Looking out from our cottage in Trinity, across the harbour, was a lighthouse. It occupies the spot that was formerly Fort Point. The Fort was built in 1746, taken by the French in 1762 and destroyed, recovered and rebuilt in 1780 and again in 1812 and then left to decay [1]. Now there are few signs of the fort. The first lighthouse was built in 1871; the current lighthouse which is the third iteration, was built in 2007.
At the Interpretation Centre in the Fort is a very detailed map of Trinity made by the French in 1762. It shows each house, dock, and garden. It appears that Trinity in 1762 was more densely occupied than its is today; many of the lots and docks present then are now vacant.
Walking through the village one notices that, like many Newfoundland villages, the lots are irregularly shaped and the houses are often randomly arranged, unlike the village we live in where lots are of regular size and dimension and the houses on any one block face the same direction, north-south or east-west. I expect what may appear as random (and less efficient use of space) is in fact the best utilization of the ground on which they sit: a rugged coastline.
Our next, and last stop in Newfoundland, is St. John’s.
Leave a Reply