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Where?

About Waldegrave Farm

Waldegrave Farm began when a group of friends involved in environmental and social justice activism (notably the Climate Change Caravan) saw the need for preserving and cultivating a community to support our efforts over the long term. We saw "burnout" and the fleeting nature of many projects. A big part of that was, we noticed, a lack of place--to meet, to cultivate, and to dwell--so our thoughts turned to acquiring land. A few years of discussion, planning and research later, we bought 85 acres of field, forest, farmhouse, and a handful of barns a few kilometers outside of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia.

Our plan is to create a Community Land Trust to hold the land in trusteeship and to ensure that the land is used sustainably for generations to come. Community land trusts provide low cost access to land while giving both the surrounding community and the residents a stake in its long-term governance.

We also hope that Waldegrave Farm will be a long-term staging ground for many innovative projects, starting with the free school and an organic farm. Other possibilities that have been discussed include a boatbuilding shop, an organic brewery, and a theatre.

How to get here from Halifax

Take highway 102 North to Truro.
Take exit 14A (it say tatamagouche on it).
Turn Right
When you come to a flashing light take a right (onto the 311 North). A few metres after you take the turn you should see a sign with Earltown and Tatamagouche on it.
When you get to Tatamagouche turn right onto highway 6.
We're 4 km down the road on your left. You'll see a looong ill-proportioned farm house and enough barns to make you wonder...

About Tatamagouche

In the heart of the North Shore of Nova Scotia, the unassuming community of Tatamagouche is home to 2673 people. To a passer-by, the village centre draws one to stroll the main street, have tea and chowder in the sunshine, and browse the bookstore and craft shops. In many ways, Tatamagouche is a typical rural Nova Scotian community. The people are primarily of Protestant and Scottish ancestry, with strong German representation. The area attracted a significant number of back-to-the-landers in the 1960s, an influence that is still evident in the work of artists and community activists who live in and around Tatamagouche.

Tatamagouche comes from the Mi'kmaq word Takumegooch, which means "meeting of the waters". Where the French and Waugh rivers enter a natural harbour, the first Acadians settled and built a village. It was an agricultural centre, a depot for goods bound for Fortress Louisbourg in Cape Breton. In 1755 the British expelled the Acadians and destroyed their village. Ten years later, Protestants moved to the area, followed by Scottish immigrants, who continued its agricultural tradition. Obviously, history of life in Tatamagouche does not begin with Acadian settlers. The Mi'kmaq lived at this meeting of waters, and before that, 290 million years ago, plant and animal life thrived, proven by fossils found with abundance along the shore of the harbour.

Many communities along the North Shore turned to shipbuilding in the 1800s. To serve Tatamagouche's sizable shipbuilding industry, the Intercolonial Railway station was built in 1887 and served the community until 1972. The rail line has been transformed in Tatamagouche; the station's nine railway cars operate as rooms of a country inn. The railbed forms part of the Trans Canada Trail (which in Nova Scotia connects North Sydney to Amherst over 600km), passing along the harbour and through the village of Tatamagouche, past the Tatamagouche Creamery, the site of the Saturday morning Farmers' Market.

It is no wonder that Tatamagouche has been attracting people to settle on its land and work its soil. Even on a cold winter morning a sunrise over one of the small, harsh-looking islands in the harbour draws from the on-looker a breath of reverence for this corner of Nova Scotia. Cracking ice sheets over the rivers' dark, bracken waters reflect pink instead, promise of a sunny morning. Joggers share the trail with illegal four-wheelers, who always slow, and sometimes smile, as they pass.

Tatamagouche is located between Pictou and Amherst on the Sunrise Trail, ninety minutes from Halifax by car. It is blessed by the warmest waters north of the Carolinas, hosts the biggest and best Oktoberfest in Eastern Canada, boasts the largest bison herd in Atlantic Canada, and for the health-and- safety-conscious, offers a full range of community services: hospital, ambulance, pharmacy, fire department and RCMP. The local watering hole, Big Al's, has a disco upstairs and pool tables inside and a giant poster outside about giantess Anna Swan, who grew to nearly eight feet in the 1800s and was known for her elegance and intellect, and even met Queen Victoria. For families, under-ager and teatotalers, Tatamagouche's bowling alley can get equally wild on a Saturday night.

On the outskirts of town lies the Tatamagouche Centre, best described in its mission statement:

"Open to the Spirit, rooted in the gospel tradition, Tatamagouche Centre is an education and retreat centre which invites and challenges people from diverse backgrounds to personal wholeness, right relationships, respect for creation, and justice in the world."

For a list of Tatamagouche Centre's programs, visit their web site.

Around Tatamagouche:

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