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Francis William Caulfeild was born in England
in 1843. After visiting West Vancouver in 1898, he moved to West
Vancouver, where he resided until retirement. He returned to England
in 1926, and lived there until his death in 1934.
Francis William Caulfeild was born in
England in August 1843, in a family sufficiently well-to-do that
he never had to work in an ordinary job for a day in his life. He
was educated at Rugby School and Wadham College, Oxford, and thereafter
devoted his early life to bringing up his four children, poetry,
amateur painting, carving, and travelling. His interest in travelling
is how West Vancouver comes into his life story.
In 1898, Mr. Caulfeild was making a leisurely
tour of the farthest reaches of the then British Empire in the company
of his daughter. At Vancouver they embarked in Captain Cates’
old boat the S.S. Defiant for a trip along the West Vancouver shore.
In due course, Captain Cates put them ashore at a lovely small cove
tucked in behind the shelter of Point Atkinson, then called Skunk
Cove and used to moor pilot boats awaiting incoming shipping. Captain
Cates picked them up on his return trip. The day’s stay in
this unspoilt wilderness of rocky coast and forest made such an
impression on Mr. Caulfeild that he was determined to buy the property
and develop a village on the site. Indeed, the project was to occupy
most of the remainder of his days. The cove became Caulfeild Cove
and stamped his name permanently on the area.
Caulfeild had firm ideas about the nature
of the development. He wanted it in the style of an English village,
with a village green, and ivy-covered village church, and winding,
narrow lanes following the contours of the land – rather than
the standard North American grid system. He also wanted the foreshore
preserved as a park, with public access to the sea. This, together
with the much larger Lighthouse Park immediately to the west of
the Cove would ensure that everyone could enjoy the scenery.
Mr. Caulfeild moved quickly. The previous
owner was a Mr. Balfour Kerr, who bought the land from the original
owner who had acquired it from the Crown. In 1898, an enterprising
real estate lady, Miss Lee Spencer, negotiated the purchase of 640
acres by Mr. Caulfeild. In the following year, she arranged the
purchase of an adjoining 320 acres: to close this second deal, she
had to travel to London. She became a friend and business associate
of Mr. Caulfeild, assisting in the documentation and planning of
the development. Following his ideas, the highway dedications were
given English names – Piccadilly, the Dale, Clovelly Walk,
etc. (Mr. Caulfeild was in fact born in Clovelly in the English
West Country.)
The first (and for some years the only) home in Caulfeild Village
was a cottage called the Pilot House. A retired seaman, named Captain
Frank Kettle, lived there with his wife under the title ‘Pilot’s
Assistant’ – the pilots themselves came and went in
their boats. Captain and Mrs. Kettle ran a little store and acted
as a hospitality centre of the community as it developed. Captain
Kettle’s great pride was that he had sailed as mate on the
famous clipper ship, ‘Cutty Sark.’
There were delays in the provision of
services to the village. West Vancouver wasn’t incorporated
as a municipality until 1912, and the Provincial and Federal governments
were far away. First, water was needed and Mr. Caulfeild had to
build his own system. The water was brought down by wooden pipe
from Cypress Falls. Lots were then offered for sale, and the first
houses went up, in the nature of summer cottages. Among the early
arrivals were H. A. Stone, E. C. Kilby, and H. P. Clubb, while the
Caulfeild family built several small houses. As the community developed,
its members established their places in it – Mr. Stone as
artist and historian, Mrs. Jean Kilby Rorison as poet, and Mr. Caulfeild
as the guiding spirit.
The next problem Mr. Caulfeild faced was
access by land. The first houses were built from materials brought
in by scow and carried across the beach by hand, but this was highly
inconvenient for anything bigger then a cottage. Creating road access
was impossible for Mr. Caulfeild to do by himself and he spent much
time promoting highway development with various levels of government.
In time, the Pacific Great Eastern Railway went through the upper
part of the property, which alleviated the problem, but it was not
until the incorporation of the Municipality that the real solution
could be tackled. This was the provision of road access by the extension
of Marine Drive, the road being formally opened by Provincial Premier
Richard McBride in 1915.
In due course, the village changed in
character if not in philosophy. By the 1940s, there were over 50
residences, most of them large and spacious. Development according
to Mr. Caulfeild’s ideas had definitely appealed to the carriage
trade. One result of this and of Mr. Caulfeild’s failure to
predict the omnipotence of the motor car is that the narrow roadways
have had to be made one-way, and even so, traffic is congested and
parking difficult.
However, in large part, Mr. Caulfeild’s
dream has been realized, and its centrepiece is the little church
of St. Francis-in-the-Wood, which does indeed stand in the big trees
above the cove. It was built over the 1930's: the chancel and sanctuary
were completed in 1938. The church is the English traditional cottage
style, as Mr. Caulfeild would have wanted. The spreading roof and
heavy supporting beams give a sense of shelter. Stained-glass windows,
donated in honour of the Caulfeild and Stone families, give the
interior a subdued glow. In front of the church is, of course, the
village green, and leading from the green to the church is an object
so rare that only an historian like Mr. Caulfeild would recognize
it. It is a lych-gate, a roofed open structure with benches in it.
In medieval times, it was intended, during funerals, for pallbearers
to rest on their way to the churchyard.
Although Mr. Caulfeild gave so much of
his life to this project, he retired to England in his old age and
died in London in 1934 at the age of 90. His son, Wade Caulfeild,
had a distinguished career in the Royal Navy, retiring as Vice-Admiral.
History doesn’t relate how much of his maritime skill and
enthusiasm he learned from his childhood days around the cove, but
in his retirement, he and his son, Toby, raised a memorial to Mr.
Caulfeild. The memorial takes the form of a large, black anchor
accompanied by an explanatory plaque, and is situated among the
rocks and trees of the waterfront park that was Mr. Caulfeild’s
pride and joy.
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