Hermitage-Sandyville / Hermitage Bay / Connaigre Peninsula
Town

Phone : (709) 883-2343
Your Host(s) : Municipality


  • Detail
  • Hermitage Bay
  • Hermitage Detail

P.O. Box 160
Hermitage, A0H 1S0


Newfoundland Tourism Region : Central


Sandyville was formerly known as Dawson's Cove. According to C. G. Head (1976, cited in the ENL) Dawson's Cove was "one of the earliest English fishing stations on the South Coast because of its suitability as a shore site".

The Cove appears on James Cook's 1765 map as Dawsson's Cove, however who Dawson or Dawsson was, was not reported. The 2016 census reported that there were 422 residents in Hermitage-Sandyville (a 6.2% loss from 2011 count of 450).

Hermitage is located on the peninsula which separates Hermitage Bay from Connaigre Bay, the town of Hermitage is on the Hermitage Bay side.

While not a very large community on the peninsula, Hermitage has been of importance as it is out of there that a ferry, the MV Marine Eagle (for passengers and freight, i.e., no vehicles) connects to Gaultois and McCallum, a couple of outports on the south shore.

Today Hermitage is actually an incorporated community known as Hermitage-Sandyville, Sandyville being on the Connaigre side of the peninsula.

With the linking of these two communities, the "larger" community is now able to provide services (albeit minimal) for the whole the peninsula that extends out to Pass Island.

From the town's website: Hermitage was an early outport of French fishing interests centered at St. Pierre and Plaisance (Placentia) on the south coast in the Seventeenth Century.

It was reported to be occupied in 1687 by one family and a number of fishing servants, the civilian population totaling thirty-one inhabitant.

The harbour entrance is deep with a shallow bottom near its head and is protected by barren-topped hills which rise on both sides of the harbour.

A brook divides the flatter land at the head of the ice free harbour with settlement concentrated on the ample level land on its eastern side.

There is some confusion as to where the name "Hermitage" originated. Information given in the ENL credits Charles de la Morandiere, a Francophone writer who area of expertise was the French cod fishery from the 16th century on, as promoting the idea that early French fishermen actually referred to the area as Ermitage.

According langue française informatisé an "ermitage" d'un ermite, dans un lieu desert" or a residence for a hermit, in a deserted place However, others (e.g., Le Messurier, Hamilton) maintained that the carly French fisherman named it after a specific Hermitage in the Channel islands, off the port of St. Helier.

Le Messurier wrote in 1916: We now come to Hermitage and Hermitage Bay. When this place was named there were no people in Newfoundland excepting the aboriginal Indians.

There is only one way of accounting for the name, and that is that it was called so by a Jerseyman who saw in an island off Hermitage a resemblance to the Hermitage in Jersey off the port of St. Helier.

The Hermitage that he refered to is a tidal island, known as Hermitage Rock, where Saint Helier a 6th-century ascetic hermit took refuge and built a "hermitage".

It is now the site of the 16th-century Elizabeth Castle, named after Queen Elizabeth I, who was in power at that time.

Local tradition has suggested that perhaps the name came from the English surname "Hermits" but support for that idea is weak as there are many references to L'Hermitage in various French documents.

It was not until 1760s that there are records of English settlement in Hermitage Cove and Pass Island. According to information contained in the ENL entry, by1836 there were 10 settlements in the bay: Pass Island (pop. 118), Groule (12), Swill Rocks (17), Blackhead Cove (87), Hermitage Cove (87), Furbey's Cove (66), Head of Hermitage Bay (136), Gaultois (44), Piccaire (26) and Round Harbour (26).

The number increased slowly so that by 1935 there were 1,227 residents living in eleven communities; and by 1981 there were only two incorporated communities, Gaultois and Hermitage-Sandyville with a total of 1,388 residents.

HERMITAGE BAY: The following description of Hermitage Bay comes from Wikipedia: Hermitage Bay is an expansive bay stretching out along the south coast of Newfoundland. It is a body of Gulf of St. Lawrence which is near the Connaigre Peninsula.

On its south, it is bordered by the Hermitage peninsula and the communities of Seal Cove (Fortune Bay), Hermitage and Sandyville. On its north of communities McCallum on side it is flanked by the land Newfoundland and by Gaultois on Long Island.

Long Island separates Hermitage Bay from Bay d'Espoir farther inland to the north.

For the history behind the name of the bay, look at the section on the town of Hermitage in the section on the Connaigre Peninsula.

CONNAIGRE PENINSULA

Looking at a map, the area known as the "Connaigre Peninsula" looks nothing like some of the "obvious" peninsulas that "stick" way out into the ocean.

However, it was far enough "out" that it was quite "cut off" from most of the rest of the mainland.

The Peninsula, somewhat triangular in shape, is actually made up of a number of bays, coves, inlets and even a blight (i.e., Deadman Blight), with the Bay d'Espoir to the west and Fortune Bay to the east.

As mentioned earlier, the area was originally known Cap Negre (or Cape Negro) as far back as the 1680s and was the site of the resettled town of Connaigre. As the "crow flies" it is 52.9 km (32.9 mi) from St. Alban's to Rencontre East.

Relatively isolated (except by boat) from the rest of Newfoundland, things changed in the mid 1970s with the construction of the roadway that connected the Connaigre Peninsula to the more populated northern section of the island.

Until that point a few of the outports were connected by primitive roads, often impassable due to rain, snow, sleet and/or hail.

Now Route 360, also known as the Bay d'Espoir Highway connects Bishop's Falls in the north to Bay d'Espoir (an inlet on the northern end of the Peninsula). It also continues on further southward to Harbour Breton, dead ending at the coast of Fortune Bay.

There are several intersecting roads that fan out across the Peninsula: Route 361 (St. Alban's Road) which connects the Head of Bay d'Espoir to St. Alban's; Route 362 and 363 (Bellcoram Road) that connects the communities of Belleoram, St. Jacques, English Harbour West, Mose Ambrose, Boxey Harbour, St. John's Bay and Coomb's Cove to as far north as Pool's Cove; Route 364 (Hermitage River Road) that goes to Hermitage, Sandyville, Dawsons Cove and Seal Cove; and finally Route 365 (Conne River Road) which connects 361 to the community of Conne River.

When you look at a map one can easily imagine how isolated these communities were. From Harbour Breton to Bishop's Falls is a distance of 204 km (127 mi) and each of the branches extend for anywhere between 17.5 km (10.9 mi) and 37.4 km (23.2 mi).

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/HermitageSandyville



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