Lyons Brook, Nova Scotia
Lyons Brook Geography
- Official Name: Lyons Brook
- Gaelic Name: Allt An Leòmhainn
- Geographic Feature Type Category: Populated Place
- Geographic Feature Type: Community
- Postal Code: B0K 1 R0
- Latitude / Longitude: 45.668464, -62.787395
Lyons Brook Maps
- 1:50k Topographic NTS Map: 011E10
- 1:250k Topographic NTS Map: 011E
- 1879 Pictou County Atlas Map: Section 7
- Nova Scotia Land Grant Map: NS Land Grant map 086
- Nova Scotia 1:10k Topographic Maps:1045650062600 (Pictou)
- Other Maps:
About Lyons Brook
The community of Lyons Brook is located on the west side of the mouth of the West River of Pictou. It was named after Reverend James Lyon, a Philadelphia emigrant who arrived in 1767on the ship Betsey. The area has been considered by many to be the first entry point for English speaking settlers who emigrated to Nova Scotia northern shores.
There is kiosk located behind the Lyons Brook Community Hall (the Hall was built in 1884) containing the story of the Betsey, and the history of community.
In 1903, by act of the Provincial Legislature, this name was officially given to an area previously known as “Logans Tannery”, “Scotch Hill West River Road” and “Lyons Brook.”
The first saw mill was built by William Kennedy at the mouth of Saw Mill Brook in 1769. The Atlantic Neptune which began to appear in 1774 shows considerable settlement on the west side of West River.
The first settlers in the area arrived from Philadelphia in 1867 and settled on the Philadelphia Grant. This grant was a tract of land which was given to the Philadelphia Company in 1765, escheated in 1809 and almost completely regranted to the people settled thereon by 1815.
The “Hall” meeting house was built in 1884. James Davidson was one of the first teachers in the county in a schoolhouse located here prior to 1776. A school-house was built about 1861. West Pictou Rural District High School opened in 1961.
James Davidson, also established the first Sunday School in Pictou County here.
A post office was established under Dougal Logan in 1888. In the same year a station was built for the short rail line
A tannery was established by a Mr. DeWolf but it was taken over by John and Jean Fullerton in 1833. Wright Tannery was established in 1834. John Logan’s tannery was begun about 1848 and was the largest in the province when it burned down in 1875. It was rebuilt but in 1880 it went bankrupt. In 1893 Logan’s Tannery employed 60 persons and turned out leather by the ton each week.
The first bridge across the Saw Mill Brook was built in 1845
[image source : Lyon’s Brook Community Kiosk ]
The McKenzie stone quarry house was begun about 1818, bought by an American Company organized as the Acadia Company in 1852 and went out of operation in 1870. A tannery was operated by W. S. McDonald as late as 1906. It closed out about five years later.
Frank H. Sobey was born on a farm in the community of Lyons Brook, Sobey was founder of the well known Canadian Sobeys super markets and later on a chain of movie theatres and many other successful businesses.
Click here to read more history about Lyons Brook from the Charles O’Brian titled Essay on Lyons Brook, written in 1908.
Population in 1908 was around 300
Population in 1956 was 28
Current population is hard to determine due to the way Stats Canada publishes populations. The population for the community is included along with several other rural communities in the western half of the County.
There is also a small brook called Lyons Brook that starts flowing north of Hardwood Hill and south of Scotch Hill, and flows east through the community of Lyons Brook, and then empties into the West River.
Other official place names located within the community of Lyons Brook include:
- Lyons Brook
- Sawmill Brook
- Gavin Islet
- Scotch Hill
- Patterson Point
- West River of Pictou
Other websites related to the community of Lyons Brook include:
Roads located within the community of Lyons Brook include:
- Aerie Lane
- Barclay Ridge Crescent
- Blackie Road
- Brook Avenue
- Brook View Lane
- Fleurys Lane
- Hantay Lane
- NS Highway 376
- Lake Shore Drive
- Loch View Lane
- MacNaughton Road
- Pleasant Drive
- Robertson Lane
- Rosehill Lane
- Scotch Hill Road
- Settlers Point
- Shady Lane
- Stanwood Drive
- Stewart Road
- Tannery Lane
- Waterview Drive
Lyons Brook Maps
1864 Lyons brook area map
1879 Lyons brook area map
[Source: Nova Scotia Place Names – T. Brown / Places of Nova Scotia / Frank Sobey – The Man and the Empire / – C. Bruce Fergusson / 1908 Essay on Lyons Brook by Charlie O’Brien ]
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