We welcome you to discover our narrow English village streets, Marley Spring Water, Great Houses and our friendly people. When you visit Sturge Town you are not only a tourist but we welcome you as our special guest. We are proud to share our heritage and our community with you.

Sturge Town, 45 minutes drive from Runaway Bay or 20 minutes from Brown's Town, is a village of 2000 snuggled up in the scenic coastal rainforest of St. Ann Parish, Jamaica. The town was founded by freed slaves who, with the assistance of the Baptist Church, established one of the first free villages in Jamaica. In the aftermath of emancipation many former slaves faced low wages and high rents for their humble plantation dwellings. Without control over housing and labour they had limited opportunities. So, free villages were created under the disciplined leadership of the Baptist, Moravian, Presbyterian and Methodist churches. Thus was born Sturge Town the second of some 200 free villages in Jamaica.

Sturge Town, named for Joseph Sturge, a Quaker abolitionist from Birmingham, England was established in 1840 by Rev. John Clark. The land was previously a plantation, owned by the Scarlett family, and included Ft. George. Other free villages in the area include Clarksonville, Buxton, Liberty Hill and Wilberforce. At Sturge Town about 500 acres were bought and shared among 100 families. Land was also reserved for schools, churches and a community building.  In fact, a one room school house was opened in 1842 and the Baptist Church opened in 1858. An estimated 20,000 former slaves settled in free villages throughout Jamaica. The town is supplied with a never-drying Marley Spring, discovered by a runaway slave by the name of Marley. It has borne the name Marley Spring ever since and is credited with the citizens' good health and an abundance of senior citizens.  The oldest Richard Tracey at 106 still reads without glasses.

In the region around Sturge Town there are many rivers and limestone formations with a series of fifty-nine caves. One of those caves, Thatchfield Light Hole Cave, near Sturge Town, was used for refuge by runaway slaves. Also in the area is the recently discovered James Finlayson Cave, named after a Baptist leader, used as a secret place of worship during slavery.