Great Village, Nova Scotia
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Great Village is a
rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are descri ...
community of approximately 500 people located along Trunk 2 and the north shore of
Cobequid Bay Cobequid Bay is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and the easternmost part of the Minas Basin, located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The bay was carved by rivers flowing into the eastern end of the Bay of Fundy. The eastern end of the b ...
in Colchester County,
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
. It is considered locally to incorporate the areas of Highland Village to the west and Scrabble Hill to the north northwest.


Settlement

What was to become Great Village was first settled by French-speaking Acadians around 1630, who built dykes in the marshes, reclaimed land, and created a village called "Petit-Louis" or "Vil de Cadets". They were expelled, along with the rest of the Acadian population of Nova Scotia, by Governor Charles Lawrence in 1755. This event, known as the
Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...
, saw the Acadians dispersed among the American colonies, Louisiana, England and France. They left behind memorials in the names of nearby rivers (anglicised in modern times into Portapique and Debert). The next settlers, whose descendants were to remain, came in the spring of 1762: Protestants of predominantly
Ulster Ulster (; ga, Ulaidh or ''Cúige Uladh'' ; sco, label= Ulster Scots, Ulstèr or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional Irish provinces. It is made up of nine counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kin ...
origins, brought over by former British Army Captain Alexander McNutt, himself an Ulsterman who had been stationed in Nova Scotia. Many of these settlers re-used the burnt-out storage cellars of the expelled Acadians as the foundations for their first homes. "The vessel 'Hopewell' reached Halifax carrying Irish settlers on October 9, 1761, and landed passengers where they remained over the winter. Early next spring arrangements were made to hire a vessel to take these people to the 'District of Cobequid' where the best lands and greatest quantities of marsh in that part of the country were assigned to them, and furnished them with provisions out of the Provincial Funds. Many of these settlers took up land in what is now Londonderry district. Tradition is that twenty families located along the Bay Shore between Isgonish River and Bass River." The original grants of land of the Township of Londonderry were prepared in 1765, but because of the British government's explicit prohibition against the granting of Nova Scotia land to Irish, they were not made official until February 10, 1775. "The reader should bear in mind that the settlement of the township of Londonderry was for the most part on those lands near the Bay Shore--
Masstown Masstown (2021 population: 156), formerly Cobequid, is a farming community located approximately from Truro, Nova Scotia. Historic background Masstown has its beginnings with French settlers, known as Acadians. They first settled in this ...
, Glenholme, Great Village,
Portapique Portapique () is a rural community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Colchester County. It has about 100 residents in winter and increases to 250 residents in summer. Situated near the mouth of the Portapique River, which flow ...
, and Bass River. The present community of Londonderry, or Acadia Mines, was not included in the Area described in the Grant of 1775. Presumably settlement of that community did not commence until iron ore was discovered there in 1847." The Acadian settlers built dykes to create farmland from the area's extensive salt marsh. The village partially exists on this created land, which is still farmed. The dyked land, situated at a substantially lower elevation than the inhabited portion of Great Village, is a heritage-engineering site worthy of note. In the early nineteenth century this village was called 'The Port of Londonderry' and was a Port of Registry." Several shipyards thrived in the late 19th century and along with lumber exports created the wealth which built many of the fine, large Victorian-period houses and gardens visible today around the village. Foremost among them was the shipbuilder John M. Blaikie who built a massive four-masted
barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...
named after himself in 1885, the barque ''John M. Blaikie''. Along with the barque '' Kings County'' built across the Minas Basin, ''John M. Blaikie'' was one of only two four masted barques ever built in Canada and among the largest wooden sailing vessels built in the country.


Literary significance

In her youth, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author
Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...
lived with her grandparents, William Brown Bulmer and Elizabeth (Hutchinson) Bulmer, in Great Village. The Bulmer House, also known as the Elizabeth Bishop House is an artists' retreat and is a Nova Scotia Provincially Recognized Heritage Site. Elizabeth Bishop based many of her stories on the life of a fictional village of the same name. One story is called appropriately, "In the Village".


Notable residents

*
George Wylie Hutchinson George Wylie Hutchinson (1852–1942) was a painter and leading illustrator in Britain and was from Great Village, Nova Scotia, Canada. He illustrated the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling, Hall Caine, Robert Louis Stevenson and Isra ...
*
Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911 – October 6, 1979) was an American poet and short-story writer. She was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1949 to 1950, the Pulitzer Prize winner for Poetry in 1956, the National Book Awar ...


Mahon Cemetery

The Mahon Cemetery is Great Village's historic cemetery which is still in use today, Buried in it are many early settlers and their descendants including Elizabeth Bishop's grandparents and other relatives as well as many of the villagers who were portrayed in her poetry. Elizabeth Bishop Society blog
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References


External links


Destination: Nova Scotia with a map of the Great Village area

Great Village Community Association
{{coord, 45, 24, 59.07, N, 63, 35, 59.63, W, region:CA_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki, display=title Communities in Colchester County