Lemon Valley, St Helena: an East India Company and British Colonial landscape in the South Atlantic

Abstract

SUMMARY This article presents the results of an historical and archaeological survey of Lemon Valley, in the South Atlantic island of St Helena. The valley was periodically used by 16th-century mariners during the early years of the Age of Discovery and permanently settled by the English East India Company from the 1660s. The survey reveals a palimpsest landscape which preserves extensive military and civilian ‘plantation’ remains. Together, these provide a rare insight into the character and evolution of the English settlement of the island from the late 17th century, through to the abandonment of the valley in the mid-20th century.