Great Barasway: Located south of the town of Placentia, according to information presented in the ENL listing, the town was referred to as Great Barrysway in 1773 by the surveyor, Michael Lane.

The history behind Great Barasway is similar to that of Gooseberry Cove.

From the ENL located on the landward shores of a large barachois formed by a great shingle bar which separates the barachois (a shallow, marshy pool) from the sea, south of Placentia.

The name Great Barasway, is a descriptive anglicization of the French term "barachois."

The geographic feature of the barachois also gives its name to another settlement in the vicinity, namely Little Barasway, which is to the north of Great Barasway.

Numerous variations in spelling have occurred in the nomenclature of these settlements including: "Great Barrysway" (Lane 1773), "Barrisways" (Census 1836) and the most recent "Barasway."

Like other settlements located on the Cape Shore, Great Barasway was first settled in the early 1800s. According to local tradition the first settlers on the shore were Irish fishing servants brought to Newfoundland by the Sweetmans' firm of Waterford, Ireland, which was based at Placentia.

The small coastal valleys along the Cape Shore provided good opportunity for small-scale farming, mainly in vegetables and beef, and early Census reports of Great Barasway indicate that its inhabitants were almost wholly engaged in agriculture.

The settlement was first reported in the Census in 1836 with Little Barasway, and had a combined population with that settlement of thirty-two.

The two communities were recorded together in the Census until 1891.

Potatoes, hay, turnips and cattle constituted the main crops sand livestock tended by Great Barasway residents, who numbered, with Little Barasway residents, twenty-three people in 1857 and thirty-four in 1874.

In 1857 seven people out of a population of twenty-three were reported to be Irish- born.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/GreatBarasway