Photos & Column: ‘The Legacy Of Somerset’ Art

[Written by Dale Butler]

Multi-talented, energetic, charismatic, creative, and artistic are many of the words that easily fall from the lips of those who meet Barbara [nee Bassett] Dillas, a retired teacher, now mentor to many, and a bright light in Somerset, her hometown.

Barbara credits her former art teacher at Sandys, Madree Orridge, for inspiring her to become an artist and credits Central State University [CSU], Wilberforce, Ohio, U.S.A. for her training. Some 40 years after graduating, she is still going at top speed, laden with a bucket of paint brushes and a basketful of ideas and dreams.

After several art exhibitions at Willowbank Resort highlighting West End talent and the completion of the community mural on the legendary Bermuda/West Ham United international football star Clyde Best, Barbara Dillas and team, together with Kim Wilkerson, her right-hand person, have received permission from The Ministry of Works & Engineering to develop the bus stop in front of the former Arnold’s Supermarket in Somerset.

For years, the bus stop was used as a memorial of sorts, but now has taken a royal seat with a key focus: the names of shops and institutions that once existed in all of Sandys Parish. The following is a small sample, and please note that Barbara can add any omissions to the list already painted:

• Cessi’s
• Village Inn
• Salt Rock
• Somerset Country Squire
• Hickory House
• Mount Pleasant
• Dean’s Bakery
• Loyal Irresistible Lodge
• John Davis Cedar Shop

As described in the poem: “Are the foundation of Somerset that helped one another stand through it all.”

On my recent visit to this beautiful mural with a poem written by born and raised Somersetonian, Tina Christopher, who visited it and was inspired to compose “The Legacy of Somerset,” I was amazed at the number of residents who came to reflect on their memories of these businesses, thus proclaiming it as a monument that is key to our worth and value.

Some 20 years ago, my uncle Winston Butler gave me the names of approximately 56 businesses that existed on Angle Street up until 1965, only to witness a rapid current decline with only one or two left. I recorded them in a book and there they remain with rarely a reference. But the bus stop at Arnold’s has attracted the principal, art teacher, and students of Sandys Secondary Middle School to lend a hand with the colourful and creative painting, along with area icons like former MP and lawyer Michael Scott; former Parliamentary Registrar Randolph Scott; former Education Officer Dr. Shangri-La Durham-Thompson; and artists Rayshawn Liles, Kayla Jackson, Asha Galloway, and Tai-Quan Ottley.

What comes next is obvious: people are reflecting and those comments need to be recorded and a movie produced. As Barbara’s father, Carl Bassett [a butcher at Miles and Co-op and BIU activist], used to say “Bye Jingles.”

- Dale Butler encourages you to go and see this colourful new addition to Somerset. If you’d like to have your memories recorded please contact Barbara Dillas at 234-5531 or [dillasbarbara@2@gmail.com] or Dale Butler at 595-9841 or [daledbutler@gmail.com]. The mural forms the foundation, and additional ideas would be welcomed: to ensure that Somerset’s reputation of being self-sustainable, self-sufficient and cohesive, remains alive. With that declaration, we have to continue to “Mind the Onion Seed”. 

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