution system. 5. Extent of restoration necessary: As scheduled for alternative proposal 2. 6. New work required: Major internal reconstruction of the fort. Complete new service installations. Design and construction of new 20-40 bedroom annexe. Design and construction of new staff annexe. Provision of interpretive material for exhibition to visitors most appropriate location kiosk 5 in courtyard. Extend parking area for visitors' cars. Provide garage for hotel vehicles. Improve or reconstruct access road. External works, landscaping and planting. Energy Conservation An existing problem at Fort St Jago is that of ensuring adequate supplies of water and electricity, and any development of the fort that increases the residential accommodation will accentuate this. Already the town's distribution systems for water and electricity are overloaded; and plans by the Ghana Water & Sewerage Corporation (GWSC) and the Electricity Corporation of Ghana (EG) for increasing the supply of water and electricity to Elmina and for extending their distribution systems in the town, will probably be obsolete by the time they are implemented. Any appraisal, therefore, of alternative proposals for the development of Fort St Jago, should take into account the likely impact of such development on the infrastructure of the town. Given the physical restraints on the development of the town imposed by its topography, and the desire to conserve the historic core of the town, it follows that any increase in demand for electricity and water and other infrastructural services must be kept to a minimum. I have investigated, therefore, the feasibility of Fort St Jago becoming largely self-supporting in electricity and water; and an examination of the climatic conditions on St Jago Hill has revealed the site's potential. The climate of Elmina favours a policy of self-sufficiency in energy: both sun and wind are available in sufficient quantities to make the generation of electricity by either solar or wind power a viable possibility. The nearest meteorological station is at Saltpond, about 30 km to the NE of Elmina and in a similar coastal location.

The following meteorological data from Saltpond can reasonably be applied to Elmina. Temperature: Annual mean temperature: 26.80C. Highest monthly mean temperature: 28.4C in March. Lowest monthly mean temperature: 24.40C in August. Humidity: Annual mean relative humidity: 85% Highest monthly mean: 89% in September. Lowest monthly mean: 79% in March. Rainfall: Average total annual rainfall: 1140 a. Highest monthly average: 430 mm in June Lowest monthly average: 20 mm in February Sunshine: Annual average daily hours of sunshine: 6.25 hours. Highest monthly average: 8.5 hours in December. Lowest monthly average: 3.2 hours in July. Prevailing wind: SW One can say there are four seasons in the year, the major and minor dry seasons and the major and minor rains. The first rains are concentrated in May and June, and are separated from the minor rains in October by a minor dry season. The major dry season runs from December to March: even on the coast, the harmattan, the dry NE wind from the , blows for several weeks. The relative humidity is generally high, and does not vary much throughout the year, though the harmattan reduces the humidity to below 70% in February. There is little fluctuation in temperature between night and day either, which together with the generally high humidity and the high salt content in the atmosphere, renders the climate of Elmina sticky and slightly uncomfortable. Most days, however, a vigorous sea breeze blows, reaching its maximum intensity in mid-afternoon, and slackening at dusk: most nights, a gentler breeze blows from the land. The regular breeze, which effectively keeps the temperature from rising much above 340C, and the fresh sea air, more than make up for any discomfort caused by the constant high humidity. The prevailing wind is from the SW throughout the year. Apart from the occasional thunderstorms which occur mainly from March to June and in November, this pattern is repeated daily throughout the year. The average hours of sunshine per day varies from a little over 3 in July to 8.5 in December: cloud cover varies from a little under seven- eighths on average in June to a little under two-eighths in December. The inclination of the sun at midday varies from 180 from the vertical northwards in June to 280 from the vertical southwards in December, being directly overhead in April and early September. Fuller investigation of the comparative installation and production costs of solar- powered and wind-powered generators is required before a final decision can be taken on the optimum method of generating electricity on St Jago Hill. From my analysis of the available climatic data, of the comparative costs of production(4) and of the physical form and environment of the fort, I am convinced that a wind-powered system would be more appropriate. A battery of solar collectors large enough to supply the fort with electricity would be visually too assertive, not only when seen from a distance and the distant view of Fort St Jago from several viewpoints must be protected - but also seen from the battlements. An elegant windmill, however, can enhance the landscape and complement the existing coconut palms that flank the fort. Considerations of appearance as well as efficiency suggest that vertical axis rotors will be most appropriate for the hill-top location(%); and a battery bank to store the electricity generated will be required, which can be incorporated within one of the outer wall walks without detracting from the external appearance of the fort. Solar collectors will be appropriate for the provision of hot water. The existing rainwater cistern under the courtyard has an estimated capacity of about 400,000 litres. The present roof catchment area (the courtyard-facing slopes of the roofs of the two blocks flanking the courtyard) is about 160 sq metres. Given an annual mean rainfall of 1140 mm, and allowing a wastage through evaporation, ete, of 30%, the catchment capacity of these roofs is 125,000 litres annually, on average. Extending the roof catchment area by including within it the outward facing slopes of the two courtyard blocks, and the inward facing roof slopes of the E and W bastions (a further 170 sq m) would produce a further 135,000 litres: together, this would yield approx 260,000 litres annually, less than two-thirds the capacity of the cistern. The courtyard itself would yield a further 245,000 litres, if the rainwater which falls there, which at present drains away to discharge outside the walls on the NW side of the building, were diverted into the cistern, but this would be unacceptable for several reasons, and has therefore been discounted. Allowing 150 litres per head per day for all purposes ( generous allowance but realistic in the warm humid climate of Elmina), the collected rainwater would be sufficient for 1733 person/days annually, or approx 4.75 persons per day throughout the year. Assuming 25% occupancy factor for any resthouse use, accommodation for about 18 people would be the upper limit for self-sufficiency in water. From the above, it will be seen that the total annual precipitation of rainwater would not fill the cistern: one or two bays, therefore, could be used for other purposes. 4. Smith, G.E: Economics of solar collectors, heat pumps and ecoerators University of Cambridge Dept of Architecture, Autonomous Housing Study, Working Paper No. 3. 5. McGuigan, Deneot: Small Scale Wind Power, Dorchester, 1978

FUTURE U-VELOPMENT OF FORT ST J-AGO 0 C0t4~ Tios,ý olp ~ 4Y ^%X> ~ Kl04 Øf 1f301

Finance and management. For the past twenty years or so, the GMMB has provided resthouse accommodation in the forts. It might be assumed that by now, the GMMB has acquired a certain expertise in the operation of resthouses, and to a certain extent, this is so: on the other hand, the limited financial and personnel resources of the GMMB have not permitted the establishment of a separate resthouse management department, and responsibility for the management of resthouses devolves on each individual caretaker, under the direction of the Inspector of Monuments at Cape Coast. The slovenly condition of most resthouses is proof of the inadequacy of the present system of managementFrom information supplied by the GMB (see Appendix VII) it can be seen that revenue from guests V 496.OO in 1978) is minimal, and nowhere nearly covers the cost of the wages of staff employed at the fort, let alone the total running costs. (It is impossible to give a realistic conversion rate for the cedi in pounds sterling: devaluation in several stages during 1978 reduced the official exchange rate from about 0 2.15 to the £ in January to about 0 5.65 to the £ in December). The rate of occupancy is ridiculously low - partly due to the cumbersome method of booking accommodation through the GMMB office in Cape Coast Castle - and does not reflect the increasing number of guests who are provided with accommodation by the caretaker, not recorded in the books: and the charge for accommodation is ridiculously low also, (0 2.00 per bed per night in 1978; 0 5.00 in 1979). With no surplus revenue from guests.with which to pay for long overdue improvements, the GM1B is unable to get out of the rut into which the resthouse operation has sunk: and until resthouse facilities at the forts are improved, an increasing number of potential visitors are not prepared to stay in them. On the other hand, where accommodation in Ghana is of an international standard, people are prepared to pay international prices. (In July 1978, the average charge for a single room per night in the State hotels in Accra and Kumasi was around 6 50: even at the Elmina motel, the charge was 6 35). The tourist industry has expanded enormously during the last twenty years, and in several tropical African countries, notably Kenya and the Ivory Coast, tourist revenue already forms a significant portion of the gross national product. Ghana, however, despite being very well endowed with natural resources - hundreds of kilometres of sandy beaches, a score or more of historic forts, and an unsurpassed wealth of folklore spectacles - has hardly begun to benefit from the development of tourism. For several years, economic mismanagement, corruption and political instability have inhibited the development of tourism in Ghana: but I do not believe that these conditions will prevail indefinitely. In October 1979, a democratically elected civilian government is scheduled to take over from the military administration: and although the way ahead will be hard, the country does possess the political will and the natural resources to restore the economy. And in the restoration of the economy, the promotion of tourism has a positive role to play. The forts and castles of Ghana are a major tourist-attracting resource, though hardly developed as such at present: the GFMB, custodian of the forts, is primarily concerned with their educational role. This is as it should be: the staff of the GMMB are historians, archaeologists, architects, builders, educationalists, and can properly manage the forts and castles as ancient monuments, museums, educational and cultural resource centres. If other facilities are required in the forts, then other skills will be required to provide them: the provision of catering and accommodation facilities, where these are required, should be entrusted to organizations or individuals with acknowledged competence in these fields. The growth of the demand for self-catering holiday accommodation has been one of the most striking features of the tourist industry in the 1970's: one is justified, therefore, in anticipating a growth in demand for this type of accommodation in Ghana. The country is fortunate in already possessing an extensive network of self-catering resthouses covering all parts of the country, operated by regional and district administrations; and the line of forts along the coast, some already providing self-catering accommodation, in the care of the GMB. This national network of resthouses is an invaluable asset, and ought to be more fully exploited: at present, most of them are shamefully neglected. In this dissertation, I am only concerned with the forts, and more specifically, with Fort St Jago. I have chosen, therefore, to investigate the provision of selfcatering accommodation in historic buildings in an attempt to find an appropriate model for the provision of self-catering accommodation in the forts. In Europe, many cultural and commercial organizations are engaged in this activity: for some, like the National Trust, it is peripheral to their main activities; for others, like the management of Sveti (6) Stefan, the restored tourist village in Yugoslavia it is a purely commercial operation. View of St George's Castle from Fort St Jago 6. Cantacuzino, Sherban: New Uses for Old Buildings, London, 1975 7. The Landmark Trust: The Landmark Handbook, Maidenhead, 1977, p.vii

The most appropriate model I have encountered is the Landmark Trust, founded in England in 1965. 'The Landmark Trust is a charity which rescues buildings in distress and then tries to give them life and a future, mostly by letting them for holidays (7). The Trust owns or manages over 60 properties throughout the United Kingdom: most are available for short stays, and by 1977, about 10,000 people a year were staying in them. (I and my family stayed in one in 1975). Properties vary from follies to former railway stations, and include forts and manor houses comparable in scale with the forts of Ghana. Furniture and fittings are carefully chosen, and often specially commissioned; and most properties have been carefully restored from a near derelict condition, and provided with all modern conveniences. Rates vary according to size (number of beds), location and time of year: for example, a week in Church Cottage, Cardigan (4 beds), in winter would have cost £36 in 1977; a week in Luttrell's Tower, Hampshire (5 beds), in high summer would have cost £125. All bookings are made through the Trust's head office at Shottesbrooke, near Maidenhead, Berkshire. Income from lettings covers the costs of servicing and maintaining the properties, but does not enable the capital costs of acquisition (the Landmark Trust owns most of its properties) and conversion to be recovered. In what way can the Landmark Trust serve as a model for Ghana? Its properties are all in the U K, most are owned by the Trust, the greater part of the capital cost of acquisition and conversion has been borne (indirectly) by the philanthropist, Mr John Smith, who founded the Trust. These circumstances are not applicable to the Ghanaian situation: on the other hand, the aims and objectives of the Trust are compatible with those of the GMB, and its overall design control, enabling economies to be made through the multiple ordering of furniture and fittings, and its operating procedures, for publicity, booking, servicing and cleaning and maintenance of premises, can be reproduced in Ghana. In my final chapter, I set out my recommendations for Fort St Jago, based on my appraisal of the alternative possibilities for development, and the constraints imposed by the need to conserve energy and to provide finance and management, in their implementation.

CHAPTER 7 RECOMMENDATIONS 1. The restoration of Fort St Jago, and its rehabilitation for the provision of self-catering resthouse accommodation. The following accommodation will be provided in the fort: 5 self-contained units of self-catering accommodation: Unit 1 (6 beds), comprising 3 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom/UC, living room and dining/kitchen, on the first floor of the front block and including the covered E bastion; Unit 2 (2 beds), comprising 1 bed/sitting room, bathrooVWC and dining/kitchen, in the covered W bastion; Unit 3 (2 beds), comprising 1 bed/sitting room, bathrooV/WC and dining/Kitchen, on the first floor of the rear block; Unit 4 (2 beds), similar to Unit 3, also on the first floor of the rear block; Unit 5 (6 beds), comprising 3 bedrooms, bathrooVWC, living room and dining/kitchen, on the second floor of the rear block; Laundry, for the use of guests, with adjacent drying area, on the SW upper wall walk; Caretaker's Bed/sitting room, on the ground floor of the front block; Watchman's Bed/sitting room, on the ground floor of the rear block; Kitchen for the use of the caretaker and watchman, in the Courtyard;

Stores and Plant Room, on the ground floor of the rear block; Entrance Hall, on the ground floor of the front block; Interpretation Centre, in the former corporal's bedroom and powder magazine, on the ground floor of the front block; Laudry, for the washing of bed linen, table linen, etc, by staff, and adjacent drying area, in the SW outer wall walk; Bathroom and W, for use by the caretaker, watchman and other staff, in the outer wall walk below the E bastion; Access will be provided for the general public to the fort, to the courtyard, the interpretation centre, the N and S bastions, the watchtower, and the outer wall walks. 2 The creation of a Trust, to be assigned responsibility for the provision of self-catering accommodation in the forts of Ghana. (The Trust might be named the Ghana Forts Trust). The GM would retain ownership of the forts and responsibility for the restoration and maintenance of their fabric, and for the provision of public access and educational and interpretive material. The new Trust would bear the costs of converting and equipping the forts for residential occupation, and for operating, servicing and maintaining the accommodation provided. Finance for the establishment of the Trust and the provision of its working capital, should be sought from Government, through the Regional Development Corporations, the District Councils, the GMB and the Ghana Tourist Control Board, from commercial banks and trading companies in Ghana, and from out- side agencies, in the form of inter-governmental aid and grants from international foundations. All the above agencies should be represented on the Board of Trustees, which would be responsible for recruiting management. It would probably be necessary, initially, to recruit management staff from overseas, perhaps through inter-governmental technical aid programmes. Further study of the costs involved in the creation of such a Trust and the implementation of a policy of converting the forts into self-catering resthouses, is necessary before a figure can be given for the finance required. I would estimate, however, that an investment of one million cedis a year for five years would be sufficient to bring 6-8 forts into operation as self- catering resthouses under the management of the Trust, and that subsequently the operations of the Trust would be not only self-financing, but would generate sufficient profit to finance the restoration and conversion of further forts. 3. Archaeological investigation A thorough archaeological investigation of the summit of the hill should be carried out. I would expect this to reveal evidence of the early Dutch redoubt and of the Portuguese chapel, as well as of the houses that stood there in the late 18th C. Restoration work within the fort would also permit an archaelogical investigation of the cistern and of the ground floor rooms.

4. Restoration work required. Removal of recent partitions and other excrescences. Restoration of the staircase to the S bastion. Restoration of the drawbridge to the ravelin. Removal of all existing service installations. Renewal of joinery work to doors and windows and repairs to roofs where necessary. Remedial work to exposed outside walls to habitable rooms. Removal of mould from external walls generally. Draining, cleaning out and restoration of rainwater cistern. Complete external redecoration. 5. New work required. Construction of new partitions internally. Construction of roof to portion of SW upper wall walk, to form Laundry. Complete new service installations. Rehabilitate rainwater drainage system. Install water filtration plant in one bay of cistern. Provision of interpretive material for exhibition to visitors in rooms 8,9 and 10 on plan. Construction of Laundry and new bathroom for staff in outer wall walks. Install solar collectors on roof of Laundry in SW upper wall walk for the provision of hot water. Install two vertical-axis rotors with 6 metre diameter turbines on the flat summit of the hill to the NE of the fort, for the provision of electricity. Construct battery bank for the storage of electricity in the NE outer wall walk. Extend parking area and provide new garage for visitors' cars. Extend external stormwater drainage gutters to form irrigation channels for garden and orchard. External works, landscaping and planting. 6. Design drawings showing restoration work and new work required are included in Appendix VIII. 1. The total connected electrical load on the building is estimated at 20 Kv, made up of lighting, 3 1w, and power (including 10 1 H.P. airconditioners and 6 refrigerators), 17 Kw. Based on a 25% occupancy, the average daily demand throughout the year, would be in the region of 80 KwH, with a maximum daily demand, when the fort is fully occupied, of 250 KwH. 2. The rainwater catchment potential of the building is 260,000 litres annually, which would be sufficient for a 25% occupancy. The existing incoming il cold water main supply would need to be replaced by a 11" incoming main, to ensure sufficient water for a 100% occupancy of the building. 3. The economic feasibility of the proposed self-catering resthouse operation has been determined on the following basis. By analogy with the Landmark Trust, and comparable comercial villa-letting organizations in Europe rates per week for a 6-bed unit could vary from £75 (0 4505 to £150 (0 900), and for a 2-bed unit from £25 (0 150) to £50 (0 300), according to season. It is not unreasonable to aim at a 25% occupancy rate (the optimum for the building as far as self~sufficiency in water and electricity is concerned), and this should be achieved in the second year of operation. A 25% occupancy rate throughout the year would generate, at current prices, £20,000 (0120,000). Expenditure to be offset against income would consist of staff wages (say 3 x 0 5,000), electricity and water (maintenance and service charges only), provision for furniture and fittings, repairs and maintenance, and insurance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY -AND SOURCES Books Baden-Powell, R S: The Downfall of Prempeh, London, 1896. Barbot, John: A Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, 1682, (translated from the French), in A & J Churchill, Voyages, Vol 5, London, 1732. Binney, Marcus & Hanna, Max: Preservation Pays, Save Britain's Heritage, London, 1979. Bosman, Willem: A New and Accurate Description of Guinea, London, 1705, (a translation of the Dutch edition of 1704); reprinted 1907, 1967. Bowditch, T E: Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, London, 1819. Boyle, Laura: Diary of a Colonial Officer's Wife, London, 1970. Brackenbury, Henry: The Ashanti War, (2 volumes), London, 1874. Cantacuzino, Sherban: New Uses for Old Buildings, London, 1975. Claridge, W W: History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti, (2 volumes), London, 1915. Coombs, Douglas: The Gold Coast. Britain and the Netherlands, 18501874, London, 1963. Crooke, J J: Records relatin o the Gold Coast Settlements, 1750 4,I Dublin, 1923;reprinted 1974. Cruikshank, Brodie: Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, (2 volumes), 1852; reprinted 1966 Dapper, 0: Neukeurie Beschrijivinghe der Afrikaensche Gewesten, Amsterda, 1668. Davies, K G: The , London, 1957. De Marees, Pieter: A Description and Historical Declaration of the Golden Kingdom of Guinea, otherwise called the Golden Coast of Mina, London, 1602, (translated from the Dutch). De Marree, J A: Reizen op en Beschrigving van de Goud Kust, Leiden, 1817-18. Gaunt, Mary: Alone in West Africa, London, 1912. Horton, Africanus: Letters on the Political Condition of the Gold Coast, London, 1870. Hughes, Quentin: Military Architecture, London, 1974. Lander, Richard and John: Journal of an Expedition to explore the course of the Niger, London, 1832. Lawrence, A W: Trade Castles and Forts of West Africa, London, 1963. McGuigan, Dermot: Small Scale Wind Power, Prism Press, Dorchester, 1978. Pope-Hennessy, James: Verandah, London, 1964. Van Dantzig, A and Priddy, B: A Short History of the Forts and Castles of Ghana, GMB, Accra, 1971. Ward, W E F: A , London, 1958. Wartemburg, J K: Sao Jorge d'&bsina. premier West African settlement, Stockwell, Ilfracombe, 1951. Wieder, F C: Monumenta Cartographica, Leiden, 1933 (Vol 4, Plate 93). Wiltgen, R M: A Gold Coast Mission History, 1471-1880, Techny, Illinois, 1956. Wolfson, Freda: A Pageant of Ghana, London, 1958. Published articles Calvocoressi, David: 'European Traders on the Gold Coast', in West African Archaeological Newsletter, Vol 10, 1968, pp. 16-19. Girouard, Mark: 'Castles of the Gold Coast', in Country Life, 9 November 1961, pp. 1122-5. Kelly, Sean: 'New Faces for Old Forts' in African Arts, Vol IV, No 4, 1971, pp 44-46. Lawrence, A W: 'Some Source Books for West African History in Journal of African History, Vol II, No 2, 1961, pp.227-234. Nathan, Sir Matthew: 'Dutch and English on the Gold Coast in the Eighteenth Century', in Journal of the African Society, Vol III, No 12, 1904, pp 325-351. Varley, W J: 'The Castles and Forts of the Gold Coast' in Transactions of the Gold Coast and Togoland Historical Society, Vol I, 1952, pp 1-17. Temminck Groll, C L: 'De Monumenten van Europese Oorsprong in Ghana' in Bulletin van de K N 0 B, Vol 67, No 5, 1968, pp. 103-121. Published and unpublished reports, theses etc. Awotona, A A: Elmina Castle Hotel, Dip Arch thesis, U S T, Kumasi, 1973. Bech, Niels & Hyland, A D C: Elmina. a conservation study, Occasional Report No 17, Faculty of Architecture, U S T, Kumasi, (awaiting publication). Dawuni, Alhassan: The Palace of the Ya Na. Yendi, Dip Arch thesis, U S T, Kumasi, 1971. Hoff & Overgard: The promotion of tourism in Ghana, Report to the , Accra, 1974. Hyland, A D C, ed: Documentation and Conservation, Occasional Report No 13, Faculty of Architecture, U S T, Kumasi, 1970.

The Landmark Trust: The Landmark Handbook, Maidenhead, 1977. O'Neill, B H St J: Report to the Chairman and Members of the Monuments and Relics Commission of the Gold Coast upon the Historical Growth. Archaeological Importance, General Condition and present Use of the Castles and Forts of the Gold Coast. with a view to their better preservation as ancient and historic monuments, Accra, 19*1. Smith, G E: Economics of solar collectors, heat pumps and generators, University of Cambridge, Dept of Architecture, Autonomous Housing Study, Working Paper No 3. Maps and Drawings Alsemeen Rijksarchief. The Hague: 619/77 Plan of Castle and town of Elmina, c 1640, after Commersteijn. 760 Section and plan through cistern, Dutch Fort, Takoradi. Unsigned. 770 View of St George's Castle and St Jago Hill, Elmina. Unsigned (by Commersteijn, 16377) 772 Plan of St George's Castle, by Commersteijn, 1637 774 Elevations of St George's Castle, by Commersteijn, 1637 775-9 Various by plans of St George's Castle and Fort St Jago, by Trenks et al. 780 Ground Plan of Fort St Jago, by Trenks, 1774 781 Plan of Castle and town of Elmina, by Bergemans, 1799 Plan of Fort St Jago, 1830. British Library Map Library, London: C.7.d.1 S Georgii oppidum, Mina nuncupatum, etc (In Civitates Orbis Terrarum. by G Braun & F Hohenbergius, Cologne, 1573-1618. Liber I, No 54). C.10.a.3 Del Mina (In De Vornaemste Steden des Werelts, Amsterdam, 1667, P1 94). 975 (7) Em esta plans esta ho Reino descosia he reino d'inglaterra, etc. (Chart of the coasts of Europe and Western Africa by Lazaro Luiz, 1 563. It bears a large and decorative drawing of Elmina) 3 c 37 St Georges del Mina (Coenraadsburg on St Jago del Mina) by H. Greenhill (?), London, 1682? 65350 (27) Ground Floor and First Floor Plans, Fort St Jago, by N C Noah, 1919. (Photocopies of original PWD drawings in National Museum, Accra). Public Record Office, Kew: PRO/MPG 1029 Ground Floor and First Floor Plans, Fort St Jago, by M Jones, 1880. Library of the Society of Antiouaries. London: O'Neil Bequest: photostat copies of 17th and 18th C drawings of the forts from many sources. (A most useful introductory survey of the available material). National Maritime Museum. Greenwich: 213 : 2/4 Portolan by Pedro Reinel, c 1535 (Coloured chart of , with drawing of Elmina). I 76 R 82(a) Prospect of St George's Castle and Fort St Jago, by Kip, 1680? 214: 4/I (2) British Admiralty Chart of the Coasts of West Africa (No 594), with views of anchorages, 1845. 60 D 76 R 82 Two views of Elmina, coloured aquatint by W Bartels, 1845. Photographs Lawrence Collection, Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Military Museum, Kumasi. Stichting C N 0, The Hague.

APPENDIX I Coastal Forts and Castles of Ghana, listed in chronological order of foundation Date of foundation Name (1) and location of present building Principal (and major periods Ownership of construction, if later) Name and location Date of foundation Principal Ownership of present building St George's Castle, Elmina Fort St Antonio, Axim Fort St Sebastian, Shama Fort Nassau, Mouri Fort Amsterdam, Kormantin Fort St Jago, Elmina Christiansborg Castle, Accra , Accra Cape Coast Castle Fort Batenstein, Butre" Danish Mount (Fort Frederiksborg), Cape Coast Fort Orange, Sekondi James Fort, Accra Gross Friedrichsburg, Princes Town Fort Dorothea, Akwida 1462 (16th, 17th 18th CC) 1503 (mid 16th, late 17th CC) c 1560 (1665) 1624 1638 1638 (1664-6) 1645 (all subsequent centuries) 1652 (19th, 20th CC) 1655 (late 17th, 18th, 19th CC) 1656 c 1660 (late 17th C) c 1670 1673 (all subsequent centuries) Portuguese (to 1637); Dutch (to 1872) Portuguese (to 1642); Dutch (to 1872) Portuguese (to 1637); Dutch (to 1872) Dutch(to 1868) English(4s 16 5 Dutch (to 1872) Danish (to 1850) Dutch (to 1868) Swedish foundationEnglish (from 16640 Dutch (to 1872) Danish (to 1685); English Dutch (to 1872) English Brandenburger (to 1725); Dutch (to 1872) Brandenburger (to 1718) Dutch (to 1872) English Fort, Komenda 1686 * (early 18th C) English Fort, Sekondi late 17th C Fort Vredenburg, Komenda 1688 Dixcove Fort 1691 (mid 18th C) Fort Patience, Apam 1697 Fort Good Hope, Senya Beraku 1705 English Fort, Tantumquerxy 1724 Fort Vernon, Prampram early 18th C (early 20th C) Fort Fredenborg, Ningo 1734 Fort William, Anomabu 1753 * Fort Apollonia, Beyin 1768 Fort Kongensten, Ada 1783 Fort Prinsensten, Keta 1784 * (early 20th C) Fort Augustaborg, Teshie 1787 Fort William, Cape Coast 1830 * Fort Victoria, Cape Coast 1837 English English Dutch (to 1872) English Dutch (to 1868) Dutch (to 1868) English English Danish (to 1850) English English Danish (to 1850) Danish (to 1850) Danish (to 1850) English English Notes * Earlier foundations had been made in-the vicinity of the present building (I) Forts and castles are given the name they are known by at present; many have had different'names earlier in their history. (2) Many forts changed hands several times during their early history: by 1872, all forts and castles still habitable had been taken over by the British colonial government; several had already been abandoned and were in rmins hv then. 87

APPENDIX II Name and Location Coastal Forts and Castles of Ghana: Summary of O'Neil's Report of 1951. Use Condition Recommendation Name and Location Use Condition Recommendation St George's Castle, Elmina Fort St Antonio, Axim Fort St Sebastian, Fort Nassau, Mouri Fort Amsterdam, Kormantin Fort St Jago, Elmina Christiansborg Castle, Accra Ussher Fort, Accra Cape Coast Castle Fort Batenstein, Butre Danish Mount, Dape Coast Fort Orange, Sekondi James Fort, Accra Mobile Police Fair Restore as an ancient HQ monument and maintain in present use or convert into a museum A variety of Fair Restore and maintain community uses as an ancient monument, put to educational use Post Office/ Poor Restore as an ancient LA Offices/ monument and maintain Court/Clinic in present use Ruined Dreadful No action recommended Ruined Fair Consolidate and preserve as ruin Leprosy control Fair Restore as ancient dept monument and put to more appropriate use Seat of Good Maintain in present Government use Prison: little Fair Maintain in present remains of use if vacated by fort in later prison, consolidate building walls and bastion of fort and preserve as an ancient monument Post Office/ Poor Remove prison; restore LA Offices/ as an ancient monuPrison/Stores ment and maintain in other present uses Not visited (ruined) Not visited (site only) Lighthouse Good Maintain in present use Prison Fair Maintain in present use or, if vacated by prison restore as ancient monument Gross Friedrichsburg, Resthouse/ Princes Town part ruined Fort Dorothea, Akwida English Fort, Komenda English Fort, Sekondi Fort Vredenburg, Komenda Dixcove Fort Fort Patience, Apam Fort Good Hope, Senya Beraku English Fort, Tantumquerry Fort Vernon, Prampram Fort Fredenborg, Ningo Fort William, Anomabu Not visited (ruined) Ruined/part occupied by local chief Not visited (site only) Ruined Post Office/ Resthouse/ squatter occupation Police Station Resthouse Not visited (ruined) Resthouse: little remains of fort in late building Not visited (ruined) Resthouse/ Post Office/ part ruined Fair Retain resthouse; Fair Retain resthouse; consolidate ruins and preserve as ancient monument Poor Maintain in present use consolidate ruins and preserve as ancient monument Poor No action recommended Poor Retain Post Office, demolish Rest house and restore as ancient monument Good Maintain in present use Fair Maintain in present use Poor Maintain in present use Fair Maintain in present use: 'Eminently worthy of preservetiont Fort Apollonia, Not visited Beyin (ruined) Fort Kongensten, Not visited Ada (site only) Fort Prinsensten, Not visited Keta (prison)

Name and Location Use Condition Recommendation Fort Augustaborg, Not visited Teshie (ruined) Fort William, Not visited CapeCoast (lighthouse) Fort Victoria, Not visited Cape Coast (ruined) O'Neill visited and reported on 19 forts and castles: of these, only 3 (at Prampram, Moree and Dutch Komenda) contained so little that no action was recommended towards their conservation. The remaining 16 were of sufficient historical importance and architectural content to he worth maintaining as ancient monuments, and to that end, he recommended the establishment of a Monuments Division to take over responsibility for their maintenance and restoration where necessary.

APPENDIX III Name and Location Coastal Forts and Castles of Ghana: present condition and use History subsequent Present Use to O'Neil Report Condition Name and Location History subsequent Present Use to O'Neil Report St George's Castle, Restoration by GMMB, Elmina 1957-60: vacated by Police 1973 Fort St Antonio, Axim Fort St Sebastian, Shama Fort Nassau, Mouri Fort Amsterdam, Kormantin Fort St Jago, Elmina Christiansborg Castle, Accra Ussher Fort, Accra Cape Coast Castle Fort Batenstein, Butre Danish Mount, Cape Coast Fort Orange, Sekondi James Fort, Accra Gross Friedrichsburg, Princes Town Empty, awaiting decision about future use. Open to visitors as ancient monument Restoration by Court and L PND/GoB Offices Restoration by Post Office GMKB Cour/LA 0O Ruins consolidated Preserved a and site cleared ruin by GrB Ruins consolidated Preserved a by GMMB ancient mor Became HQ of Monu- Resthouse ments Division; vacated as such 1973 Major renovation Seat of Gov and extensions, ment 1958-61; continuous maintenance byPWD Continuous main- Prison tenance by FWD Apart from prison, Regional H( buildings vacated in GMMB West early 1960s; subseq- Historical uently used for earch Cent emergency housing being deve for several years. jointly by Restoration by and Univer GMMB in progress Cape Coast Site cleared, ruins Preserved consolidated by ruin but o GM grown Site excavated Site prese 1967 but overgr Continuous main- Lighthouse tenance by FWD Continuous main- Prison tenance by PWD Ruins consolidated Resthouse and partially restored by GMMB A 'fices .s a .s an nument er- Fair, deteriorating English Fort, Komenda English Fort, Sekondi Fort Vredenburg, Komenda Dixcove Fort Fort Patience, Apam Fort Good Hope, Senya Beraku English Fort, Tantumquerry Fort Vernon, Prampram Fort Fredenborg, Ningo Fort William, Anomabu Fort Apollonia, Beyin Fort Kongensten, Ada Fort Prinsensten, Keta Fort Augustaborg, Teshie Good Fair Sof Fair African Resxe loped GMMB sity of as a Poor ver rved Poor own Good Fair Good Ruins consolidated Pe-served as an Ruins consolidated by GMMB House on site in private ownership, converted into a small hotel 1976 Ruins consolidated by GAMB Restored by GMS Restored by GMHB Restored by GMMB Maintained by PWD Ruins consolidated by GMMB Taken over as prison 1962: maintenance by FWD Restored by GMMB Site cleared and excavated by GMMB Maintained by FWD Fort William, Lighthouse closed Cape Coast down 1978: building taken over by GHB Fort Victoria, Ruins consolidated CapeCoast byGHB Preserved as an ancient monument Hotel Fort St George Preserved as an ancient monument Resthouse Resthouse Resthouse Resthouse Preserved as an ancient monument Prison Resthouse Site preserved Prison Poor(2) At present empty Fair awaiting plans for conversion to Resthouse Preserved as an Fair ancient monument Notes: (I) from information supplied by GHB, 1978 (2) Seaward bastions partially collapsed 1978 due to sea erosion. Fort Dorothea, Ruined Akwida Condition

The English Invasion of Elmina from Crooke, J J: Records relating to the Gold Coast Settlements, 1750-1874, Dublin 1923, reprinted 1974 pp 51-55. ARRIVAL OF TROOPS FROM ENGLAND. On February 5, 1782, H.M. Ship "Leander," Captain T. Shirley, with Transports, from England, having on board Two Independent Companies of Foot arrived at Cape Coast. Next day the Governor of Cape Coast Castle assembled a Council at which the Commanders of the Sea and Land Forces attended, when an attack upon Elmina was resolved upon. ATTACK UPON ELMINA. On the morning of February 17, 1782, the Troops landed about three miles to leeward of Fort St. Jago, when the attack was commenced, and continued till the 21st, when the British were repulsed with loss. We failed to find any official report from Captain Mackenzie regarding the military operations of the force under his command, due possibly to the Dispatches sent to England in the sloop "Alligator " being thrown overboard when that vessel was captured by a French Frigate and brought to Brest. Fortunately duplicates of the Naval Commander's Dispatches were sent by the cartel "Mackarel." (Copy of a Letter from Captain Shirley to the Secretary of the Admiralty.) "LEANDER " IN CAPE COAST ROAD, 23rd February, 1782. SIa,-By my last from Madeira dated the 10th November, I informed you of my arrival, etc. On the 12th we sailed from APPENDIX IV

GOLI) COAST RECORI)S 53 GOLD COAST RECORI)S thence, and on the 23rd at 6 a.m. made the land about ten leagues to the Windward of Senegal. I ordered the "Alligator" and "Zephyr" Sloops ahead to look out, imagining some Enemy's Vessels might be riding off the Bar. Fortunately there was a very large and valuable French Store Ship mounting Twenty or Twenty-four Guns, which on the approach of the two Sloops slipped or cut her Cables, and run on Shore near the Bar, soon after she struck, her Masts went by the Board, and was that Night totally demolished, which must have distressed the Enemy a good deal. By some Accident or another the few people that remained on board the Wreck, set the Ship on Fire, the Fire communicating to the Powder Room blew her stern out as I afterwards learnt at Goree. There was such a Surf running upon and near the Bar that although she had struck her colours to the " Alligator" after a few Shot, it was impossible for the Boats to approach her without the greatest risk of losing boats and People. I am informed her name was the " L'Ollicieuse," but have not been able to ascertain how many Men she had on board. The Day following we arrived at Gorec which proved a very seasonable Relief to the Garrison. I am sorry to say we were detained at Goree a fortnight longer than we should otherwise have been, owing to the unfortunate disagreement of the Ollicers on board the " Mackarel." Their disputes ran very high even when in Ireland, in consequence of which a Court of Enquiry was granted by Mr. Wall by the request of all parties, which began the 7th and ended the 10th December. In consequence of that Enquiry Lieutenant - of Captain Katenkamp's Independent Company, and Lieutenant - of Captain Mackenzie's Independent Company went out on the 12th and fought a Duel with Pistols, when the latter received a shot through his body of which he Died that evening. Lieutenant being under Arrest, and it being necessary for his Enlargement that he should be acquitted by a Court Martial, I was under the necessity of staying until the matter was over. The Officers and Non-commissioned Officers of the 75th Regiment that Lieut.- Colonel Wall chose to send away were embarked the 22nd on board the " Ulysses," and on the 24th (leaving the " Zephyr" agreeable to their Lordships' directions) I sailed with the " Alligator" Sloop, " Mackarel " and " Ulysses " Transports. I must beg leave to inform their Lordships if their Intention is (as I suppose it is) that the Zephyr " should remain on the Coast an immedia:te Supply of Provisions should be sent as there is no Supply there, Lieut.-Colonel Wall having no Orders to assist her. Their Lordships can be no Strangers to the situation she was in when last on the Coast, as she was obliged to go home for the want of Provisions. She is most certainly extremely well calculated for the purpose, and with a proper assortment of Truck might be furnished with fresh Provisions at a very reasonable Rate for years if they should chose to continue her there. Running along down the Coast we'were not so fortunate as to fall in with Sierra Leone until the 8th January, 1782, owing to very light Airs and Calms. The " Ulysses " having very little Water on board, being also short ourselves, and informed that at Sierra Leone there was the best Water on the Coast, I judged it prudent for the Health's sake of my People to complete our Water, which was done in three days, and on the 4th, being the 12th January, we got under weigh and came to sail. We did not arrive at Cape Coast Castle from Sierra Leone until the 5th February. On the 6th the Governor assembled a Council, Captain Mackenzie and myself attended, in consequence of which it was the Unanimous Opinion that an Attack by Sea and Land on Elnina and St. Jago, if properly undertaken, would no doubt succeed, in consequence of which a Plan was formed that the" Leander " should Attack Fort Elmina for a diversion while the Troops on Shore attacked Fort St. Jago. Having in the intermediate time made every necessary Preparation, and previously ordered Captain Frodsham of the "Alligator" to conduct and cover the Landing of the Troops, the place for which was proposed to be about three Miles to leeward of Fort St. Jago, and having sent One Master's Mate, One Midshipman and Twenty-three Seamen from the "Leander," with Thirtyeight Volunteers from the Guinea Ships in Cape Coast Road, under the Command of Lieutenant John Ormrod my Acting Second Lieutenant, a most valiant and spirited young Oflicer, and Two Sergeants, Two Corporals, a Drum and Forty Private Marines, under the Command of Second Lieutenant Joseph Dugdale, a very promising young Officer, to be disembarked, in order to co-operate with Captain Mackenzie by land. On the 14th at 9 a.m., I got under weigh with the

54 GOLD COAST RECORDS "Alligator," " Mackarel " and " Ulysses" Transports, a Lugger and three Guinea Ships, and on the 15th at 4 p.m. the " Leander" Came to all anchor before Forts Elina and St. Jago, they being distant about three miles. The Alligator " Transports, etc., working into the Landing place. At Noon the " Alligator " anchored at the landing place and immediately made a Signal for all Boats from the other Ships to assist in landing the Troops. The next day (the 16th) the Surf running exceedingly high, it was judged imprudent to attempt the Landing, but on the following day at Noon the landing of the whole troops was made good (with the loss of only two Men who were drowned) under Cover of a constant, heavy, and well directed lire from the " Alligator," to the Commander of which, Captain Frodsham, I should do great injustice if I did not in this place, bestow the highest encomiums on, for his excellently well conducted disposition of the Landing, which was most effectually executed. For the three following days the Winds and Weather did not prove favourable enough for me to get *in near enough to attack the Forts, during which time the Troops on Shore were engaged in several skirnmishes with the )utch Blacks to the Amount of several thousands-with considerable loss to them, though inconsiderable to us. On the 18th I settled a Signal with Captain Mackenzie, that when I was getting under weigh to attack the Forts, I would lire one of my lower Deck Guns, and hoist a Red Flag at the Main top gallant Mast head, with an intention that lie should at the same time advance with the troops to storm Fort St. Jago. On the 20th at 18 minutes past 12 p.m. finding the Sea Breeze set in favourably, I made the aforesaid Signal and immediately got under weigh and run in Shore to make the Attack. At two got in Shore, as near to Ehnina as the Pilot would carry the Ship, and Anchored with Springs upon the Cables, and immediately began engaging the Fort. Kept up a very hot fire, till 20 minutes past 6, which annoyed them much, and must have done them considerable damage, when the " Leander" and the Fort ceased firing, we were so fortunate as not to have more than six Shot hull us. At a quarter before 6, next morning, began a hot fire again from the " Leander " upon the Fort. At 8 we perceived our Troops advancing, being warmly engaged with the Blacks in the Dutch Interest. At 10 our Troops GOLD COAST RECORDS 55 advancing pretty fast, the two Forts began to fire many Shot at them, the " Leander " still keeping up a constant fire ul)On the Forts, to draw their attention from the Troops which galled them much, but it gives me pain to say that at 11, we perceived our Troops to retreat very last. At half past 11 ceased liring entirely, perceiving it to be no purpose, the Troops having retreated, and having expcnded a great deal of our Ammunition. At 12 the Action was entirely en(led, our Troops having made a precipitate 7ntreat to the Ground which they at lirst occupied, with the loss one Field piece (the only one they had) and their Scaling Ladders. The Notorious conduct of Captain Mackenzie will come better from the Officers who served under him than from me, upon which head, I must therefore beg leave to be silent. On the 21st the Troops retreated to Cape Coast Castle by Land, and next day I got under weigh with the " Alligator 1' and the two Transports and anchored the same afternoon in Cape Coast Roads. I cannot too much express my obligations to Captain Frodsham of the " Alligator " Sloop for his good conduct in the disposition of landing the Trool)s, covenrig the Landing, and also for his gallant blhaviour in destroying the valuable Store Ship at Senegal, even under the lire from their Batteries, and whose pecurliar merit I Ilatter myself will be rewarded. Nor can I omit acquainting their Lordships that all my Oflicers and Men, as well on board as those employed on Shore, behaved with the greatest Courage and Intrepidity, becoming British Seamen and Soldiers. My thanks arc likewise due to the Masters of the " Molly,'" Nancy Brooks," " Gascoyne," and " Grigson," Guinea Men belonging to Liverpool who gave me every assistance in their power with their Men and Boats. Enclosed I scud you a List of the Killed and Wounded on board His Majesty's Ships under my command. In No. 2 1 shall acquaint you for their Lordships' information of my proceedings since it was out of my power to Cooperate with Captain Mackenzie, as after the Retreat from St. Jago, neither Ollicer, Seamen, or the Non-commissioned Ollicers of the 75th Regiment, who served as Volunteers, on that Expedition, would again Act under him. I am, etc., TrIOMAS SnIRLEY.

APPENDIX V Extract from O'Neil's Report, on Fort St Jago, 1951. FORT ST UAGO. ELMINA A. HISTORY This fort is upon the top of a hill a short distance to the north of Elmina Castle, which it could menace in time of war. In fact, as related in the account of that castle, it is the one disadvantage of that otherwise admirable site. No doubt the Portuguese recognised this, but decided to use the site of Elmina Castle because of its other advantages. On this hill they first built a Chapel; hence the named St lago. It may be that this was done, in order to consecrate the ground and thereby to deny its use for warlike purposes to scrupulous Christians. The date of erection of this Chapel is unknown, but at some time between 1555 and 1558, perhaps in 1556, according to Claridge, a small watch tower was built. These buildings were captured by the Dutch in 1637, when they took Elmina Castle, and in the following year work began on a true fort, which received the name Fort Ccnraadsborg. Its history is that of Elmina Castle, i.e. besieged for ten months by the Elminas in 1680/1, attacked by the English in 1781 and sold to the English in 1872. B. THE STRUCTURE Of the early Portuguese chapel there are no certain remains, but it is possible that it is embedded in or contains the building used until recent years as a prison, i.e. the main block against the north wall. This has a semi-hexagonal east end. The small square tower covering the entrance through the main rampart into the fort may represent the Portuguese watch tower, but, if so, it has lost its top storey, since it is shown as much higher than at present in the engraving of 1682. The Dutch fort of 1638 is well preserved. It is four-sided with a large bastion or demi-bastions at each corner, bastions to the north, demi-bastions to the south.. The south-western and south-eastern demi-bastions each have a rectangular turret at the apex, the latter having been later used for ovens. All but the south-western demibastion have been roofed over since the fort went out of use in warfare. The parapets have been altered and windows made of guncarriage wheels inserted. No doubt they belong to the many guns now lying neglected on the hill-side below the fort. But the original gun embrasures, blocked or truncated, may usually be seen in the faces and flanks of the bastions with steps to the wall-walk above them. The embrasures are large and vaulted; there were originally two in each face and one in each flank. The walls of this fortification are battered and plastered in the usual manner. The tower over the entrance is that which is shown in the engraving of 1682 but one stage lower than there depicted. As mentioned above, in origin it may be the Portuguese watch tower, but it does resemble similar features at Axim Fort which are Dutch after 1642. Enclosing this fort there is a second rampart, lower and loopholed for muskets. It follows the shape of the inner fort with a bastioned and semi-bastioned form corresponding thereto. Its gateway is in the centre of the south side and has a Dutch inscription on its inner face with the date 1671. Tis, therefore, is an extra defence added at the time of Dutch-English rivalry. Of the same date i the demi-lune in front of the gate with its attractive, circular sentry box. C. USE AND RECOKMENDATIONS A few rooms in this fort are used as an office and stores for the Leprosy Control and another is locked and labelled Instructor I/C. Generally speaking the fort seems to be structurally sound, but it is very untidy. As a historic monument it is well worthy of attention. Careful work in the Prison building, if under archaeological supervision, might expose the Portuguese Chapel. In any case the clear indication of two periods of Dutch work in the 17th century may well give a clue to such work in other forts, which is undated. In other words this may be a locus classicus. It should be cleaned up internally, whitewashed externally, any minor repairs needed being done at the same time. Preferably the fort should be put to a use such as a Rest House or for educational purposes, which will do it no harm and allow it to be normally open to visitors, but, if this proves to be impracticable, it should certainly be maintained as an ancient monument. The late 18th century guns which lie neglected, littering the hillside, should be placed again inside the fort, even if it is now impossible to mount them, because the bastions are roofed over and should remain so. The above text is reproduced from O'Neil, B H St J: Reuort to the Chairman and Members of the Monuments and Relics Commission of the Gold Coast uon the Historical Growth. Archaeological Importance, General Condition and oresent use of the Castles and Forts of the Gold Coast, with a view to their better preservation as anciant and historic monuments, Accra, 1951.

APPENDIX VI Measured drawings of Fort St Jago, 1978/79 VI. 01 VI. 02 VI. 03 VI. o4 VI. 05 Vi. 06 Site Plan Ground Plan First Floor Plan Second Floor Plan Section AA Section BB VI. 07 VI. 08 VI. 09 VI. 10 VI. 11 VI. 12 Section CC Section D SE Elevation NE Elevation NW Elevation SW Elevation

N DTE ~vi 01 o 0 20 30 40 50 700 F5.Q JULYij FORT ST TAGO ELM I NA GHANA LY1

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FORT ST TAGO ELMAI NA GHM\A 0 10 z -, TLY 1137 SOUITHEAST ELEVATION VI.09 ZTULY 19:7 o 1 a -,T r ~ r 0zo 3 JULY 1T)g NORLrVAI FORT ST TAGO ELM I NA GHAN'~A V1. 10 J'ULY 19711 *- . C $LAD A. zo 20 30 m UULY 1!37 NORTHWVE Sr ELEFJAT I ON FOPT ST TAGO ELM I NA GHA\NA TULY IS'J ') o 10 ~ OULY MgJ FORT 5T TAGO ELM INA GHA\NA V1. 12 A b C Nyl-fl"I 21O.L11=1 15-r

Accommodation available: 3 double bedrooms, 2 single bedrooms Present charge for accommodation: 0 5.00 per person per night Previous charges for accommodation: 0 1.00 per person per night in 1974, 0 2.00 per person per night from 1975-78. No meals or refreshments are provided. Number of bed/nights, guests, revenue from guests per year 1976 85 bed/nights 43 guests 0 300 revenue 1977 178 " " Z278revenue 1978 44 " 38 " 496revenue (Figures for earlier years not available) No record is kept of the number of visitors to the Fort who sign the visitors book. (From observation I would estimate this as several hundred per year, A D C H) Peak period in the year for visitors: June - September Periods in the year when demand for accommodation is greatest: during the Bakatue festival (a traditional festival celebrating the opening of the harbour, held annually in early July, A D C H) Accommodation cannot be provided for all who ask for it, at peak periods. About 10% of guests book accommodation in advance. Guests complain about the lack or inadequacy of facilities provided: principal complaints are the lack of provision for meals and refreshments, and the constant shortage of water. Number of people employed at the fort: 1h Of these the following are concerned with the operation of the resthouse: Care taker Watchman * Sweeper (Those marked * are provided with accommodation in the Fort). The remaining staff are carpenters, masons, etc employed by the Monuments Division. - from information provided by Mr. G.E. Assan, Principal Inspector of Monuments, Cape Coast, 15/5/79. APPENDIX VII The present use of the Fort as a Resthouse - information from the GMMB

APPENDIX VIII Design drawings for the restoration and rehabilitation of Fort St Jago (in folder inside rear cover). VIII. 01 Site Plan VIII. 02 Ground Plan VIII. 03 First Floor Plan VIII. 04 Second Floor Plan VIII. 05 VIII. 06 VIII. 07 Section XX Section TY SW Elevation gum "I o. 00O4 ~ to- VIII. 01 ZTULY 1939 CONSEPý FORT GWANA BLOCKLA.N XV~ ADcK-yAJE A, 0ý.. , .L ,. 4 FORT ST UMGO ELMV INA ~ GAN CTRal WP *0 5WVS4~*t OUA*% Al 502 AP >O~ dOW.. (HO- dA~ OdOOdO Y1 V- LEGEND 4 CpWrIoH OE SITT21 06 ROO R22RA4C L.oa1Y AtERROL. 1,^ TRE 1. ST~~ dT2m0 (4 ELATM00 ~OO NMSE :IHOOsos 402 200*00... ..C25TRE1.. HYVIRT12 om . ~Rn r~. e~om< sR:~OA 0 10 T0 30 40 5D,0JUL593 WkffVTI , ,ffiO FORT ST TAGO .ELM INA - GI-lANA GROUND FLOOR PL^, VHi. 02 A. D. C. WLAND O40I ~ ~ASC

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