| The reservoir is
named after an 18th century pottery works at the
Garden estate, which was owned by the Codrington
family from the early 18th to the end of the 20th
century. A part of the dam is built over the site
of the works and a 19th century bridge. Skilled
black potters using a wheel and kiln technology
made sugar pots here. The main product was a
conical sugar pot used for draining molasses from
raw sugar. The
Potworks dam was planned in the late 1960's.
While work was underway in 1968, only 24 inches
of rain fell during the entire year; Antigua's
average rainfall is 44 inches a year. Scarcely
had the dam been finished when great rains filled
the reservoir to capacity. Potworks dam and its
reservoir were officially opened on 28th May
1970, and there is a small monument on the west
of the dam commemorating this event. Potworks
served well in 1974, when there was little or no
rainfall from January to mid-August. In September
1984, 5.58 inches fell to end a drought. Potworks
dam caught 20 million gallons of water.
There is
interesting bird watching around the western edge
of the reservoir. Some of the year round species
include the West Indian whistling duck
(Dendrocygna arborea), snowy egret (Egretta
thula), cattle egret (Bubulcus ibis) and the
osprey (Pandion haliaetus).
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