Chapelton, Jamaica

Chapelton
Chapelton
Market Town
	Chapelton
	Coordinates: 18°04′58″N 77°16′01″W / 18.082691°N 77.2669959°W
Country	Jamaica
Parish	Clarendon
Elevation	218 m (715 ft)
Population .
• Estimate (2009)	4,559
Time zone	UTC-5 (EST)

Chapelton is a market town in Clarendon Parish, Jamaica and the former parish capital.

Name

According to a longtime resident:^[2]

Back in the days of plantation slavery in Jamaica, the Chapleton locality was a plantocracy settlement. Instead of going to church in the capital May Pen, the plantation owners built a church in Chapleton where they worshiped. Local folk therefore talked about going to “the chapel in the town.” After a while, the town became known as Chapel Town but with the passing of time, the name became distorted and was shortened to become Chapelton.

Amenities

Clarendon College, secondary school.
Clarendon Hospital, built c1903, now a community Type 3 hospital.^[2]
Police Station.
St Paul's Anglican Church, founded over 300 years ago.^[3]

Transport

Road

Chapelton is on the B3 road which climbs up from May Pen in the south, passes through the center of the town and continues north towards Brown's Town.^[4]

Rail

From 1925 to 1974 Chapelton was served by Chapelton railway station on the 21 mile railway branch line from May Pen to Frankfield.^{[citation needed]}

Notable people from Chapelton

References

^ "World Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 5 January 2013.
^ ^a ^b Chapelton - An Oral History Archived 21 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Myrel Elaine Moss (Sister Moss), golocaljamaica.com, 2003-01-01.
^ Kathy Alison, Picasa, 2009-01-03.
^ UK Directorate of Overseas Surveys 1:50,000 map of Jamaica Sheets G & H, 1973.