The Community’s Beginnings
Arnold’s Cove is situated on the eastern side of Placentia Bay. According to local oral history, the community was named after Captain Arnold, who is believed to have settled here during the early 1800s. Although the exact date of European settlement is unknown, activity in the surrounding area began much earlier.
French migratory fishermen were active throughout Placentia Bay during the late 1600s. They also used the area around Come By Chance and Bordeaux, where previously cleared land later provided opportunities for farming.
Thomas Adams arrived from Dorset, England, in 1817. After establishing a farm at Come By Chance, he expanded his operation to Bordeaux, where he developed a successful farming and fishing enterprise that required a considerable workforce.
Because much of the employment at Bordeaux was seasonal, workers established homes outside the property. Some settled in nearby Arnold’s Cove, including Ambrose Guy, who made his home near Guy’s Head. The opportunities created by Bordeaux helped attract the first permanent families and contributed to the beginnings of the community.
The First Families
The first complete census involving Arnold’s Cove was taken in 1835. At that time, Arnold’s Cove was recorded together with Bordeaux and Come By Chance, with a combined population of 42. By 1845, Arnold’s Cove was listed separately and had 23 residents living in five dwellings.
Those dwellings belonged to John Boutcher, Ambrose Guy, Philip Hollett, William Hollett and Richard Hollett. Together, the Guy, Boutcher and Hollett families formed the foundation of the early settlement.
Ambrose Guy settled near Guy’s Head in 1836. John Boutcher arrived around the same period and claimed land extending across the peninsula, from the area around the old church cemetery toward the site of present-day Foodland. The Hollett family established their homes along the eastern boundary of the Boutcher property.
These families built their homes and fishing premises along the waterfront. They depended on the fishery as well as seasonal employment at Bordeaux and the La Manche mine. Stages and flakes were constructed for landing, salting, curing and drying fish, while small inland “tilts” provided shelter during the winter months.
For several decades, these homes and fishing premises formed the heart of Arnold’s Cove and provided the foundation upon which the community continued to grow.
Building Arnold’s Cove
During the second half of the nineteenth century, new families began arriving from communities throughout Placentia Bay. Mark Chick and his family came from Oderin, while marriages connected the Peach and Warren families to the growing Guy family. A path established between the Guy property and the waterfront later became known as Peach Avenue.
Fishing remained central to life in Arnold’s Cove. Families built stages and flakes along the shoreline, travelled to nearby fishing grounds and depended on the combined efforts of everyone in the household. While the men caught the fish, much of the salting, curing and drying was completed by the women.
For its first half-century, Arnold’s Cove had no school, church or official cemetery. During the 1880s, Jonathan Boutcher provided land for the community’s first public buildings. A schoolhouse was constructed near the site of the present-day War Memorial, with a church and cemetery established nearby. His contribution to the community’s early development earned him recognition as the Father of Arnold’s Cove.
By the 1890s, the Hynes and Brinston families had also made Arnold’s Cove their home. Local accounts tell of houses being floated—or hauled across the ice—from La Manche after the mine closed. These larger wooden homes stood in sharp contrast to the small log dwellings with dirt floors that had characterized the earlier settlement.
By 1898, Arnold’s Cove had a population of 160, with seven established family names: Guy, Boutcher, Peach, Chick, Hollett, Hynes and Brinston.