Published: 15th of November, 2026 by Patrick Carpen
Last updated: November 15, 2026 at 6:28 amSomerset and Berks is a rice-farming community on the northern Essequibo Coast, between Evergreen and New Road, near Charity. It is in Region 2, Pomeroon-Supenaam, in the county of Essequibo. Approximate village coordinates are 7.3978° N, 58.5716° W. From Georgetown, travel by road to Parika, cross the Essequibo River to Supenaam by ferry or passenger boat, and continue north along the coast road towards Charity.
Find Somerset and Berks on Google Maps. The pin indicates the village area, rather than the much larger administrative subregion that also carries its name.
A village measured in harvests
Somerset and Berks belongs to the stretch of Guyana where rice fields, canals and roadside homes form a closely connected landscape. Its double name recalls two English counties—Somerset and Berkshire—but its story is distinctly Essequibian: families making a living from cultivated land, a bridge carrying people towards Charity, and an old industrial landmark remembered as the “Silo.”
A visitor can pass through quickly on the public road. Understanding the place takes a little longer. The fields explain its agricultural purpose; the history of rice storage reveals its wider importance; and residents’ memories bring the scale back to a household, a school journey or a kitchen garden.
Getting here from Georgetown
Parika is the river-crossing point for this journey. After travelling there by road, take a service to Supenaam and arrange onward road transport towards Charity. Somerset and Berks lies beyond Anna Regina and Dartmouth, before New Road and Charity when approaching from the south.
Tell the driver your exact destination in Somerset and Berks. Confirm whether the minibus continues through Anna Regina or whether you will need to change vehicles there. For a home or farm visit, ask your host for the appropriate stop and final directions.
Check crossing arrangements for your travel date and leave enough time for the return to Supenaam. Combining the visit with an overnight stay on the coast can make room for conversations and neighbouring villages without organising the whole day around the last river service.
Its place in Guyana’s rice industry
The Guyana Rice Corporation’s report for the year ending August 1971 included Somerset and Berks among six sites in a national rice-modernisation programme. The plan provided for paddy storage, with equipment for cleaning, drying, weighing and handling grain in bulk.
At Somerset and Berks, pile-driving and site-filling work had been completed by the reporting stage, while further soil tests were being considered for the storage-bin foundations. This was a construction programme in progress, not a record that every planned facility was already operating.
That history helps explain why a small farming community could acquire such a prominent industrial presence. Rice needs more than land and rain: a harvested crop must also be handled, dried and stored. Somerset and Berks had a place in the effort to build that capacity nationally.
Village accounts published in 2011 and 2014 described the old rice factory as a familiar landmark that had ceased operating as a mill. The 2014 account recorded the local name “Silo.” Its present condition and access arrangements should be checked locally; it is not an established visitor attraction.
Livelihoods beyond a single crop
Rice cultivation dominates the village’s recorded economic story, alongside smaller-scale produce farming and work in transport, teaching and other services. In 2011, residents recalled a shift from ground provisions towards rice during earlier decades, influenced by repeated flooding.
Household cultivation added another layer. One longtime resident described growing vegetables in his kitchen garden, while fruit trees formed part of the domestic landscape. These smaller plots belong in the story alongside the larger rice fields: food production also takes place close to the kitchen door.
Memories of a changing village
Residents interviewed in 2014 remembered lamp-lit homes, wells and long walks to school in Charity. One older woman recalled raising cattle while supporting her children and later tending an ochro garden. Their recollections describe the work involved in making a home here, as well as the changes brought by improved utilities and transport.
The bridge near Evergreen is another recurring feature in local memory. Its importance is easy to understand on a coast divided by waterways: a crossing connects neighbours, markets and schools. A canal may look like a boundary from a passing vehicle, while to a farming household it is part of the machinery of daily life.
Ways to experience the area
Somerset and Berks suits a thoughtful coastal outing, particularly for visitors interested in agriculture, family history or the development of rural Guyana. Arrange a conversation with a resident, ask permission before photographing homes, and seek a farmer’s agreement before entering cultivated land. The public road is a transport route, so choose stopping places where people and vehicles can remain clear of traffic.
Nearby Charity offers a useful companion stop for its market and Pomeroon riverside setting. A journey between the two places connects the farming coast with the river trade that serves communities farther inland. Any boat excursion beyond Charity should be arranged separately with an operator and a clear destination.
There is potential here for locally led agricultural and heritage visits, built around farming knowledge and the rice-storage story. Such experiences would need willing hosts and suitable access. For now, Somerset and Berks rewards the traveller who takes an interest in how an ordinary working village helped feed a country—and how its families continue to give the place meaning.
