Florenceville-Bristol, New Brunswick

The Town of Florenceville-Bristol is located on the banks of the St. John River, in Carleton County in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.

The Town of Florenceville-Bristol came into effect May 12, 2008 when New Brunswick municipalities held mayor and council elections. The new town has approxiamately 1,500 residents and consists of the two former villages of Florenceville and Bristol. [http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/246294]

History

Florenceville was originally known as Buttermilk Creek. In 1855 it was renamed Florenceville to honour Florence Nightingale, the famous Crimean War nurse. Florenceville was on the west side of the St. John River and there the first post office and commercial section of the village was situated. In later years East Florenceville became the commercial centre with three grocery stores and several other small businesses.

Both villages had schools offering grades 1 through 12 until 1956 when the Florenceville Regional High School was opened accommodating grades 7 through 12. The original schools became the elementary schools. Eventually these were replaced by on elementary school on the east side of the river. The Regional High School became a middle school when Carleton North High School was built in Bristol, NB. It was later decided that starting in the year 2000 the middle school students would not begin high school until grade 9.

The village has a population of 860 people and is the world headquarters for McCain Foods Limited, the largest producer of french fries in the world.

It also boasts a free public art gallery. "The Andrew and Laura McCain Gallery" is a non-profit, community supported gallery that shows about nine exhibitions a year of everything from exhibitions on loan from the National Gallery of Canada to the work of local school children.

To celebrate its rich heritage, Florenceville has an annual Buttermilk Creek Fall Festival, which takes place on September 14th and 15th in 2007.

Florenceville has a potato museum.

The former village of Bristol is located on the Saint John River, in Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada, approximately 5 kilometres north of Florenceville. As of 2001 the population was 719.

Present-day Bristol was the site of a battle between Micmac and Maliseet peoples. The area was originally named Skikatehawk, from the Maliseet for "where he killed him". The name was changed when the New Brunswick Railway was constructed and railway officials were unable to pronounce the name correctly.

Bristol is the home of Carleton North High School.

Bristol has a small downtown made up of mostly locally owned businesses. There is a hardware store,a jewelry and fine gift store,liquor store,several automotive supply stores,a convenience store,a post office,and several others as well!

Bristol is also home to several churches of different denominations, a lumber mill, several summer camps and a series of beautiful wooded walking trails.

ee also

*Carleton County, New Brunswick
*Amalgamations of New Brunswick

External links

* [http://www.florencevillenb.ca/ Village of Florenceville]
* [http://bridges.nblighthouses.com/ New Brunswick Covered Bridges]
* [http://www.florenceville.com/ Information on Florenceville and Carleton County]
* [http://www.mccain.com/ McCain Foods Ltd.]
* [http://cnhs.nbed.nb.ca/ Carleton North High School]
* [http://www.fallsbrookcentre.ca/ Falls Brook Centre]

----