New Chelsea-New Melbourne-Brownsdale-Sibley's Cove-Lead Cove is a

local service district Local service district may refer to these administrative units in Canada: * Local service district (New Brunswick) A local service district (LSD) was a provincial administrative unit for the provision of local services in the Canadian province o ...

and

designated place A designated place (DPL) is a type of community or settlement identified by Statistics Canada that does not meet the criteria used to define municipalities or population centres. DPLs are delineated every 5 years for the Canadian census as the s ...

in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

Geography

New Chelsea-New Melbourne-Brownsdale-Sibley's Cove-Lead Cove is in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

within Subdivision F of Division No. 1. It consists of five unincorporated communities on the Trinity Bay side of the northern tip of the Bay de Verde Peninsula.

Communities

;New Chelsea ;New Melbourne This small village was originally called ''Russells Cove'', and circa 1864 housed some 16 families. ;Brownsdale Tradition has it that John Brown, who had migrated from

Old Perlican Old Perlican is a fishing village on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. Incorporated in 1791, it is one of the oldest fishing communities in Newfoundland; it served as the major fishing station in Trinity Bay for migrat ...

around 1820, was the first settler in Brownsdale. He had established a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

there and was Brownsdale's first merchant. The original name of Brownsdale, Trinity Bay was Lance Cove South; the name was changed around 1910 to provide distinction from the other two Lance Coves on the island. Brownsdale's first school was built in 1856 to accommodate twenty pupils. The village's first church was

Wesleyan Wesleyan theology, otherwise known as Wesleyan–Arminian theology, or Methodist theology, is a theological tradition in Protestant Christianity based upon the ministry of the 18th-century evangelical reformer brothers John Wesley and Charle ...

, constructed in 1870; the current church, the

United Church A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestantism, Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinc ...

of Brownsdale, was built in 1892. In 1958 a new high school was built and named for Newfoundland poet E. J. Pratt. ;Sibley's Cove Sibley's Cove is usually considered to include Torquay (pronounced tarquay), a cluster of houses on the East End of the cove. It is believed that the cove was probably named after a migrating fisherman. * 1874 – Sibley’s Cove (combined with Lead Cove) first appears on the Census with a population of 61. * 1884 – The population is listed as 93. * 1891 – One vessel leaves Sibley’s Cove for the Labrador Fishery. * 1895 – The first school is built and kept by Isaac March of Brownsdale. * 1899 – A Methodist Chapel is built. * 1942 – An Orange Hall is constructed. * 1957 – A government wharf is constructed for the inshore fishermen. Prior to 1871, the community had been renamed New Melbourne. ;Lead Cove Lead Cove may take its name from the lead-grey rock that surrounds the shallow cove. Tradition also tells that Lead Cove may have received its name from one of its earliest settler, Abraham Button, who felt that he had been "led" to this site from Old Perlican in his search for a place to settle. * 1870 – First house is built by Abraham Button. * 1874 – Census records eight families in Lead Cove and nearby Sibleys Cove. * 1901 – The strong Methodist community of Lead Cove has 57 residents. * 1916 – Cod liver oil factory, established by William Button, is the first commercial activity in Lead Cove.

Climate

Geology

All of these communities are underlain by

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

bedrock of the Big Head Formation, chiefly gray to green

arkose Arkose () or arkosic sandstone is a detrital sedimentary rock, specifically a type of sandstone containing at least 25% feldspar. Arkosic sand is sand that is similarly rich in feldspar, and thus the potential precursor of arkose. Components ...

and

siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...

. Soils are stony loam podzols and are mapped as Turk's Cove series except at Lead Cove which lies on the less well drained Old Perlican series.

Demographics

As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, New Chelsea-New Melbourne-Brownsdale-Sibley's Cove-Lead Cove recorded a population of 494 living in 221 of its 326 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 503. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016.

Government

New Chelsea-New Melbourne-Brownsdale-Sibley's Cove-Lead Cove is a local service district (LSD) that is governed by a committee responsible for the provision of certain services to the community. The chair of the LSD committee is Terry Button.

References

External links

Baccalieu Trail
{{Subdivisions of Newfoundland and Labrador, state=collapsed, LSD/DPL=yes Populated coastal places in Canada Designated places in Newfoundland and Labrador Local service districts in Newfoundland and Labrador