Wellington Dyke
The Wellington Dyke is an agricultural dyke in Kings County, Nova Scotia protecting over 3,000 acres (12 km2) of farmland along the Canard River between the communities of Starr's Point and Canard in Nova Scotia, Canada. Built by local farmers, it was begun in 1817 and completed in 1825. Today the dyke is owned by the Department of Agriculture of Nova Scotia in partnership with the farmers of the Wellington Marsh Body.
The rich farmland along the river were originally dyked by the Acadians, who knew it as the Rivière-aux-Canards, to claim highly productive farmland from the Bay of Fundy tidal meadows of the Minas Basin. Beginning in the late 1600s, Acadians built progressively larger dykes across the Rivière-aux-Canards beginning first with its upper reaches at Upper Dyke, then the Middle Dyke and finally with the Grand Dyke near Port Williams. A sluice with a one-way valve, known to the Acadians as the "aboiteau", allowed the river to drain but shut out the incoming tide. After the Acadians were expelled in 1755, the New England Planters settled in the area, beginning in 1760. The Planters repaired the Acadian dykelands and gradually began to expand the dyked areas. The Planters carried out this work by forming "marsh bodies" which are elected associations of farmers owning dykeland fields who share the costs of building and maintaining dykes.
Farmers in Starrs Point and Canard began to discuss building a large dyke at the mouth of the Canard River in 1809. They may have been inspired by the three mile long Wickwire Dyke completed near Wolfville in 1808. The Planters at Canard had gradually added to the Acadian dykes along the edges of the river but a dyke at near the mouth of the river would reclaim an additional 700 acres of farmland from the Minas Basin and save the maintenance of the many smaller dykes along the river which protected over 2,000 acres. A plan was organized in 1811. Materials were gathered and construction began in 1817. The dyke was named after the Duke of Wellington following his defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The new structure was a dramatic change from the Acadian dyke systems which were only a few feet high in most places. The Wellington Dyke would be 50 feet high, 120 feet at the base and over 300 feet long with additional embankments stretching over a mile just in from the mouth of the river. The aboiteau or sluice which allowed the river to drain was 100 feet and 14 feet wide. The work was financed and organized solely by the 70 farmers of the Wellington Marsh Body. It was built in stages seasonally, between high tides using only human and animal labour. At its peak over 100 teams of horses and oxen and 300 men worked on the dyke. Rum rations were issued as an incentive with extra shares for those who had to work in the water. In some places the swift tidal currents swept away nine out of every ten cart loads of fill.
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