Manchester Parish 

Mandeville is the capital of "community tourism" which was developed and pioneered by Diana McIntyre-Pike of the Astra Country Inn in Mandeville and Desmond Henry a marketing and communications specialist from the south coast. Together they sensitized communities in the central and south area and created the first non-governmental organization for community tourism – the Central and South Tourism Organization (CESTO) in 1987. Since then a company called Countrystyle emerged to market and develop sustainable tourism throughout tourism and the Caribbean. Countrystyle successfully spearheaded the first Sustainable Tourism Conference in Jamaica and the Caribbean where it was decided to established an Institute for Sustainable Tourism based at the Astra Country Inn in Mandeville. Countrystyle has already gained international recognition especially in the Caribbean. Countrystyle’s programme has already been endorsed in St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago and Anguilla. There are plans now to register Countrystyle as an international organization and to set up an NGO called the Sustainable Communities Foundation through Tourism (SCF) to encourage low interest funding and grants for community tourism projects throughout the Caribbean. Countrystyle has now developed a Community Tourism Secretariat to provide an administrative, marketing, technical, resource and business centre for communities in Jamaica and the Caribbean which is based at the Astra Country Inn – Home of Countrystyle. This secretariat will target village tourism as a viable investment for the communities.
Mandeville and its environs has fertile land – known as "the bread basket in the island." Natural health cuisine, nature tours and walks, organic farming and a healthy lifestyle is normal in this mountain area. The potential for health and fitness tourism is tremendous especially with a cooler and more refreshing climate. Recreational activities are golf, tennis, squash at the historic Manchester Club which boasts of having the first golf course in the Caribbean, badminton, horseback riding, birdwatching and more.

The parish of Manchester is located in west-central Jamaica, in the county of Middlesex. Its capital, Mandeville, is a major business centre, and the only parish capital not located on the coast or on a major river. The Right Excellent Norman Washington Manley (d. 1969), one of Jamaica's seven National Heroes, was born in this parish

Manchester was formed in 1814, by an Act of the House of Assembly, making it one of the newest parishes of Jamaica. It was formed as a result of the amalgamation of the parishes St. Elizabeth, Clarendon and Vere. The amalgamation was done in response to a petition from the inhabitants of Mile Gully, May Pen and Carpenters Mountain who complained that they were too far away from an administrative centre. Manchester was named in honour of the Duke of Manchester, the then Governor of Jamaica. He was governor for 19 years, setting the record as the longest serving Governor of the island. The capital town, Mandeville, established in 1816, was named after his eldest son, Lord Mandeville.

Taino/Arawak settlement in the parish was substantiated when in 1792, a surveyor found two carvings, believed to be Amerindian Zemi, in a cave in the Carpenter's Mountains. They are now at the British Museum.