"The roads of Bermuda, with their walls and gates and fences – the high hedges – give a domestic charm to an island otherwise wild … The gateposts, walls and fences are the architectural elements which, in their variety within a clear relationship, produce the charm of the inhabited parts of the island to the visitor. They are inviting despite their purpose of enclosure and protection. The gates always stand open, are nicely contrived … and are painted a pleasant green in most instances. The walls are rarely built too high to see over, and those that are so have recently been topped off because of the new popularity of the island. There is none of the purposeful privacy of England."

–William Perry, from his diary of a visit to Bermuda in 1936.

Of the various classes of cultural heritage which are now embedded in the Bermuda landscape or in our history, the local vernacular architecture may be seen as paramount and most enduring, as some decent buildings in that tradition are still being erected.

In the production of that heritage over three centuries, many are the unknown soldiers who worked in the various trades that contributed to the making of Bermuda stone and cedar homes and other buildings. Individually those artisans may forever remain unsung, but in the generality their contributions to the architecture that has made Bermuda, "Bermuda", have been celebrated to the world in the Bermuda National Trust's "Architecture Heritage Series". The latest in the Series of parish books is Paget, which will appear late this year. Sandys, Devonshire, Smith's, St. George's and Hamilton parishes have already been published.

While of later years we may know the name of the architect, and for many of the decades we can state who paid the bills, few are the records of the masons, carpenters, painters, blacksmiths, landscapers and others who created the structures now considered as outstanding cultural heritage. While we cannot say who developed our unique vernacular architecture, we can state that it was a community effort and by that I mean that every sector of the local society had a hand in its creation. We are indebted to those unknown forebears, whose heritage legacy yet attracts visitors to these shores, visitors who have paid for our lifestyle for a number of generations. The same applies to the "Bermuda Rig", a monumental revolution in sailing technology now used by all modern yachts but invented by an unnamable local community of sailors and shipbuilders, probably in the mid-seventeenth century.

For this outstanding book Series, however, there are a number of known soldiers, epic volunteers to the cause (and battles) of the preservation of Bermuda's unique vernacular architecture. The book is dedicated to one such individual, the late Dennis Sherwin, long a resident of the island and benefactor of the National Trust. Others enlisted volunteers are named on the "Contributors" page at the front of Paget, and of these, one would like mention by name Margaret Lloyd, who has been part of the backbone of "Bermuda's Architectural Heritage Series" since its inception in 1995, and the architectural historian from Colonial Williamsburg, Dr. Edward A. Chappell, who has given much to the island over several decades in his outstanding work on the interpretation of our remarkable architecture.

Having grown up in Paget, down the road from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (architect unknown, according to the book), I am now aware, thanks to Paget, that we lived next door to Bermudian architect Wil Onions' first building, the home "Coral Chimneys" on Point Finger Road, formerly the more elegant "Springfield Avenue". That house was designed in 1928, and is presumably based on a ruin seen by Onions that year in Southampton, even down to the finial on the porch, as you can see in the comparative pictures.

That supposition is not in Paget, but the information came about when some years ago we had difficulty finding a home in Southampton pictured in John Humphreys' classic book, Bermuda Houses. One day I visited Onions, Bouchard & McCulloch and B. W. (Jordy) Walker showed me a copy of that book, with the picture annotated by Wil Onions: "House at Bassett's Cave … roof fell in after heavy rains, early in 1928", that is five years after Humphreys had it photographed. Without Wil's annotation, we would never have found that building from its description in Humphreys', for as Onions also noted, "ruins removed in US Navy Base construction" in 1941. Thus one can see the beginning of Wil Onions' study of traditional Bermuda architecture in its old houses and his incorporation of its idioms into modern buildings of his times.

As you will see when you get your copy of Paget, the parish contains some outstanding examples of Bermuda architecture, some classic, some eclectic, some revivals and others great neo-Gothic or Victorian piles. Some fine buildings have been demolished, which, as with any such heritage, is an eternal pity, for that legacy, which helps to identify ourselves as Bermudian and fuels our tourism trade, is forever diminished. As children, we roamed about Paget and buildings, such as "Clermont", being unoccupied, were a source of investigative delight, silver still in kitchen drawers and furniture covered in sheets.

As with the other volumes in the Series, the book Paget bring to the attention of all Bermudians, residents and visitors alike, the many examples of the wonderful local buildings and homes, which, although they are not protected by high walls and security gates, are not, by the nature of private property, readily available to public view. We all are indebted to Bacardi International Limited for their sponsorship of the Series and to the Bermuda National Trust, which, in producing Paget and the other parish books, continues in an exemplary fashion to fulfill its mandate "to protect and promote Bermuda's unique cultural and natural heritage forever".

Bermuda's Architecture Heritage Series, Paget, will be available to the public in November.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.