A Tree For Mister Waring

Mallorca loves its anniversaries of births and deaths. The island can celebrate these anniversaries in grand or at least grandish fashion, as with Father Junipero Serra last year (there were many who reckoned that not nearly enough was actually made of the old boy's 300th birthday) and as it will doubtless do when it comes to the 700th anniversary of the death of Ramon Llull next year (albeit this anniversary will straddle two years as there is some legitimate debate as to when he did die). Most of these anniversaries commemorate, as you might expect, Mallorcans, but the island's history is also littered with prominent non-Mallorcans whose anniversaries are acknowledged or all but ignored. And one who has fallen into this latter category is Henry Robert Waring, a British engineer who can claim to have actually had his body littered on the island; he was buried in Palma.

Waring died a hundred years ago earlier this month: 5 October to be precise. A researcher from Sa Pobla, Pere Perelló Payeras, has noted that there is little which honours Waring's memory, and yet he played a significant role in Mallorcan economic life from 1863 until his death in 1914. Waring was one of the engineers who was involved in the draining of Albufera. Typically when this project is referred to, it is John Frederick Bateman who is cited as having been the most important of the British engineers, but there were others - Waring, William Hope and William Green, who is remembered in Sa Pobla because of the road and restaurant named after him - Mister Green; there is also a Bateman street and an Enginyer Waring street in the town.

Bateman and Hope founded the New Majorca Land Company in 1863, having obtained the concession for the drainage of Albufera. But though Bateman was, if you like, the chief engineer, he wasn't always around to check on the work owing to the fact that he had other projects on the go elsewhere. The project was in fact placed in the hands of Green and Waring; they were the principal engineers on the ground.

Of Waring's background it is difficult to be certain. There was a Henry Waring who was one of three brothers who formed Waring Brothers, which was to become one of the most important railway-building companies in Britain and in parts of the globe. As this company was based in York and as Bateman was originally from Halifax, it is possible that he was the same Waring. But whatever the background, it would seem that Henry became something of an honorary Mallorcan and that he chose to live permanently on the island, unlike Bateman.

In 1876 the New Majorca Land Company, having been granted permission to establish a farming colony, founded the Gatamoix settlement, which was hidden away under the Sant Martí mountain in Alcúdia, was populated primarily by poor workers from Pollensa and was to provide labour for both drainage work and cultivation of what was reclaimed land. Bateman is normally attributed with the founding of the colony, but in fact it was Waring who was in charge and who was the one who formally founded the colony on behalf of the company.

His relationship with the company clearly took a turn for the worse. Bateman had become the sole owner and he introduced his son Lee to the company. History has not been kind to Lee. He can be described as a hopeless romantic, a narcissist and as someone who went native. He changed his name to Luis and converted to Catholicism, his father and Mister Green having been the ones who had introduced Anglican Protestantism to Mallorca. Lee was also a pretty useless businessman, though to be fair the New Majorca Land Company had been experiencing financial problems for some time before he appeared on the scene. And it was this appearance that led to Waring leaving the company around 1886 and cutting all ties with it.

What he did next was to buy the "possessió" (estate if you like) of Peguera and to move to Palma from Sa Pobla, where he had owned a house. He underwent a career change and got involved with the export of capers and carobs and he was to buy further estates - Xorrigo and Moranta on the northeastern outskirts of Palma.  

So, Waring was as intimately involved with the Albufera project and with the Gatamoix colony as Bateman; more so in some respects. He was also more intimately involved with Mallorca, and it is for these reasons that Pere Perelló Payeras believes that he deserves some greater recognition than he has had, even if he has only a simple tribute in mind, the planting of a tree in Albufera in memory of a time in Mallorca's history and Waring's contribution to it.

Photo: Waring's grave in the cemetery in Palma - from http://sapoblaradio.com

The Colony That Died: Gatamoix

In the mid-nineteenth century, two laws were passed by the national government which paved the way for the creation of agricultural colonies in Mallorca. These laws of 1855 and 1868 were what brought about Colonia Saint Pere, Colonia Sant Jordi and Colonia de Nostra (aka Porto Cristo). The colonies came into existence as a response to demands of a growing population to feed itself and to have somewhere to live. Much coastal land had until then been looked upon as being worthless, owing to problems of cultivation caused by natural obstacles: forest, dunes, salt marshes. And there was no marsh that represented a greater challenge for development than the wetland of Albufera.

Though Alcúdia (and later Sa Pobla) didn't acquire a settlement with "colonia" in the name, one was created. Gatamoix. It was later to get a "colonia" in its title when, in 1892, its name was changed to Colonia de Sant Lluís. Gatamoix was, by population, one of the largest of the colonies, but it, as with others, such as Els Fusterers, the smaller, later colony in Sa Pobla, died out, whereas those right by the coast, like Colonia Sant Pere, were to eventually become tourist centres.

Gatamoix has perhaps the most poignant tale to tell of these colonies. At one time, there were more than a hundred people living there. Over 40 families in more than 20 houses. By the time of the outbreak of the First World War, there were a mere seven people left. Within ten years, there was not a soul left. Gatamoix's decline was not as sudden as its creation had been, but the lingering death that it experienced was attributable in part to the death of the projects that the British civil engineer, John Frederick Bateman, had initiated.

Bateman, as you may know, was responsible for the project to drain Albufera. This project had been first mooted at the end of the eighteenth century. It was finally given the green light through a royal order of 1851. Bateman, through his New Majorca Land Company, won the tender to undertake the drying-out, a scheme that was felt to be essential primarily on public health grounds. Albufera was a breeding-ground for disease, including malaria.

Bateman was also instrumental in the founding of the Gatamoix colony. The people who came to live there - and they were primarily from Pollensa - formed part of the drainage workforce and were those who set about commercial cultivation on Albufera.

Gatamoix was (is) behind the Puig Sant Martí, the brooding presence that looms over the current-day Bellevue Mile and main Alcúdia tourist centre. It was some distance from work that was being done on Albufera; even if work had to be performed under less than totally healthy conditions, the hope was that the colony wouldn't be as affected by mosquitoes or by the diseases that Albufera bred.

The drainage project and Gatamoix were both relatively successful, but only relatively. Bateman is recognised as having achieved much, one of his achievements having been the creation of the original bridge (the bridge of the English - Pont dels Anglesos) over another creation, the Grand Canal, which offered a means of movement between Alcúdia and communities further east along the coast. But despite Bateman being remembered with a degree of reverence, the project was far from wholly successful. Albufera was still liable to being inundated and to having salt water come into it. The land for cultivation was, as a consequence, not as extensive as had been hoped.

Nevertheless, Gatamoix thrived for a while, new crops being introduced to Mallorca for the first time - peanuts and sweet potatoes - to supplement the farming of wheat and maize. And Bateman's son, Lee, to whom ownership of Gatamoix was passed three years before his father died in 1889, set about further development. A school was built, as was a church. It was Lee who had the name of the colony changed by royal decree - Lluís for Lee. Unfortunately for Lee, he had enormous debts, mainly because the returns from the cultivation had not lived up to expectations. Gatamoix, by now popularly referred to as Poble Nou rather than Colonia de Sant Lluís, was sold in 1896 to a Palma nobleman, Joaquim Gual de Torrella, who chose to close the colony.

The buildings were systematically demolished over several years. The material was used, among other things, for developing the road between Sa Pobla and Alcúdia. As the buildings were demolished, so the people left, and ninety years ago, Gatamoix became totally de-colonised. All that remained was what is now the refuge of Poble Nou, the new town that died. 


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.