Clarenville

Clarenville is a town in eastern Newfoundland, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Clarenville is a thriving community located on the East Coast of Newfoundland & Labrador. It is nestled in the beautiful Shoal Harbour River Valley, between rolling hills and an arm of the Atlantic Ocean, called Random Sound. Since its incorporation in 1951, Clarenville has grown into a prominent community with a population of over 5,000 people.

A key component of Clarenville’s economy is driven by the service industry as it provides for the needs of some 96,000 people living in 90 communities within a 100 km radius. Strategically located between three major peninsulas, Clarenville is within a two hour reach of 70% of the province’s population.

The town is a natural gateway to the scenic Discovery Trail. The trail is a panorama of scenery, historic sites, coastal towns and villages, and natural wonders.

Source: Town of Clarenville

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Geography

The Town of Clarenville is located near the center of three peninsulas: Avalon, Burin, and Bonavista . The Trans Canada Highway and provincial route 230 pass through the town linking Clarenville to the Bonavista Bay area and to the rest of the provincial road network. Because of it's geographical location and variety of services provided to the area, Clarenville has long been known as " The Hub of The East Coast ".

The Clarenville area has many of the physical features characteristic of the East Coast of Newfoundland and experiences a marine climate. It lies along the coastal slopes which rise from the Atlantic Ocean towards the interior central plateau of the island. The dominating physical feature is a ridge of broken peaks which rise to heights up to 152 meters above sea level parallel to the coast line. Bear mountain, with an elevation of 156 meters above sea level dominates the skyline in the northern part of the town. This ridge falls sharply towards the sea so that its coastal edge is characterized by moderate to severe slopes.

Towards the southern part of Clarenville, the ridge is broken by a series of valleys which have cut their way through from the coast. The most notable of these is the valley formed by the Lower Shoal Harbour River and Dark Hole Brook and their seaward extension of Lower Shoal Harbour, a shallow and narrow indentation of the sea marked by small rock islands and tidal mud flats. The flats surrounding the river are marshy and subjected to flooding during spring runoff. The river serves as the main drainage course for the area behind the coastal ridge.

Clarenville has developed in a narrow strip between the coastal ridge and the sea. The average width of the corridor is between 450 to 600 meters. Located at the most westerly end of an in-drift called Random Sound, extending approximately 25 km inland behind Random Island. As probably the deepest ,best sheltered, ice-free port on Newfoundland's east coast, Clarenville is ideal for commercial shipping and recreational boating activities.

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History

There is no definite date for the first settlement of what is now Clarenville. It is known that William Cowan owned a sawmill at Lower Shoal Harbour around 1848 and this was bought by Joseph Tilley and James Summers of Hants Harbour. They settled here. Settlers also arrived at Dark Hole ( or Dark Harbour). The families that made up this community were the Balsoms, Pearces, Vardys, and Seawards. Settlers also arrived at Brook Cove ( the Burseys ) , Broad Cove ( the Strongs, Adeys) , and Red Beach ( the Stanleys ). These five communities became part of a new community known as Clarenceville in 1892 when the railway came through. There are two versions of the origin of Clarenville's name. It has been attributed to a memorial to the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the then Prince of Wales ( later King Edward VII ) who died in 1892. The other version is that it was named for a son of Prime Minister Sir William Whiteway. However, Sir William had no son by that name. By 1901 Clarenville was the way everyone spelled the name and it has remained that way.

John Tilley and his family were the first settlers of Lower Shoal Harbour. They traveled from Hants Harbour in 1848 because of the abundance of timber here. "Scholar John " many people referred to him as, because he taught himself how to read and write. As a young man he married Elizabeth Bursey of Old Perlican and they had four sons and six daughters. Being one of the earliest Justices of the Peace licensed to perform marriages in Newfoundland; John Tilley performed the marriage of his own daughter. If we were to look in church records today, we would find that Scholar John's name would appear several times in the late 1830's and 1840's when there was apparently no minister or missionary available. When the Tilley's first arrived the first thing they had to do was to build a log cottage which would be a temporary structure. They later built a saw mill so they could build a standard size home. Along with the the saw mill, the Tilleys became involved with fox farming, gardening, coopering, blacksmithing, fishing and fish canning. John Tilley and Sons were the tinning operation to tin salmon in Newfoundland (the first salmon was tinned by Tilley and Sons). Shortly after Scholar John tinned his first salmon he learned of a fishery exhibition. He sent a sample to the exhibition and received a prize in the form of a bronze medal with the inscription: " Warranted to keep free from taint and to retain its purity and nutritious quality, in any climate for many years." Later, Scholar John, Aaron and Moses Tilley ( sons ) with help from John's son-in-law David Palmer, built the first church in Shoal Harbour.

Population Componets

Clarenville is located in Division No. 7 on Trinity Bay.

According to the 2001 Statistics Canada Census:

• Population: +5,104
• % Change (1996-2001): -4.3
• Dwellings: 2,104
• Area (sq. km.): 140.73
• Density (persons per sq. km.): 36.3

	North: Division No. 7, Subd. K
West: Division No. 7, Subd. E, Division No. 7, Subd. K	Clarenville	East: Trinity Bay
	South: Division No. 1, Subd. M

See also

• List of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador