When Gina Swainson won Miss World in 1979 every Bermudian felt a connection to the 21-year-old St. George’s beauty queen. But none more so than those from her small and tight-knit neighbourhood of Wellington Hill.

Certainly she put the Island on the map, an achievement still mentioned when those on Wellington Hill talk about the neighbourhood and its people.

Plenty has happened since that November night 30 years ago when Miss Bermuda was crowned Miss World at London’s Royal Albert Hall. St. George’s had given the Island its first Miss World and those who knew her from the neighbourhood were singing her praises. Many who grew up with her have moved out of the neighbourhood, including Gina herself who now lives in England but Wellington Hill will always have its piece of history.

The area, which overlooks the northern shoreline and runs from Mullet Bay to the west to the St. George’s golf course to the east, has changed considerably with twice as many houses as there were in the 1970s. Most people don’t know their neighbours now and the feeling of community isn’t there like it used to be.

“When I go out to my backyard all I see is houses now,” says senior Joycelyn Burgess who has lived in the same house for more than 50 years. Her brother Sidney and his family have been next-door neighbours almost as long, but many new families have moved in over the years.

“I don’t even know who lives in three of the houses right in my neighbourhood,” said Mrs Burgess whose husband Howard died two years ago.

“Even how they built up around ‘Flat Rock’. Before nobody wanted to go down to ‘Flat Rock’ to live. Now there are so many houses down there.

Besides Gina Swainson, the neighbourhood can boast many other high achievers. Donna Pearman, who started People’s Pharmacy with her family, is a former resident. Her sisters are Marva (Allen), a school teacher, and Venetta (Symonds), the Bermuda Hospitals Board’s deputy CEO. Their parents still live in the neighbourhood.

On the same side of the hill on Wellington Back Road lived the late Kirk Bartrum who started 27th Century Boutique, while former St. George’s Cup Match captain Clevie Wade was another neighbour. Another former St. George’s captain, Leroy (Tubby) Richardson, now one of the oldest persons in the neighbourhood, still lives just down the lane, his house overlooking Mullet Bay.

Well-known artist Otto Trott lived on Wellington Lane (‘the tracks’ as it is still called because the old railway train once ran through the neighbourhood), two houses from Angelita Diaz, a cousin of Gina Swainson who also went on to become Miss Bermuda in 1983.

From snowed-covered York, Pennsylvania where she now lives, Angelita Douglass recalls fond memories growing up in Wellington.

“My memory of my neighbourhood was that of family,” she said “ It was one family, whether your name was Bascome, Trott, Tucker, Pearman, Swan, DeSilva, Swainson, Kelly, Burch, Smith, Wade, Ming, Thompson, Cooper, Carlington, Wales or Benevides.

“These were some of the families who nurtured and mentored us as children and who helped carve us into the adults we are today. My grandfather, Charles Swainson, and most of his siblings raised their families in Wellington, so I was always surrounded by my own and my extended family. It was the best childhood I could have ever imagined!

“Familiar faces which will be forever etched in my mind...My Uncle Lionel at Wellington Superette, The vegetable cart on the main road, Mrs. Thompson and her gift club, Mr. Mackie delivering our drycleaning, Mr. Kelly the postman who knew us before we knew ourselves, and Mr. Trott, the fisherman next door who always saved a catch of the day for my grandfather and whose kitchen always smelled of curried fish. Yum!

“They all made Wellington Lane home for me. We were sectioned off into two categories. Either you lived ‘over the hill’ or ‘down the hill.’ We lived ‘down the hill’. Our neighbours had an open door policy with all of us, and we knew our manners and always had a friendly ‘good afternoon Mr. or Mrs. so and so’, or if you were more familiar with the family, ‘aunt or uncle so and so’, before venturing down their hallways in search of friends.”

Added Mrs Douglass: “My grandmother used to say to me ‘remember Angelita, the windows have eyes’. The children in my neighbourhood were community property, and all of us were watched and corrected and taken care of by each other’s parents and grandparents. It was a given.

“Playing ‘down the bay’ (Mullet Bay park) or over the ‘golf links’ and the sounds of mothers calling their boys in for dinner...and watching them run to get in before the lights came on. My brother Carlos and cousin Kim would compete to see who could make it through the door first. Sometimes taking out the screen door in the process! This makes me chuckle even today. Where did those days go?

“Hopscotch drawn with ‘chalk (limestone) rock’ on the tracks, spinning tops with the nail in and marbles. ‘Kings hole’ in the back yard. Linking up just right, and playing for ‘keeps’. Ah...if only the kids nowadays could see how much fun we had back then!

“Metal roller skates (the hook-on kind)...and seeing how high we can start up on the hill before we got too scared. Going for a walk down ‘the tracks’ to see what we were going to get into that day. Going fishing off the rocks. Danger never entered our minds.

“I was the tiresome ‘little sister’ that my ‘brothers’ just could never shake. I can still see Aunt Shirley standing on her steps asking the boys ‘where are you all going?’. ‘Down the rocks, Aunt Shirley’, they would say. And I can still hear Mrs (Josephine) DeSilva say to her husband ‘George, those children are going down the rocks again!’, only to hear him reply ‘they’ll be alright, Josephine!’

“Seems like their eyes never left us...someone always knew what we were up to. Now looking back, I suppose that’s why they never seemed to worry about us wandering or playing on ‘the hill’.

“The old neighborhood has changed dramatically over the years. But when I return, as I always do, I am so proud to show my children the place where I got my start. I showed them how to write with a chalk rock on the ground, how to identify a stinger nettle plant and the exact spot and the exact spot where my brother crashed with me on an old mobylette (something my mom never heard about!)

“My neighbourhood and those who lived there will always be a part of me.”

The neighbourhood can also boast former ZBM news anchor Darlene Ming as a resident of Wellington Hill. She is the sister of Dr. Fred Ming who is the Environmental Protection Officer for Government. The Ming family lived opposite Alec (Cocky) Steede, the first bowler to take 100 wickets in Cup Match. Countless other young men from the neighbourhood went on to play Cup Match for St. George’s...father and son Fred and Anthony Trott, Maxwell Curtis, Ricky Hodsoll, David Adams, Eugene Foggo and Ritchie Foggo while Twilton Smith, Landro Bascome and Kevin Benevides all became top young golfers, thanks to the golf course near their home.

And two residents have also gone on to become Mayor of St. George...Michael Jones and Kenneth Bascome, who presently holds the office.

With Kenny (‘Kid Brock’ to St. Georgians) as a tour guide we toured the neighbourhood, being shown houses I didn’t knew existed. I literally had to close my eyes to imagine how the neighbourhood used to look.

“People now complain about the children playing in the street, but I have said to my mom that years ago there weren’t the number of vehicles on the road that there are now,” said Mr. Bascome who still lives on top of Wellington Hill.

The old slaughterhouse near his home was unused for many years before being converted into a home while the vacant land yards away now occupies homes. The open spaces are no more.

“At one time people would watch out for the children because everybody knew everybody in the neighbourhood, but now the neighbourhood has changed considerably and people don’t know who their neighbours are,” said Mr. Bascome regretfully.

“Going back we had the golf course and parcels of land that people allowed us to play on.

“Society has progressed in many aspects but in many aspects there has been a regression. It’s a complete different neighbourhood. Even ‘Flat Rock’ is all homes now.”

Added Mr Bascome: “It’s a part of progress and you try to make the best of the situation by welcoming people to the neighbourhood and hope that they are appreciative of the neighbourhood they are moving into.

“As a young person coming along I was very restless and today the community in which I live has shown faith in me by allowing me to become the mayor of the town.”