| Petit-Rocher | |||||||
| Official Name: |
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| Motto: | Ascencio Populi | ||||||
| Settlement Type: | Dissolved Village | ||||||
| Pushpin Map: | New Brunswick | ||||||
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within New Brunswick. | ||||||
| Pushpin Label: | Petit-Rocher | ||||||
| Pushpin Label Position: | left | ||||||
| Subdivision Type: | Country | ||||||
| Subdivision Name: | Canada | ||||||
| Subdivision Type1: | Province | ||||||
| Subdivision Name1: | New Brunswick | ||||||
| Subdivision Type2: | County | ||||||
| Subdivision Name2: | Gloucester | ||||||
| Subdivision Type3: | Parish | ||||||
| Subdivision Name3: | Beresford | ||||||
| Subdivision Type4: | Town | ||||||
| Subdivision Name4: | Belle-Baie | ||||||
| Established Title: | Founded | ||||||
| Established Date: | 1797 | ||||||
| Established Title2: | Village | ||||||
| Established Date2: | 1966 | ||||||
| Area Total Km2: | 4.52 | ||||||
| Population As Of: | 2021 | ||||||
| Population Footnotes: | [1] | ||||||
| Population Total: | 1,954 | ||||||
| Population Density Km2: | 432.2 | ||||||
| Population Blank1 Title: | Change (2016–21) | ||||||
| Population Blank1: | 0.1% | ||||||
| Population Blank2 Title: | Dwellings | ||||||
| Population Blank2: | 963 | ||||||
| Utc Offset: | -4 | ||||||
| Timezone Dst: | ADT | ||||||
| Utc Offset Dst: | -3 | ||||||
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code | ||||||
| Postal Code: | E8J | ||||||
| Area Code: | 506 | ||||||
| Blank Name: | Highways | ||||||
| Blank Info: | |||||||
| Module: |
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Petit-Rocher is a former village in Gloucester County, New Brunswick. It held village status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Belle-Baie. Sitting on the western shore of both Chaleur Bay and Nepisiguit Bay 20 km northwest of Bathurst.
The former local service districts of Petit-Rocher-Nord (Devereaux) and Petit-Rocher-Sud bordered the village on the north and south, respectively.
See also: History of New Brunswick and List of historic places in Gloucester County, New Brunswick. The village was founded in 1797 by Acadian settlers. The name literally means "little rock", and is pronounced by most anglophones in the region as Petty Roche. The name of the village is reputed to derive from the fact that the village's founders disembarked on a small rock. The village was named Little Roche from 1850 to 1854, then Madisco until 1870, and then Petit Rocher. The hyphenated form Petit-Rocher was adopted in 2009. Some old maps have the name Petite Roche (1812) and Sainte Roque or Little Russia (1827).[4]
On January 1, 2023, Petit-Rocher amalgamated with Beresford, Nigadoo, Pointe-Verte and all or part of ten local service districts to form the new town of Belle-Baie.[5] [6] The community's name remains only for address purposes.[7]
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Petit-Rocher had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of 4.52km2, it had a population density of in 2021.[1]
| Canada Census Mother Tongue - Petit-Rocher, New Brunswick | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Census | Total | ||||||||||||||||||
| Year | Responses | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | Count | Trend | Pop % | ||||||
| 1,690 | 0.05% | 89.65% | 145 | 26.08% | 7.69% | 35 | 75.0% | 1.85% | 20 | 0.0% | 1.06% | ||||||||
| 1,700 | 2.85% | 90.18% | 115 | 15.00% | 6.10% | 20 | 1.06% | 1.33% | 20 | 0.0% | 1.06% | ||||||||
| 1,750 | 4.4% | 93.33% | 100 | 42.9% | 5.33% | 25 | 25.0% | 1.33% | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| 1,830 | 1.9% | 95.31% | 70 | 44.0% | 3.65% | 20 | 0.0% | 1.04% | 0 | 0.0% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| 1,795 | 8.2% | 92.53% | 125 | 38.9% | 6.44% | 20 | 100.0% | 1.03% | 0 | 100.0% | 0.00% | ||||||||
| 1,955 | n/a | 94.67% | 90 | n/a | 4.36% | 10 | n/a | 0.48% | 10 | n/a | 0.48% | ||||||||
In 2012 and 2013, Petit-Rocher was host to the CCBHA's annual ball hockey tournament with a team from nearby Dundee taking home the Allen, Paquet & Arseneau cup as champions for both tournaments.[8]
See main article: List of people from Gloucester County, New Brunswick.