Bauline Explained

Bauline should not be confused with Bauline East, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Official Name:Bauline
Settlement Type:Town
Pushpin Map:Newfoundland
Pushpin Label Position:left
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of Bauline in Newfoundland
Leader Title:Mayor
Leader Name:Craig LeGrow
Area Land Km2:15.94
Population As Of:2021
Population Total:412
Population Density Km2:28.3
Utc Offset:-3:30
Utc Offset Dst:-2:30

Bauline is a small town in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the Avalon Peninsula north of St. John's. As of the 2021 census, it had a population of 412,[1] making it the smallest incorporated community in the St. John's metropolitan area.

History

As described in a 1956 article in Newfoundland Quarterly,  “Near the S.E. point of Conception Bay lies the little fishing village of Bauline, there can be no doubt that the original name was Baleine, after a place in the I. of Sark which it very much resembles."[2] It has also been suggested the name references a connection to the whaling industry.[3] There are reports of vessels from Plymouth and Dartmouth fishing there as early as 1676.[4] Bauline first appears in the Census in 1864 (as Baline) with a population of 42; by 1891 the settlement had grown to 144 people in thirty houses.[5] Since its early days, the community has been almost exclusively Methodist. The congregation was established as a part of the Gower Street Methodist Church circuit, based out of St. John's:

Although the area was visited in 1821 by a Methodist preacher, it was 1834 before the first Methodist Chapel was erected at the community. The actual settlement did not appear on a government census until 1857 when it was reported that the community of Balline had a population of 35. The totally Methodist Wesleyan community had built 9 houses and fishing rooms and some 17 residents were engaged in the fishery.[6]
A Methodist, now United Church of Canada, church was constructed between 1920 and 1921 and is adjacent to two historic Methodist/United Church cemeteries.[7]

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Bauline had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 16.05km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[8]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Census Profile, 2016 Census: Bauline, Town [Census subdivision], Newfoundland and Labrador]. 8 February 2017 . Statistics Canada . October 21, 2019.
  2. LeMessurier. H. W.. March 1956. Newfoundland Name Lore: The Early Relations between Newfoundland and the Channel Islands.. The Newfoundland Quarterly. 55. 1 . 7.
  3. 1934. The Late Archbishop Howley's "Newfoundland Name-Lore.". Newfoundland Quarterly. 33. 29.
  4. Book: Matthews, Keith. A history of the west of England-Newfoundland fishery. Oxford University. 1968. Oxford. 213b.
  5. Book: Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador. Newfoundland Book Publishers (1967) Ltd.. 1981. St. John's. 147. Bauline.
  6. February 1982. Bauline.. Decks Awash. 11. 1 . 11–12.
  7. Jarvis. Dale Gilbert. December 2018. Notes on Methodist Churches, Bauline, Conception Bay.. Heritage NL Fieldnotes Series. 002.
  8. Web site: Population and dwelling counts: Canada, provinces and territories, census divisions and census subdivisions (municipalities), Newfoundland and Labrador . . February 9, 2022 . March 15, 2022.