Aylmer Road: 175^th anniversary of its macadamization in 2025, 1 of 4

Richard M. Bégin

When Philemon Wright and a few settlers arrived in the Township of Hull in 1800, there were no roads west of the Long Sault Rapids. It was mainly in the first quarter of the Township of Hull, the first four ranges, that the new colony was established, between the Ottawa River to the south, the Gatineau River to the east, and Eardley Township to the west, and that the first road was built between Chaudière Falls and Chaudière Lake (now Deschênes Lake), namely Aylmer Road.

In 1824, Philemon Wright declared that he had already built 31 miles of roads, and Aylmer Road (first described as the “Main Road” and later designated “Britannia Road”) was one of the first to be completed.  In 1802, the section between Chaudière Falls and Lot II-14 was completed, extending to Rivermead Road, which then descended to Deschênes Rapids. In 1805, the road reached Lake Chaudière.

For centuries, Indigenous peoples, missionaries, soldiers, and explorers had used trails that they had to take to avoid Chaudière Falls, Chaudière Rapids (opposite Brébeuf Park), and Deschênes Rapids.  These trails were more or less the origin of Aylmer Road.  But we must put things into perspective. As Wright's biographer Joseph Tassé explains, “Wright plowed both sides of the road, then used the soil to level it, smoothing out the undulations and filling in the low spots; bridges were built in certain places and the road was gravelled where necessary.” In short, these were very rudimentary roads, and in 1819, the ”Main Road" was reportedly in such poor condition that Lord Dalhousie, governor of Lower Canada, preferred to jump the rapids.

When Charles Symmes, Philemon Wright's nephew, was sent to Ferme Chaudière (near Lake Chaudière) in 1821 to replace his cousin Philemon Jr., who had recently died in an accident near Grenville, he quickly made his mark.  In 1823, he borrowed money from his uncle to purchase Lot II-21 (200 acres previously reserved for the Crown) and a strip of land along the lake, and he began subdividing his land to accommodate settlers.  He was so successful that in 1825, the Surveyor General of Lower Canada, Joseph Bouchette, determined that the “village” or administrative center of the township would be located there rather than near the Chaudière Falls, where Philemon Wright had settled. Irritated, Wright demanded that Symmes repay him immediately, which he did. In 1831, Lot II-21 became home to the Registry Office, and in 1842, it would house the first courthouse west of Montreal (on Court Street).  At the same time, in 1831, Symmes built a hotel on the shores of Lake Chaudière, and a year later, he launched the first steamboat upstream from the Chaudière Falls, the Lady Colborne.  From then on, the “village” developed rapidly: travelers disembarked from the boat at the foot of the Chaudière Falls, took a carriage or stagecoach up Britannia Road to a hotel in Aylmer, spent the night there, and took another boat westward from the wharf near the Symmes Inn.  With the arrival of the Registry Office and then the Court, lawyers, notaries, judges, and civil servants followed. Business people, particularly lumber barons, settled along Britannia Road. Sawmills, flour mills, and other hotels were built, including the British (Conroy Inn).