Les Coteaux: Heritage and Village Culture

Heritage, historical performances and village folklore give Les Coteaux on Tobago a distinctive cultural profile. The Anglican Church Les Coteaux is designated as a heritage site; performances by the Les Coteaux Close Connection Cultural Club and a presentation about the village’s folklore and superstitions are also associated with the area. If you like to shape your holiday plans around cultural themes, these points of interest can influence your choice of destination. Consider whether you would rather focus on a designated building, specific plays, or the village’s stories and traditions.

Heritage in Les Coteaux

The Anglican Church Les Coteaux is located on Arnos Vale Road in Les Coteaux on Tobago and is designated as a heritage site. The address places the church specifically in the village; its designation gives it a clear connection to cultural heritage. For choosing a theme, this is a different approach from the performances and stories: here, the focus is on a named building, while the other offers are performing arts. This can help you weigh up which aspects of Les Coteaux are particularly interesting for your travel plans.

Plays and village folklore

On 28 July 2017, the Les Coteaux Close Connection Cultural Club performed the play “Band Ya Belly, Bruk Ya Back” at the Tablepiece Recreation Ground. At the 2019 Tobago Heritage Festival, the same club performed the play “From Heaven To Hell and Back – Breaking The Silence” at the Tablepiece Recreation Ground. These two dated performances offer concrete examples of the club’s theatre and anchor different productions to the same named venue.

Another presentation at the Tobago Heritage Festival is titled “Superstitions in Les Coteaux”. It combines stories, singing and dancing with the village’s folklore and superstitions. This brings storytelling traditions into focus alongside the plays. Comparing them can help you narrow down your cultural interests: would you like your travel plans to focus mainly on the named stage plays, or on the connection between stories, music and dance and the village’s traditions?

Tobago in a broader cultural context

Beyond Les Coteaux, Tobago also offers a variety of cultural and historical themes. The Tobago Harvest Festival began as a religious harvest thanksgiving festival for the produce of the island’s villages. One festival programme combines a morning service to bless the food with an afternoon concert. It includes skits, poems and a cantata by the village choir. Thanksgiving, food and a community cultural programme thus come together in one event.

In Tobago’s fishing communities, people bring the day’s catch ashore using a method called “pulling seine”. The practice is also known as the “tradition of lending hands”. Another story leads to the cocoa industry: in 2005, Tobago’s cocoa industry was revived through the initiative of young Tobagonian and sommelier Duane Dove. At the Tobago Cocoa Estate, among the green hills of Roxborough overlooking the Atlantic, a variety of cocoa known as “fine” or “flavour” cocoa is grown and used to make chocolate.

Buccoo Historical Park is a historic nature park on Golden Grove Estate in Buccoo. Its remains include two water mills, a copra-drying floor and an old cocoa building. The various relics make the park’s history tangible through specific structures, adding another historical connection to Tobago’s themes of fishing, harvest thanksgiving and cocoa.

Discover more destinations

Discover more destinations: Buccoo, Arnos Vale, Lowlands, Black Rock, Carnbee, Bethel, Castara, Plymouth.

Back to the main travel overview: Western Tobago.