Informing our community about where we've come from, and where we're going.
HISTORY OF BEDFORD
Eighteenth Century
Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.[1] By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Dummer's War.[2] The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1751), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).
The history of Bedford began when Governor Edward Cornwallis organised his men and began the construction of a road leading to Minas Basin on the Bay of Fundy after establishing the garrison at Halifax. To protect it, he hired John Gorham (military officer) and his Rangers to erect a fort on the shore of Bedford Basin. It was named Fort Sackville after Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset.[3] The area around the fort became known as Sackville until the mid-1850s when it became Bedford.
In 1752, among the first to receive a large land grant was George Scott in the Fort Sackville area. Joseph Scott, paymaster at the Halifax Garrison in the 1760s received two grants in 1759 and 1765. He built Scott Manor House in 1770.
Nineteenth Century
Anthony Holland established the Acadian Paper Mill on the Basin around 1819 to provide paper to produce the Halifax newspaper Acadian Recorder.
When the railway went through the station named Millview, the Moirs, Son and Co. moved a part of the Moirs Mill factory to Bedford. The Moirs Mill generating station built in the early 1930s to supply the necessary electricity required to run the factory.
The village adopted the name Bedford around 1850. The name is in honour of John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford and Secretary of State for the colonies in 1749. In 1896 the name became official by an Act of Legislation.
Twentieth Century
Bedford was incorporated as a town on July 1, 1980. On April 1, 1996, Bedford was amalgamated with Halifax, Dartmouth, and Halifax County Municipality to form the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) for the municipal level of government however the place name still exist for 911, mail, legal and other services.
Macleans Magazine rated Bedford as being the "Best Community to Live in Canada," in an issue dated March 23, 1997.