Southport, Newfoundland and Labrador
Southport is a community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, located on the southern side of the entrance to Trinity Bay's Southwest Arm, about 41 km southeast of Clarenville. Its latitude and longitude are 48°02'59"N, 53°37'59"W.
Southport had a very small population of 95 in 2001. The population has dropped a lot since the early 1990s because a lot of families have moved away to find work. Southport currently has no businesses, the only store, Avery's Grocery, closed in 2001 due to poor business.
This snug harbour (one of the most photographed in the province) attracted early settlement because of its location near fishing grounds around West Random Head and the entrance to Southwest Arm. It was an early haven for sailing ships entering and leaving Random Sound and became an important mercantile centre for the region in the post 1885 period. The 1753 Census of Trinity Bay indicated five households on Fox [Harbour] Island and another three in "Harts Eas". Note: The Fox Island identified in the 1753 Trinity Bay census is the Fox Island at Champney's West, Trinity Bay not Fox Harbour Island at Southport, Trinity Bay. (L.J. Dean, August) 2020). Southport was originally known as Fox Harbour up until 1916. It was changed as a result of a petition led by local merchant John Vey. The community was tired of having its mail go astray, there being, at least two other Fox Harbours in Newfoundland.
History
The harbour was used as an alternative anchorage by 17th century English ships fishing out of the historic migratory fishing station at nearby Heart's Ease Beach. Heart's Ease Beach was settled permanently circa 1750-1753 by the John and Grace Baker family of Trinity. Their grandson, Thomas Baker, who was born at Heart's Ease Beach in 1794 of John Baker (Jr) and James Dean who was born at Old Perlican in 1802 of James Dean were the first permanent settlers at Fox Harbour (renamed Southport in 1914) circa 1832. These two individuals and their families comprised the community's a total population of 11 as recorded in the 1836 Trinity Bay census. Descendents of Thomas Baker and his wife Eleanor resided at Southport until circa 1900 before moving to Random Island and Clarenville. In the 1835-1850 period other early permanent residents included John and James Lambert of Old Perlican/Trinity ancestry and Joseph Martin, Richard Burridge, and James Avery of Grates Cove as well as temporary residents Phillip King and Thomas Smith of Hant's Harbour. Some of these families may likely have begun winter woods work in the Southwest Arm area before the 1830s. By the mid 1850's these early families were joined by another Thomas Smith from Conception Bay via Chance Cove, Trinity Bay; William Wells from English Harbour, T.Bay; Philip White from New Perlican; Susannah (widow of Thomas) Pond and sons William,James, and Robert of Salmon Cove (Champneys), T.Bay; and temporary residents Thomas Pelley of Hants Harbour and James Brown of Spaniard's Bay, Conception Bay ancestry. Other surnames of Southport by 1900 included Alcock, Balsom, Button, Bursey, Ivany, Hiscock, Langer, Miller, and Seaward.
The 1845 Census shows a population of 38, increasing to 102 by 1857 (but this figure likely includes Gooseberry Cove). Southport and Gooseberry Cove, separated by a mile wide neck of land , shared schools and churches in their early settlement period. The first Church of England school/chapel was erected at Heart's Ease Beach in 1859 and was replaced by a new church and school at the "Crossroads" at Gooseberry Cove in 1880. The first Methodist Church in the Random region was built at Fox Harbour (Southport) in the 1855-1860 period. James Dean (1802-1865) was the first Methodist lay reader at Southport and elsewhere in the Random area while George Vardy (1818-1882) who settled at Clay Pitts in 1854 from Grates Cove and Burton Green in Hampshire, England was the first Church of England layreader and teacher to serve Southport and its nearby communities. In 1874 a Methodist school was first established at Southport in the Methodist Church and in succeeding years the communities shared each other's schools when teacher placements were problematic.
The early settlers were inshore fishing families, but the community also became involved in the Labrador fishery in the 1870s. Early residents traded most catches with merchants in Trinity and visiting trading schooners. By 1890 Henry Alcock of Harbour Grace had established a mercantile business at Southport and nearby Hickman's Harbour had become a local mercantile centre as well. Over the 1880-1895 period Captain Edmund Seaward of Gooseberry Cove operated at least one banking schooner and several Labrador schooners from Southport as did Richard (Dickie) Seward. Over the 1900-1925 period several small merchants (Arthur Adey, John Vey, and Mary Smith) operated retail and fishery related businesses at Southport. In the post 1925 period they were succeeded by Edmund Vardy of Hickman's Harbour and local merchants Kenneth Smith and Nelson Avery who both operated relatively large retail/fishery related businesses until the early 1960's. Kenneth Smith had several Labrador and coasting schooners built in the community, with the Lamberts being the best known shipwrights. Several families also continued the tradition of wintering in tilts at a variety of sites in Southwest Arm and Random Sound into the 1940,s. Pit saws were widely used in the community to saw lumber and ship's planking. The Pond family in conjunction with the Blundon family of Hickman's Harbour operated a watermill on the Sand Bank at Southport driven by a brook from Muddy (Lambert's) Pond and the family of George Lambert of Southport operated a watermill at Deer Cove on Random Island, the site of the family winter home. Kenneth Smith operated a stationery sawmill and cooperage mill on Fox Harbour Island (where the Pond family were resident until the late 19th century) and several other residents also made fish casks and engaged in the production of birch hoops.
By 1956, when Southport received its first road connection with the Province's highway system, the population of the community had peaked at approximately 225. By this time, however, the Labrador fishery had died and most fishing was carried out in local waters for cod, turbot, mackerel, herring, capelin and lobster. All cod landings were salted and dried on community flakes for marketing before the mid-1950's at which time fishermen increasingly began selling their catches fresh to local merchants and outside buyers. By this date Southport had become one of the principal centres in Newfoundland for the production of salted or pickled turbot and was a significant mackerel bar seine fishing centre with much of the pickled mackerel product being sold to West Indian markets. Its large output of pickled turbot was sold primarily in the lumber camps of Newfoundland, the Maritimes, Quebec and Maine. In the early 1960's a number of Southport fishermen were amongst the pioneers in the expansion of the groundfish longliner/gillnetter vessel fishery and constructed their own 45'vessels at Southport and also helped pioneer the development of the groundfish gillnet and purse seine pelagic fishery along the province's east/northeast coast for species such as cod, turbot, flounder, capelin, herrring and mackerel. By 1992, when the northern cod moratorium was implemented, larger vessels dominated the Southport fishing industry but smaller inshore vessels were still being deployed by some fishing crews. Several of these larger vessels were also venturing as far as the Grand Banks for cod, crab and tuna in the post 1985 period. In the post 1970 period Southport Fish Products and Clarenville Ocean Products operated a multi-species processing/buying facility in the community.
Early in the 20th century, with the establishment of the Grand Falls pulp and paper mill Southport fishermen, drew upon this tradition of woods work to find seasonal employment cutting pulpwood. As the Labrador fishery declined and the community's population increased the tradition of working away from the community for much of the year continued, with an emphasis on woods work and general construction labour. From the 1950's onwards, increasing numbers left the fishery altogether, finding wage labour at Labrador and Labrador construction sites such as Goose Bay, Labrador City, Churchill Falls and Come by Chance. Beginning in the early 1960s an increasing number of the community's younger residents moved to Ontario seeking employment. A number of families moved to the Clarenville area which had an increasing role after 1960 as a regional service centre as highways were upgraded. Improved roads also made it possible for students from Southport to be bused to a nearby integrated central school at Little Heart's Ease. After 1970 a number of Southport families erected homes on the road between Southport and Gooseberry Cove. As of 2020, there are less than 50 permanent residents in the community and Alberta became a destination of choice for many of its younger people in the post 1995 period. Over the past decade Southport has emerged as an increasingly attractive and picturesque tourist destination complete with remnants of its strong English West Country dialect and a proud fishing industry tradition. Heart's Ease Beach Trail, located near the settlement, is quickly becoming a favorite hiking spot.