Bedford (pop. 36,354 ) is a former town and now a district of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the north west shore of the

Bedford Basin Bedford Basin is a large enclosed bay, forming the northwestern end of Halifax Harbour on Canada's Atlantic coast. It is named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford. Geography Geographically, the basin is situated entirely within th ...

in the central area of the municipality. It borders the neighbouring communities of Hammonds Plains to the west, Sackville to the north, Dartmouth to the east, and

mainland Halifax Mainland Halifax is the remaining portion of the community of Halifax, without the Halifax Peninsula. History For thousands of years and currently, Mainland Halifax has been be on the unceded ancestral lands of the Mi'kmaq. On 21 June 1749, ...

to the south. Bedford was named in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, Secretary of State for the colonies in 1749.

History

The area of Bedford has evidence of Indigenous peoples dating back thousands of years. Petroglyphs are found at Bedford Petroglyphs National Historic Site. The Bedford area is known as Kwipek to the

Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

First Nation. ScottManorHouseBedfordNovaScotia

On 21 July 1749,

Father Le Loutre's War Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the Kingdo ...

began when

Edward Cornwallis Edward Cornwallis ( – 14 January 1776) was a British career military officer and member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family, who reached the rank of Lieutenant General. After Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobite r ...

arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports. The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against the Acadians, the French, and the Mi'kmaq, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Bedford ( Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754). The history of Bedford began when Governor

organised his men and began the construction of a road leading to

Minas Basin The Minas Basin () is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides. Geography The Minas Basin forms the eastern part of the Bay of Fundy which splits ...

on the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy () is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its tidal range is the highest in the world. The bay was ...

after establishing the garrison at Halifax. To protect it, he hired John Gorham and his Rangers to erect a fort on the shore of

. It was named Fort Sackville after

Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset Lionel Cranfield Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset (18 January 168810 October 1765) was a British politician who served as Lord President of the Council from 1745 to 1751. He also twice served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1730 to 1737 and aga ...

. The area around the fort became known as Sackville until the mid-1850s, when it became Bedford. In 1752, among the first to receive a large land grant was military officer George Scott in the Fort Sackville area. Scott later participated in the

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain. It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Br ...

, specifically the St. John River Campaign (1758). His brother, Joseph, was paymaster at the Halifax Garrison in the 1760s, received two grants in 1759 and 1765. And built Scott Manor House in 1770. Anthony Holland established the Acadian Paper Mill on the Basin around 1819 to provide paper to produce the Halifax newspaper

Acadian Recorder The ''Acadian Recorder'' was a weekly newspaper published during the 19th century in City of Halifax, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The newspaper was founded on January 16, 1813, by Anthony Henry Holland. He was joined in 1821 by his brother, Phi ...

. When the railway went through the station named Millview, the Moirs, Son and Co. moved a part of the Moirs Mill factory to Bedford. The Moirs Mill generating station built in the early 1930s to supply the necessary electricity required to run the factory. On 1 July 1980, Bedford was incorporated as a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

. The Town only had two Mayors from 1 July 1980 until 1 April 1996; the first Mayor of Bedford was

Francene Cosman Francene Jen Cosman (born January 14, 1941) is a former nurse, businessperson and political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. She represented Bedford-Fall River in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1993 to 1999 as a Liberal member. Cosman ...

. The second and final Mayor of Bedford was Peter J. Kelly. Peter J. Kelly would later serve as Mayor of the Municipality of Halifax, from 2000 to 2012. On 1 April 1996, Halifax County was dissolved and all of its places (cities, suburbs, towns, and villages) were turned into communities of a single-tier municipality named ''Halifax Regional Municipality''. Subsequently, Bedford was turned into a community within the new Municipality of Halifax.

Geography

Bedford is approximately from

Downtown Halifax Downtown Halifax is the primary central business district of the Municipality of Halifax. Located on the central-eastern portion of the Halifax Peninsula, on Halifax Harbour. Along with Downtown Dartmouth, and other de facto central business di ...

. Bedford covers 3,979 hectares (39.79 km²) of land area. As Bedford is quite centralized in the municipality its borders are formed by the community boundaries it shares with its neighbours. To the north are the communities of Lower Sackville, Lakeview and Waverley and Dartmouth are to the east, Halifax and Timberlea to the south and finally Hammonds Plains to the west. Topographically, the area is situated over bedrock, with a high proportion of rockland and exposed bedrock ridges, dotted with many lakes and wetlands. In these ridge terrains, soils are typically dry, shallow, and coarse, and often degraded by a history of repeated wildfire. Bedford has several large lakes including: Marsh Lake, Sandy Lake, Kearney Lake and Paper Mill Lake, the latter being the secondary tributary of the

. The main tributary of the Bedford Basin estuary is the Sackville River. The river has been heavily affected by ongoing development within its watershed and a chronic loss of riparian zones along its shores, especially in downtown Bedford, where the impervious surfaces of shopping centres and strip malls dominate the landscape. The secondary tributary of the Basin flows Paper Mill Lake then through Moirs Mill Pond adjacent to a commercial shopping district at the intersection of the Bedford Highway and Hammonds Plains Road. Both areas are composed almost entirely of impervious surfaces where contaminated stormwater and surface runoff are unable to permeate into the ground and instead flow directly into the Bedford Basin. The developed area of Bedford’s shore line is mainly long the Bedford Bay portion of the basin. It consists of a public waterfront boardwalk through a 1 km portion of DeWolf Park and follows along to Lions Park and along Shore Drive. Its eastern shore consists of a "blast buffer zone" that surrounds Canadian Forces Ammunition Depot Bedford; this is the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; , ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The navy is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of February 2024, the RCN operates 12 s, 12 s, 4 s, 4 s, 8 s, and several auxiliary ...

’s weapons

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

for its Atlantic fleet.

Culture

Recreation

There is a popular walkway along much of the Bedford Basin waterfront that begins at DeWolf park, and continues as the Bedford-Sackville Connector Greenway, a crushed gravel covered trail that meanders along the Sackville River. On Shore Drive, there is an outdoor 25-metre pool and smaller splash pool located at Lions Park, and in the summer there are numerous lakes suitable for swimming. Bedford is a well-established sailing community, and is home to the Bedford Basin Yacht Club and Marina.

Sports

The community is currently home to six ice surfaces, at the BMO Centre, Lebrun Centre, and the Gary Martin Dome. The topography of the area limits the possible locations for football-and-soccer fields. However, there are fields at Basinview Drive Community School, Bedford South School,

Charles P. Allen High School Charles P. Allen High School (CPA) is a senior high school located in Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada. This school serves Hammonds Plains, Bedford and a section of Halifax since 2010; for three years at the original CPA and current location since 20 ...

, Range Park, Rocky Lake Junior High, and Sunnyside Elementary (Eaglewood location).

Traditions

Bedford Days has occurred annually at the end of June and beginning of July for almost 50 years. Currently, most of the events take place at DeWolf Park. There is an opening celebration, a Canada Day celebration, free pancake-breakfast, dog show, Kids' Extravaganza, Kids' Triathlon, Movies in the Park, the Rubber Duck Dash, and the Scott Manor House Tea Party. The Light Up Bedford Parade is an annual parade that has been held since 1998 and takes place on the Sunday following the Light Up Halifax Parade, which usually is mid-November. It runs along the

Bedford Highway The Bedford Highway is a highway in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia that is part of Trunk 2. It runs around the western side of the Bedford Basin. The highway starts at the Windsor Street intersection on the Halifax Peninsula an ...

from Bedford Place Mall and ends at DeWolf Park. At the park there is Christmas carol singing, contests-and-prizes, and a hot chocolate stand. At the conclusion of the parade, a Christmas Tree is lit. In addition to bringing the community together to celebrate the beginning of the Christmas season, the parade serves as a fundraiser for the Turkey Club Society—which raises funds to ensure residents of Municipality of Halifax are able to provide a Christmas dinner for their families.

Demographics

Although a well-established community, Bedford has not had demographic information released from the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, and the

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Canadian Censuses.

Education

Depending on where they live, students may attend the following schools in the Bedford area:

Public schools

Primary schools

*Basinview Drive Elementary School - Grades Pre Primary to 5 (English) *Bedford South School - Grades Primary to 5 (English) *Rocky Lake Elementary - Grade 6 (English) *Rocky Lake Junior High School - Grades 7 to 9 (English and French) *Sunnyside Elementary (Eaglewood Drive) - Grades 3 to 5 (English) Grades 2 to 5 (French) *Sunnyside Elementary (Fort Sackville) - Grades Pre Primary to 1 (English) Grades Primary to 1 (French) *West Bedford School - Grades Pre-Primary to 8 (English and French)

Secondary schools

*Bedford and Forsyth Education Centres (Bedford Campus) - Grades 10 to 12 (English) *

- Grades 10 to 12 (English and French) * West Bedford High School - Grades 9 to 12 (English and French)

Private schools

* Bedford Academy - Grades Primary to 9 *Sandy Lake Seventh Day Adventist Academy - Grades Primary to 12

Le Conseil scolaire acadien provincial

These are French only schools for education in French as a first language to the population of Acadian and French-speaking origin residing in Nova Scotia.

Primary schools

* École Beaubassin - Grades Primary to 5

Secondary schools

* École secondaire du Sommet - Grades 6 to 12

Transportation

Bedford has many different modes of transport for the inhabitants of the community. Cycling paths,

footpaths A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as motorized vehicles, bicycles and horses. They can be found in a wide ...

, sidewalks give many options. There are

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It includes not just major roads, but also other public roads and rights of way. In the United States, it is also used as an equivalent term to controlled-access highway, or ...

-and-

roads A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. The ...

for motorists, but Bedford's network (like all of the

built-up area Buildup may refer to: * Atomic buildup In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, the Aufbau principle (, from ), also called the Aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons first fill Electron shell#Subshells, sub ...

of Halifax) sees

traffic congestion Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s, resulting in m ...

on these roads during the many peak hours. The section of the

is notorious for slow speeds at morning-and-evening peak hours.

Halifax Transit Halifax Transit is a Canadian public transport service operating buses and ferries in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded as Metro Transit in March 1981, the agency runs two ferry routes, 66 conventional bus routes (including corridor, local, and expre ...

provides services to the community of Bedford. Many routes give access to places within the

urban agglomeration An urban area is a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas originate through urbanization, and researchers categorize them as cities, towns, conurbations or suburbs. In urbani ...

of Halifax, and some routes give access to places outside of the

. Recently, there have been several different modes of public-transportation proposed within Halifax to support its current and continued growth. There is a fast ferry service planned for the Mill Cove area that would connect to the Ferry Terminal in

. Furthermore, there have been proposals to re-introduce Commuter (Light) Rail within Halifax's urban area. However, these proposed services are controversial due to disputes over projected costs and ridership levels.

Public transit Public transport (also known as public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) are forms of transport available to the general public. It typically uses a fixed schedule, route and charges a fixed fare. There is no rigid definition of wh ...

''Wheelchair – Uses Accessible Low Floor (ALF) buses only.
Clock simple

''Rush Hour Service Only''
''Designated Bike Route''
''MetroLink Service''
''MetroX Service''

Notable residents

* Rachel Brouwer - Inventor *

- First Mayor of Bedford, former MLA and cabinet minister, former President of the NS Status of Women * Brendan Croskerry - Musician * Nate Darling - NBA basketball player * Vice Admiral Harry DeWolf - First commander of HMCS Haida (G63) during the Second World War and namesake to the Harry DeWolf-class of vessel for the RCN * Ante Jazic - Soccer player for MLS team

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conf ...

* Shawn MacKenzie - Professional hockey player * Brad Marchand - NHL Player for The

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NHL), Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference (NHL), Eastern Conference. The t ...

* Anna Negulic - 2019 Pan American Games gold medal champion in the women's 500 metres sprint kayak *

Geoff Regan Geoffrey Paul Regan (born November 22, 1959) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 36th speaker of the House of Commons from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Liberal Party, he was the member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax West 20 ...

- The 36th Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons * Laura Regan - Actor * Nancy Regan - Television host and self-employed * Chase Tang - Actor and mental health advocate

References

Notes Sources * Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2008. * * *
Light Up Bedford Parade

External links

The "Bedford Beacon" Community Information site
{{Authority control Communities in Halifax, Nova Scotia Former towns in Nova Scotia Populated places established in 1750 Populated places disestablished in 1996