Updated This Release For the record The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.{a}

A list of the pages that were updated in the most recent release of Saint Helena Island Info

Daily usage has recently reached around 6,300 pages from 1,800 visitors (42,800 ‘hits’) - 300GB of data per month. This site was last updated on 20 May 2023.

See also: ⋅ Page History

Pages by date last updated

These pages have minor updates unless listed in the Recent Updates section below.

Recent Updates

Listed below are the principal changes in each release, in addition to which there are generally new and improved images, corrections and other minor improvements throughout the site.

Below: 20th May 2023 25th April 2023 14th March 2023 22nd January 2023 26th November 2022 28th October 2022

20th May 2023

The 2023 Wirebird Census results are now on our page The Wirebird.

A National Song, but also a National Hymn? Indeed! Since 1952 St Helena has had its own hymn. It was sung at the island service for the Coronation of King Charles III on 7th May. We discuss it on our page National Song.

There were two successive ships that served St Helena, both called the RMS St Helena, which can cause confusion. Having them both on the same page did not help! So now we have two pages: RMS St Helena (1990-2018) and a new page RMS St Helena (1978-1990). We’ve also sorted out the names applied throughout the site: when it is clear to which ship we are referring we simply use the term ‘RMS’; in other cases we use RMS St Helena (1978-1990) or RMS St Helena (1990-2018).

Guano is a rich source of cheap fertiliser which used to be collected and used here, but no longer is. Read about it on our page Seabirds.

We report the recent arrival of the largest aircraft (to date) to land at St Helena Airport on our page Fly here.

There was some dispute over who drew the early map of Jamestown (below) and when, but in ‘Wirebird’, the magazine of Friends of St Helena{2} #6, Autumn 1992, it is attributed: John Thornton (1667-1705), one of the best-known Chartmakers of the later 17th Century, was Hydrorapher to The East India Company, and published an Atlas Maritimes c. 1700, from which this was probably taken. and ‘Wirebird’, the magazine of Friends of St Helena{2} is written by historians and that’s good enough for us!☺

25th April 2023

Our new page discusses the possibility that Cannabis might become St Helena’s next industry.

We’ve expanded the small section on Religion on St Helena to a full page, with much more detail. See it at Religion.

We also have a new Community page for the Museum of St Helena.

We’ve provided a potted history of St Helena’s progress towards an electrical distribution network on our page Renewable Energy.

In 1971 Life magazine published a treasure hunt leading to a case of whisky, supposedly buried on St Helena. Read more on our page Zzyzx.

We have another in our series on Edible Wild Plants: Pig Weed (Amaranthus Blitum), and this also features a brief mention of Lemon Grass.

14th March 2023

The St Helena Ice Cream recipe may be the easiest ice cream you will ever make! It tastes like rich vanilla ice cream and there is no need for an ice cream maker… See it on our page Fishcakes, and other food.

We have included information about the ancestors of our Wirebird.

We have added more information about Dr. Ian Shine, who introduced equal treatment for Saints in health in the 1960s.

There is more information about the Art & Crafts Association.

22nd January 2023

In a physically isolated and largely closed population health issues will develop. We discuss these on our new page Health Issues.

At Christmas various groups can be heard singing carols in Jamestown, usually outside the Tourist Information Office. You can hear Harford School on our pages Christmas and Sounds of St Helena.

Talking of our page Christmas, some say it should be called ‘Holidays’. We discuss our reasoning on the new page Happy Holidays!.

After being postponed twice due to Covid‑19, The Governor’s Cup was finally run and we have the results.

We’ve added more information about Jonathan’s Birthday.

26th November 2022

There’s a new article about the Millennium Forest on our page The Millennium Forest.

Can I become a Saint? We discuss this on our page Saints, based on our latest understanding.

We have added the sound of the Scouts’ Band to our page Holidays and other festivals - one of the Sounds of St Helena.

We do not expect to need to update our page Covid‑19 further, so have altered its subject groups, removing it from Activity and adding it to History.

28th October 2022

We’re proud of the fact that Saint Helena Island Info is Made in St Helena! - most of the copycats aren’t.

We’ve reorganised our Historic Buildings pages. Historic Buildings is now an introduction to the subject and contains common material. The featured buildings are described on pages Historic Buildings, Jamestown and Historic Buildings, Country. Our page Historic Buildings, Jamestown also now describes Broadway House and The Consulate Hotel.

Ian Bruce’s latest article (prepared jointly with the editor of this website) investigates whether Goldfish really were bred here in the 18th Century, for export to the UK, and may even be the source of all the goldfish in the UK today. Read it on our page Industries.

We’ve split our shopping pages: What to buy discusses specifically souvenir shopping, and Shopping on St Helena talks about shopping generally (which is not like you might expect…) We’ve also improved both pages.

Our page Subject Index was taking too long to load because of the size of the index, so now it works differently and much more quickly - give it a try.

We have another in our series on Edible Wild Plants: Monkey Ears (‘gotu kola’).

The Art & Crafts Association now has its own Community page.

And finally, if you would like to support Saint Helena Island Info please see the ‘Buy Us a Coffee’ link at the bottom of every page (more on our page About This Site). There is absolutely no obligation to contribute but anything you can spare would be welcome.

Older items can be found on our Page Updates History.

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