The West Bank Demerara village of Pouderoyen was a former sugar cane and coffee plantation and was spelt Pouderoijen. It has Dutch origins and includes a subdivided section called Klien Pouderoyen to the north – ‘Klien’ being the Dutch word small.
Dutch KokerWest Demerara SchoolRice Field
According to a historical account, the plantation has connections to the Swaen family who came from the small village of Pouderoijen in the Gelderland Province, Netherlands. A Dutch koker, now derelict, built in the second half of the 1700s still stands as a testament to the village’s Dutch heritage.
The village, located near the mouth of western side of the Demerara River, has been modernised over the years. However, it retains some aspects of its rural features. Several important agencies such as Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI)’s office, the Best/Klien Pouderoyen Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC), and well as the local offices of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Guyana Elections Commission (Gecom) are all found in the community.
The village has several schools that cater to the various levels of the education system. There is the Shirley Merle Field Ridley Nursery, which was originally housed at the NDC office, in Phoenix Park and the West Demerara Secondary School which was destroyed by fire in 1993 but rebuilt some years later. The old building of the secondary school was the former residence of Captain Coglan, who was said to have recommended the bridging of the Demerara River.
Pouderoyen also has private education institutions that cater to Primary and Nursery-age students– the K Comprehensive School and Institute of Professional Education.
There are also a number of businesses: shops, supermarkets, restaurants, lumber dealer, funeral home as well as many temporary stalls to sell some traditional Guyanese snacks such as chicken-foot, blackpudding, plantain chips, cassava chips, and others. The majority of businesss are on the roadside, while aspects of rural life could be found in the streets, most of which were mud dams.
Phoenix Town, more commonly known as Coglan Dam is similar to the Broach Road communities of Mahaica and Mahaicony as almost the entire north section of the road has rice fields. Many young boys in the area and surrounding environs would meet especially during the school vacation periods and on weekends to swim in the access trenches to rice fields.
According to residents these boys would be the recipients of ‘sound thrashings’ from elder family as permission is hardly ever sought for frolicking in the muddy waters.
In the past, Coglan Dam residents who were not rice farmers would still plant albeit kitchen gardens while others were employed with the now defunct Versailles Sugar Estate. Today, many residents transit to their jobs in the capital city, with a significant number of them using the defunct Vreed-en-Hoop Ferry Stelling to cross the river with water taxis.
Between Samaroo Dam, which still has cane fields towards the back, and Coglan Dam lies Bella Dam which also had cane fields in one section but has since been converted into house lots.
During the lifetime of Captain Coglan, few people lived in Bella Dam and he prohibited most of them from accessing their homes through their own street which meant that they had to take the longer route through Coglan Dam.
Guyana Times was told that the Captain, who was English, married a descendant of the Dutch Swaen family. The Swaen family property was near Bella Dam.
Today, the main ethnic groups of the village have remained the same throughout the years with Coglan Dam and Bella Dam retaining mostly an Indo-Guyanese population while Samroo Dam and Middle Street are predominantly Afro-Guyanese. There are a number of churches, with the New Testament Church of God, traditionally commanding the largest membership. In Coglan Dam, the Radha Krishna Mandir can also be found.
