Excerpt from Driving Tours of Chester Municipality, Nova Scotia
Forest, Farms, Lakes & Rivers
The rural backcountry is a Nova Scotia experience not to be missed. Routes 14 and 12 with the connecting paved loop from New Ross to Smith’s Corner provide a drive through the centre of the Chester Municipality’s forest, farm and cottage country. Here it is possible to glimpses of wildlife, deer, foxes and bears as well as eagles, osprey and a variety of songbirds.
When leaving the old Chester Train Station turn right, set your odometer to zero and travel along the Light house Route on Highway 3 to Chester Basin. Immediately after passing through the centre of Chester Basin turn right at the junction of Highway 3 and Route 12.
From Chester Basin the road climbs northward toward New Ross where ocean falls behind and the forest appears. IN places the mixed forest of maple, birch and spruce gives way to stands of neatly sheared fir trees. These “Christmas trees in training” are the main forest products of this region. Each year thousands of trees, wreaths and fir garlands are shipped abroad. This county is the balsam fir Christmas tree capital of the world. Here, happy holiday wishes really do grow on trees.
At 21 kilometres after beginning the tour, watch for a big white house on the left (#3011) in Seffernsville. Now a private home, it was one a stopover when travel from Chester Basin to New Ross took two days by ox and wagon.
From the hilltops and looking towards the horizon, all hills are about the same height. Glaciers, ten thousand years ago swept over this region, leaving level horizons and rolling hills called drumlins. The drumlins make ideal fields and farms. Soon New Ross comes into view nestled in a broad valley along the winding Gold River. This river empties into the Atlantic between Chester Basin and Western Shore. Here, in New Ross, it served as waterpower for various mills and as a way to transport timber to the coast for building ships. Today, it is still a fine river for salmon fishing.
At 28 kilometres after crossing Rosebank Bridge, you can experience true rural history at the Ross Farm Museum of Living Agriculture, a visit that will take a traveler back in time to the mid 1800’s.
Costumed heritage interpreters bring life to this 19th century settlement. The 60- acres museum includes an 1830’s vintage store, the Ross farmhouse (circa 1817), barns and a workshop, as well as a village school, a blacksmith shop, and cooperage. Ride a horse drawn wagon and see demonstrations of spinning, flax processing and woodworking. Enjoy the walking trails. If there is a family connection in this area; genealogy records are available. The farm is home to rare breeds of animals such as Canadian Horse, Southdown sheep and silver grey Dorking Poultry.
The village proper is called Charing Cross in memory of the English origins of the first settlers. Locally it is called “the Cross”.
At the Cross-, on the right stands the Roman Catholic Church built in 1877. This is the site of the original chapels. This “finely proportional wooden interpretation of gothic principals” is the longest continuing Roman Catholic place worship in Lunenburg County.
Across the intersection to the left is the Anglican Church and rectory. This church was built in 1876-1879 to replace the original, which was destroyed by fire. Christ Church rectory was built in 1864 and both buildings are registered provincially as historic sites.
Cemeteries in this area contain many old and interesting headstones marking the last resting place of those who established this community.
At the Cross there is a choice, to the left a 20-kilometre loop to the community known as the Forties or right to the Windsor Rd., and a return to Chester.
Turning left, toward the Forties, a quarter of a kilometre down the road stands the Baptist Church built in 1905 and the War memorial on the right. Originally erected at the Cross, it commemorates the soldiers from the New Ross area who fell in World War I. Eighty men volunteered for service from the area and this cenotaph is believed to be the first erected to the honour the fallen World War I veterans in Nova Scotia. Climbing Porcupine Hill, many farms dot the landscape. The Forties settlement is little changed from a century ago. The Forties community Centre offers a variety of events and suppers year round. Visit the Hildaniel Brown House Museum and view artefacts from the early days of settlement.
After returning to the Cross and turning left, the Lincoln-Meister House (#4865), dating back to 1866, appears on your left. A little further on, also on the left is an archaeological run of stonewalls, the subject of fascinating interpretations in several books. They may be Viking or they may be a refuge built for an English King around 1600 or they may have connections with Henry Sinclair, the Templar Knight, and the Holy Grail.
Further down Route 12 are the New Ross Volunteer Firefighter’s Dept. on the left and the New Ross Farmers Association Fairgrounds, which hosts the Annual Community Fair in August.
Returning to the Cross-again, turn left and head over toward Route 14, the Windsor road. Keep left at the “Y”. Settlers clearing their fields piled boulders along the property boundary lines. There are many such examples as you travel along this section.
Keep to the right at the next “Y”. Enjoy the pristine lakes and rivers, small community churches, old homesteads and the natural beauty of this country road. This is cottage country where cottages out number the residents and many come to fish and hunt. From the soft pastels of spring through the natural bounty of summer, the blaze of autumn foliage and the beauty of winter, it is a road for all seasons. Watch for wildlife, dainty wildflowers amid the fields and forest.
