Day 58 - Sherbrooke Historic Village, Nova Scotia

The chickens and rooster get penned up at night and the door to their pen is not opened until about 7 in the morning. But as soon as the rooster is out he starts to crow, and the first time we heard him we had a laugh again as he was quite a bit hoarse and sounded like he needed some oiling or something. But it was most enjoyable to hear him and see all the chickens just walking around our campsite.

Unfortunately we again woke up to rain and fog this morning and during the night it had rained quite a bit as well. We had decided yesterday that we would stay another night here and take our time visiting the restored Historic Village of Sherbrooke (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/sv/tour.php), located on the St. Mary’s river. We waited till the afternoon as the weather was supposed to clear up and so it did: the rain stopped, although the sun never really came out.

We took our time walking through the village and visiting the various houses and shops. We got live demonstrations at the blacksmith, and the pottery and woodworking shops. I even got to try some of the tools from way back when. Also there were demonstrations in spinning, weaving, rug-hooking and knitting.

This village was established as early as 1655 and was first known as Fort Saint Marie. By 1815 the settlement became known as Sherbrooke in honour of Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, a former Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. Initially it was a lumbering community, then prospered for 20 years in the late 1800’s with a gold strike nearby, and finally did well as a ship-building community. However, the wooden ships it produced were no longer in demand in the early 20th century as steel ships became the norm and the town’s economy slipped into decline. As citizens moved to other centres, a number of the buildings were abandoned with their contents left largely intact.

A visitor from Halifax in 1969 saw all this and recognized its potential as a restored heritage village. He stimulated local interest in commencing the restoration shortly afterwards to a typical Nova Scotian village from the 19th century. They now have 36 exhibit buildings and all but 2 are on the original foundations on which they were built. A few houses are still privately occupied by original residents but as these people either leave or die their buildings will become part of the museum as well. The overall effect of the village is like that of Heritage Park in Calgary, but it is more authentic and less commercial than that park, and more interesting to visit due to the live skill demonstrations here.

It was a most enjoyable afternoon for us and we would highly recommend this spot as a tourist destination for anyone visiting Nova Scotia. We hope you enjoy the pictures Leo took, which can be found here.