Page History

What joined the site when

Dickens, as you know, never got round to starting his home page.
Terry Pratchett

An Administration Page

This page requires that you have Javascript enabled in your browser.

The pages on Saint Helena Island Info were added on these dates

Page History

Below: Pages by creation date • Recent Updates

Saint Helena Island Info was last updated on @@JAVASITELASTUPDATED@@.

Pages by creation date

Recent Updates

Below: 25th March 2020 • 26th February 2020 • 27th January 2020 • 21st January 2020 • 16th December 2019 • 27th November 2019

25`th` March 2020

Page Image

We knew the ‘Liberated African’ freed slaves were employed on the island as labourers but we hadn’t realised that they were, initially at least, unpaid. We think this is not much different from the slavery they were liberated from. We discuss this here: Slaves and slavery.

There is something deeply magnetic about this tiny piece of South Atlantic rock. Read more here: Read articles about St Helena (and other pages).

We’ve improved the astronomical data for star-gazers on our page Astronomy.

We have more complete data on Wirebird numbers on our page The Wirebird.

Once again we’ve updated our page Fish Processing with the latest news.

We have the latest information about Governor’s Cup 2020 on our page The Governor’s Cup.

There’s a new island map from 1815 looking only at the sea features. See Maps of St Helena.

Finally, the Covid-19 global pandemic is fast-developing and we do not attempt to provide up-to-the-minute news. See A Brief History for useful sources about the situation on St Helena.

Go back to the index

26`th` February 2020

Page Image

We now have astronomical data on many pages. Sunrise, Sunset, current moon phase, etc. There is additional data of use to star-gazers on our page Astronomy.

There’s a great new article about realising a dream of swimming with whale sharks on our page Whale Sharks.

The 2020 Wirebird Census has been published and we have the numbers on our page The Wirebird.

We have a new building on our page Lost and almost-lost Buildings - can you help us with its history?

Did Charles Darwin really, as has been reported, uncover the Windshear problem with our Airport as far back as 1836? See Famous Visitors for our thoughts.

New sounds on our page Sounds of St Helena include ‘Playtime at Pilling Primary School’, ‘The Run flowing’, ‘The Run being flushed’ and ‘The Dawn Chorus at the Duke of Edinburgh Playground’. If there’s a sound you’d like included please contact us.

We’ve tried to stay up-to-date on Fish Processing on our page Fish Processing.

You wait ages for a decent article about St Helena and then two turn up at once! See Read articles about St Helena.

And lastly the new page In This Month documents events past, present and future for whatever is the current month.

Go back to the index

27`th` January 2020

Page Image

All these updates relate to sounds on the site.

We have a new page bringing together the Sounds of St Helena. Go to Sounds of St Helena to learn more. We plan to keep adding to this page. New sounds in this update include the waves at Jamestown seaside and the bell of Jamestown Baptist Church.

We also now have an index of all the audio files on the site, at Audio Index, and whenever an audio file trigger box appears there is a link to this index (ⓘ).

And finally on Audio Files, the trigger box has changed. Either, as before, click where it says to open and play the audio file in a new browser tab or window (depending on your browser) or hover over the icon to achieve the same without opening a new tab/window. The latter seems to work on most modern browsers. The former works on everything, so you always have a fallback.

Go back to the index

21`st` January 2020

Page Image

We have a new page on bees, beekeeping and honey production. Did you know our honey is 100% organic? See Bees and Beekeeping.

There are no deadly or truly dangerous animals here but there are a few that might cause you a problem if you encounter one. We detail these on our new page Problem Animals.

If you want to actually hear the Bridge Memorial Clock there’s now an audio file on Bridge Memorial Clock.

Our page Cruise Ship Days now lists the future ship calls, which we will keep updated as the data becomes available.

Want to overtake a slow vehicle but it won’t move over? The answer’s on our Driving in St Helena page.

We now know what a ‘Kissing Dance’ was, and why it scandalised Governor Robert Jenkins. See our Glossary page.

And, naturally, we took the opportunity to update the Christmas images on our page Christmas.

Finally, you should note that only those tours listed on our Visitor Information page are recommended. If you can personally recommend a tour we have not listed please contact us.

Go back to the index

16`th` December 2019

Cloud Swirls, 2019

We have more information on the 2020 Governor’s Cup Cape to St Helena Race at The Governor’s Cup.

There’s another fascinating Cloud Swirls photograph here: Weather and climate.

PC Leonard (’Lenny’) Coleman gets a mention on our Important People page at Important People - he died in the line of duty in 1982.

We’d mentioned in passing why sailing ships had to divert across the Atlantic when sailing south to The Cape. We’ve now expanded this to a full explanation at Before Discovery.

The date when our first air-mail arrived has changed again! See the new data and conclusion here: Postage Stamps.

We realised our Driving page told you everything about driving except where to buy fuel, so we’ve corrected that ommission: Driving in St Helena.

We’ve changed the way it works when you click on an image to enlarge it. People with popups not blocked (rare) found the image opened twice. This should now be fixed. Please report any issues: Contact Us.

We’ve also re-instated the Crest in the top left of every page (e.g. Introduction), and watch because the crest changes slightly with the seasons…☺.

Now when we show a local telephone number you can click on it to dial the number from your browser (assuming your browser is set up to do this). See About This Site.

Go back to the index

27`th` November 2019

Page Image

A few content changes…

Did ‘Jack the Ripper’ visit St Helena? Read about it here: Famous Visitors.

We have an interesting article about the genetic origins of St Helena’s freed slaves. See Slaves and slavery.

The clock on St. James’ Church wasn’t mentioned on the church’s page, but now it is, including the ‘falling weights’ tale (not to be missed!)

A special thank you to Robyn Sim for her wonderful sunset picture which (with her permission) we’ve used on Could you live here? with the title ‘Relax!’ We feel it sums up the St Helena lifestyle.

The rest are more technical changes, aimed at improving how Saint Helena Island Info looks, feels and operates… All are incorporated on our page About This Site.

Level 1 headings are now numbered, to make it easier to keep track of where you are on a page.

You can now select from several colour schemes to suit your needs and taste (still including HIGH CONTRAST for sight-impaired users, which we introduced with the last release and have now improved). This enhancement also necessitated a change to the control icons panel (top, right) which are now cleaner and clearer.

We like to put lots of links into our pages (so you can easily refer elsewhere for more information) but with so many links the standard underline was too harsh and distracting, so we’ve made it a little less prominent.

If you click on a Footnote {1} or a Credit {a} you go to the bottom of the page. Now you can click on the marker there (e.g. {1} or {a}) to get back to where you were. The RETURN button is no longer needed and was not reliable so has been removed.

We have ceased testing on Internet Explorer™. Our reasons are given in a footnote to About This Site. If you still use IE we recommend you switch to Google Chrome™, Firefox™ or Opera™.