Gourt Home::Gourt :: Chester, Nova Scotia
Chester, Nova Scotia, at roughly 44.54° North 64.24° West, is a village and municipal district in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia situated on Chester Peninsula in Mahone Bay.
Chester is one of the wealthiest communities in the province as a result of being a vacation destination, with many seasonal and year-round estates and mansions. The nearby waters of Mahone Bay and its numerous islands are well known for yachting and have made Chester into a cruising destination. The town has two natural harbours, Front Harbour on the east and Back Harbour on the west. A ferry from the town connects to Tancook Island. Just to the north is Stanford Lake. The village is home to the Chester Playhouse one of the best-known community theaters on Nova Scotia's South Shore. Chester is well known for its annual summer sailing regatta, Chester Race Week, where keelboats from all over the eastern coast of North America compete during the second full week of August.
Chester is the administrative seat of the Municipality of the District of Chester which comprises the northeastern half, more or less, of Lunenburg County. The village has 1,591 residents (according to the 2001 census) and was officially founded in 1759 as the Shoreham grant, although French fishermen had already built a few houses on the site. The permanent European settlers were a group from Massachusetts in 1761.
Chester was the site of a controversial plebiscite regarding the status of the village. A committee had been formed in hopes of changing the status of Chester to 'town.' Many local residents fought the motion, citing higher taxes, costs for a town hall, a mayor, town water and sewage and so forth as reasons to stay within the village descriptor. Villagers also noticed that several of the members of the town committee were some of the wealthiest people in the area. The motion was defeated in a public plebiscite.
Scenes for several films have been shot in Chester:
- Echoes of a Summer (1976)
- The Secret (1992)
- Dolores Claiborne (1995, exterior of Vera Donovan's)
- Two if by Sea (1996)
- Love and Death on Long Island (1997)
- Catch a Falling Star (2000)
- A Town Without Christmas (2001)
- Beach Girls (2005)
Communities in the MD of Chester
- Aldersville
- Aspotogan
- Bayswater
- Beech Hill
- Blandford
- Canaan
- Chester
- Chester Basin
- Chester Grant
- Deep Cove
- East Chester
- East River
- Forties Settlement
- Fox Point
- Franey Corner
- Fraxville
- Gold River
- Lake Ramsay
- Leville
- Marriotts Cove
- Martins Point
- Mill Cove
- Mill Road
- New Ross
- New Russell
- Northeast Cove
- Seffernville
- Sherwood
- Western Shore
External links
- Chester Municipal Chamber of Commerce
- Destination Nova Scotia
- Rope Loft Restaurant - Seaside Dining
- Chester Yacht Club, Home of Chester Race Week
- Chester Golf Club
- Chester Playhouse
- Chester and Area Family Resource Centre
- Church Memorial Park
- Chester District School
- Chester Area Middle School
- Captain's House Historic Inn
- Mecklenburgh Inn
- The Sword and Anchor B&B
- Chesterbound - Lots of Local Links
- Live Chester Webcam - from Tradewinds Realty
- Satellite Image of Chester (Google Maps)
- Chester war memorial
- Chester bronze cannons
Other Chester's
"Chester, Nova Scotia"