By Patrick Newhook/January 13, 2022
From its long history to its cultural impact on Newfoundland, Ferryland is a unique spot.
The town of 414 people also has some unique and interesting street names.
Take Horse Nap Lane.
Hidden away in the back of the community, Horse Nap Lane connects to Merrymeeting Road, runs behind Reid’s Road and then cuts through where North Side Track and Reid’s Road meet before finally connecting to Route 10, right next to the town’s post office.
Primarily a residential street, only a few houses occupy the lane. Les Clowe, who has been living in Ferryland for 71 years, has spent 35 of them on Horse Nap Lane.
“Years ago, what the story is, what my grandfather told me, and he was here his whole life, up in this area where I’m to now on Horse Nap Lane, there were no houses or no nothing here,” said Clowe. “This lane was just a cow path and in the summer time, it’s where all the horses were let go (to graze).”
Clowe said the origin of the name is very literal. “Years ago, every bit of meadowland that was around would be used for hay and growing vegetables,” he explained. “In the spring of the year, there would be green grass in the lane because the meadows were all fenced in and they couldn’t get in the meadows, so they (the horses) would graze around in the lane and then they all came up in the day when it got warm to lie down and get the breeze that came out over the hill. That’s where the horses used to lie down. It’s what the name implies, Horse Nap Lane.”
Clowe estimates the name dates from the early 1800s. “As far as I know,” he said, pointing out Robert Carter was Magistrate in the area from 1832 - 1852, and mentions Horse Nap Lane in his journals.
Horse Nap Lane isn’t the only colourful name in Ferryland. The town contains other unique streets and areas such as BarkHouse Lane, The Y, Sunnyhill, and The Pool.
Clowe said Barkhouse Lane got its name from the way people used to build cod traps on it. Fishermen would “bark” the twine on their traps in big pots using resin and pine tar to coat the cotton lines so they wouldn’t rot as fast in the water.
Similarly, The Pool got its name from an area of land and water that looks like a pool. Clowe said that back in the day it used to be an important spot.
“It’s a safe place to put boats to get them out of the weather,” said Clowe. “Everything historical from Baltimore time right up to the moratorium of 92’ that’s where all of the community activity took place, in that pool.”
Names like these are unique to Ferryland and represent the town’s past.
“Most of the names in Ferryland have historical significance like Lookout Road, where you can go up on top of the hill and look all over the place,” Clowe said. “The same with the big hill up over the church, called The Gaze. You can go up there and gaze out over the ocean. Years ago, they used to see the boats coming (from there). And the Quarry Road, the reason that’s called the Quarry Road is that the man who put the slate on the stone church, that’s where he cut the slate.”
Clowe never wants to see the names changed. If you took something like that away, you’d be taking away from the town’s identity and heritage, he argued.
“No sir I wouldn’t to see it changed,” said Clowe. “It has an historical value to the community. I mean what would you change it to? You can’t be destroying your heritage because you’ll be destroying what your people made for you.”
