Portal:British Virgin Islands/Selected article
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These are selected articles related to the British Virgin Islands which appear on Portal:British Virgin Islands.
Biographical articles are at Portal:British Virgin Islands/Selected biography.
Road Town, located on Tortola island, is the capital of the British Virgin Islands. It is situated on the horseshoe-shaped Road Harbour in the centre of the island's south coast. The town's population is about 9,400 (as of 2004).[1]
The name is derived from the nautical term "the roads", a place less sheltered than a harbour but which ships can easily get to. A 67-acre (27 ha) area called Wickhams Cay was reclaimed from the sea and is the center of tourism. The oldest building in Road Town, the old HM Prison on Main Street, dates from the 1840s. (more...)
Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands which form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local belief is that the name was originally given to the island by Christopher Columbus, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove".
Tortola is a mountainous island 13.5 miles (19 km) long and 3 miles (5 km) wide, with an area of 21.5 square miles (55.7 square km). Formed by volcanic activity, its highest peak is Mount Sage at 1750 feet (530 m). Tortola lies near an earthquake fault, and minor earthquakes are common. (more...)
The law of the British Virgin Islands is a combination of common law and statute, and is based heavily upon English law.
Law in the British Virgin Islands tends to be a combination of the very old and the very new. As a leading offshore financial centre, the Territory has extremely modern statutes dealing with company law, insolvency, banking law, trust law, insurance and other related matters. However, in a number of areas of law, such as family law, the laws of the British Virgin Islands are based upon very old English laws, and can cause some difficulty in modern times. Other areas of law, such as international law, are essentially regulated externally through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London by Order-in-Council. A large body of the laws of the British Virgin Islands consists of the common law, which continually updates itself through judicial precedent in the Territory and in other common law countries. (more...)
The Copper Mine on Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands is a National Park containing the ruins of an abandoned 19th century copper mine.
Copper was first discovered on Virgin Gorda in the 17th century by the Dutch, but they were never able to successfully exploit it. Local legends also suggest the shafts were originally dug by Spanish adventurers to mine silver in the late-fifteenth century, but no documentary evidence can be found to support this theory, and no firm evidence of Spanish occupation of the islands prior to the Dutch settlement exists, much less the size of settlement which would be needed to sink shafts. (more...)
Fort Charlotte is a fort built on Harrigan's Hill (above Macnamara), Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The fort was named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, who was the wife of King George III.
The fort was built by the British Royal Engineers in 1794 at an elevation of approximately 947 feet over Road Town. However, it was constructed on top of an earlier wooden stockade believed to have been originally erected by the privateer Joost van Dyk to act as a lookout post. The fort was not a walled fort in the traditional sense, but only an earthen one. However, its elevation meant that there was absolutely no prospect of receiving cannon fire from incoming ships. The only way in which the Fort could have been taken (it never fell) would have been for troops to climb the hill whilst under heavy musket and cannon fire. (more...)
Virgin Islands Creole is an English-based creole spoken in the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. Virgin Islands Creole is not to be confused with Negerhollands, a Dutch-based creole that was once spoken in the Danish West Indies, now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Virgin Islands Creole does not have the status of an official language. It is strictly an informal form of communication and is a constantly changing dialect filled with various slang terms and idioms. The language of government, education and the media is American English in the U.S. Virgin Islands and British English in the British Virgin Islands. In the Virgin Islands, standard English and Virgin Islands Creole both function in a fairly diglossic relationship with English as the language of high prestige and formality and Virgin Islands Creole as the spoken vernacular. Native Virgin Islanders can easily switch from English to Virgin Islands Creole depending on their mood, subject matter, or the person they are speaking to. (more...)
