Towns and Villages-Arouca pt2

By MICHAEL ANTHONY

In 1849, when Lord Harris divided the island into counties and wards, the old Spanish quarters of Tacarigua and Arouca were designated "Tacarigua Ward." But this is not to say that the village of Arouca had gone into decline. On the contrary, it had outgrown every village on that line of road, with the exception of Tunapuna. When Lord Harris introduced the system of primary schools in 1851, Arouca was one of the few places to be considered. This was justifiable, for when Patrick Keenan came here in 1869 to report on Trinidad schools, he found that the Arouca Ward School had 176 on roll - the highest total for any Ward School in the Trinidad of that time.

Seven years later Arouca was to get busier and even more important when the Trinidad Government laid down a railway line for passengers and freight between Port-of-Spain and Arima. Arouca became a key railway station, one of the most bustling in the area. The population of this village at the end of 1880 was 2,847, and this showed that it was one of the most populous villages in Trinidad.

At that time, Arouca, already spreading well to the south of the main road, consisted of 509 domestic houses, and 53 commercial buildings, among them shops and stores. There were 743 agricultural labourers and 28 planters, showing that its economic base was still largely agricultural. Yet the presence of 71 hucksters and shop-keepers gave an indication that it was also a centre of commerce.

There were children a-plenty in the village and census details for 1881 show that Arouca was the only village with two Government schools: Arouca Boys' and Arouca Girls'. Not only that, but it also had a Roman Catholic school and a school of the Church of England (E.C.)

But the prosperity of this village waned following the extension of the railway line to Sangre Grande in 1898, and population figures for 1900 show a drop to 1,947 from the 1880 figure of 2,847 - a decrease of nearly a thousand.

This drop has been attributed to the effect of the railway as a means of transport, combined with the lure of Sangre Grande as a new cocoa district. Hundreds of people are said to have ridden the train eastwards to Sangre Grande from the Arouca and Arima districts.

At the census of 1911, the population again showed a drop - from 1,947 in 1900 to 1,777. By 1921, it climbed a little and stood at 1,866. However, a severe drop was noted at the following census of 1931, when the population figure was 1,231. This might be explained by recalling that the 1920s marked a decade of steep cocoa decline, but it is odd to observe that Sangre Grande, the cocoa town of the era, had risen steadily in population from 1900 to 1931.

It took the war years to wake Arouca back to life. The village must have seemed ideally placed to the hundreds of people who rushed into the area to work on the American Army Air Base at nearby Comuto, and of course it came heavily under the influence of the soldiers themselves, who transformed its social life. Population figures continue to tell a story: Arouca, which had 1,231 persons in 1931 showed 3,661 in 1946. By then the district had stretched from the one-time Spanish royal road (now the Eastern Main Road) towards a brand new highway the Americans had built - the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.

Just about the time the war was ending, certain changes were taking place in the area. The American soldiers withdrew from installations, which were on one of Arouca's old estates called Goldern Grove, and a "Prison without walls" was being established there. Nearby was the old estate track that had become Golden Grove Road, and at this period it was running southerly past the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway towards where a modern airport was being built on the Piarco Savannah. The new airport was Piarco Airport, and the area had been used as a flying field since the beginning of the 1930s.

Arouca, which owed so much of its prosperity to the advent of the Trinidad Government Railway in 1876, saw the scrapping, in 1967, of the railway line, which passed through it. Yet, it continued to bustle, for times had changed a good deal.

According to the 1980 census the population of the district of Arouca rose to 6,466. Today Arouca does not live on agriculture to any extent, and because of modern transport, a large section of its people, commute, and earn their daily bread elsewhere.

Many distinguished people have seen their earliest days there, and one of the most prominent, Lord Learie Constantine, lies buried in this district.

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