Our Team

  • Debra Branker

    Debra has been working in the field of environmental education since 1998.

    When the lease came up for Welchman Hall Gully, Debra jumped at the chance to get the gully up and running as a prime nature based tourist attraction and to develop it as a biodiversity and education centre.

  • Cassandra Springer

    Cassandra was made the manager of the gift shop in 2013.

    She is a resident of Porie Springs, which is about a 5 minute drive from the gully. At first she may seem quiet, but just ask her anything and she will be more than happy to help you.

  • Neil Gill

    Neil has been working at Welchman Hall Gully since January of 2009.

    He has been working with plants most of his adult life. A man of few words, he is also very fond of animals and rears many different farm animals including cows, sheep and ducks.

  • Jaron "Tiger" Edwards

    Tiger had been working on and off for years before finally making the gully his fill-time job in 2016. One of the nicest people you will meet, he will help you with anything.

  • Tiosha Branch

    Tiosha was born and raised just opposite the Gully. She is a full-time university student and part-time cashier on the weekends.

From civil war to grapefruit – a history of the Gully

Welchman Hall Gully is named after its first owner, a former soldier from Wales called General William Asygell Williams.

He was banished by Cromwell after losing at the Battle of Bristol in 1650 during the English Civil War.

He established a plantation here, which he named Welchman Hall.

It was this man who first developed the gully, adding many exotic trees and an orchard.

The gully is also home to the world’s smallest species of snake.

But don’t worry, Leptotytphlops Carlae, discovered by Blair Hedges, of Penn State University in 2008, is blind, harmless and lives deep in the gully.

It is so tiny, it can curl up on to a US quarter. It is very rare and hasn’t been seen for a couple of years.

The Gully was acquired by Barbados National Trust in 1962 and is now leased from the trust by Debra Branker, an environmentalist and educator.

Welchman Hall Gully has at least two other claims to fame.

It is the home of the grapefruit, formed from a sweet orange and a shaddock, a large pomelo. You can sometimes see the grapefruit’s peel, discarded by the monkeys.

The first reference to the grapefruit was in 1750, when it was described by Rev Griffith Hughes, a botanist, as the Forbidden Fruit of Barbados.