The road to the Chinese village, in the fall of 2016. David R. Gray photograph.
Bamberton. The cement plant and townsite were named after Henry K.G. Bamber, who came out from England for the Associated Cement Company to assess the possibility of opening a new limestone quarry on the west side of Saanich Inlet.
Benvenuto Avenue. The new name for what was Lime Kiln Road since 1929. The name comes from the name of the Butchart’s residence, Benvenuto, meaning “welcome” in Italian.
Brentwood Bay. Named for a town in Essex, England, where Mr. Horne-Payne, chairman of the board of directors of the BC Electric Railway, owned a house. At first, only the BCER station was named Brentwood. The name of the post office was changed from Sluggett in 1925 and the community in 1934. The name of the body of water, part of Saanich Inlet, and originally named Tod Inlet, was also changed in 1934.
Butchart Cove. A small cove on the southeast side of the entrance narrows of Tod Inlet. Serves as a docking area for smaller boats associated with the Butchart Gardens. The cove is known to the Tsartlip as “Humsawhut,” meaning “Sunshine Bay.”124
Cole Hill. Cole Hill is located one kilometre south of Tod Inlet, just north of Durrance Lake. A prominent hill of 260 metres in elevation, it was named for a settler, George Cole, who lived in the area in the early 1900s. Early British Admiralty charts called the hill “Mount Fane,” a name likely given by Captain George Henry Richards in about 1858, honouring Charles George Fane, mate of HMS Ganges between 1857 and 1860.
Daphne Islet. An established local name, “Daphne Islet” was officially adopted in 1934. Formerly called Daphne Island and informally also known as “Skull Island,” it was a sacred burial site for the early Tsartlip First Nation people.
Durrance Lake. On some early maps, “Durant Lake”; also Durrance Creek. John (Jack) Durrance was one of the first Europeans to establish a farm in the watershed of Tod Creek.
Fernie Beach. A local unofficial name, given after Peter C. Fernie, farmer and lime burner, who owned the property on the southeast side of the Tod Inlet narrows before the cement plant and the Butcharts arrived. Now part of the Butchart Gardens.
Gowlland Range. Gowlland was a second master on Captain George Henry Richards’s 1858 survey of the area on the steam sloop HMS Plumper. Several other places in BC also carry his name.
Heal Creek. A small creek that drains from the Hartland landfill south of Tod Inlet into Tod Creek. In 1860 Fred and Charlie Heal purchased a large portion of the Tod Creek Flats from the Hudson’s Bay Company. They both farmed and leased the land. A 1914 “Saanich Sheet” map shows a Heal Post Office on West Saanich Road.
Heal’s Range. During World War I a proposal to develop the land in the northern part of the Tod Creek Flats as a military range for the Canadian Army was accepted in 1915. This was partly seen as a solution for unemployment. The Heal’s Rifle Range began operations in 1916 and has been used for weapons training ever since.
Joylorn Creek. A local name for the creek flowing down into the southeast corner of Tod Inlet. It was named for Joyce Jacobson (neé Carrier) and Lorna Pugh (neé Thomson).
Lime Kiln Road. The road leading from Old West Saanich Road down to Tod Inlet. Also known as the Tod Inlet Road, it was renamed Benvenuto Avenue in 1929.
Malahat Ridge. A long-established local name, “Malahat Ridge” was officially adopted in 1934. The first car journey over the Malahat happened in 1911. The SENĆOŦEN name YOS, meaning “caution,” refers to the peak of the Malahat Ridge.
Mount Newton. The tallest mountain in the northern part of the Saanich Peninsula is known as ȽÁU,WELṈEW̱, which means “place of refuge” in SENĆOŦEN. It was renamed to commemorate a surveyor and map-maker in the 1850s. The mountain is part of John Dean Provincial Park.
Partridge Hills. The name appears on the 1861 British Admiralty chart and was in use on maps since at least 1930. The name was given by Captain George Henry Richards in 1857 or 1858.
Quarry Lake. East of the south end of Tod Inlet on the east side of Wallace Drive. Once the third limestone quarry excavated by the Vancouver Portland Cement Company, it was actively excavated between about 1911 and 1921. The quarry began flooding after exploratory drilling to ascertain the amount of quality limestone left and has been full of water since 1931. Once a popular place for bathing, it is now a private water reservoir for the Butchart Gardens.
Saanich Inlet. Saanich Inlet is the body of water extending south from Satellite Channel and Salt Spring Island to Finlayson Arm, the narrow channel leading to the Goldstream estuary. The earliest use of the name by settlers was “Säanich Bay,” which appears on the 1855 Pemberton map of southeastern Vancouver Island. “Saanich Inlet” was used on the 1861 Admiralty chart by Captain Richards. Saanich is an anglicization of the SENĆOŦEN word W̱SÁNEĆ, which means “emerging” and refers to the creation story of Mount Newton rising up as the flood waters receded.
Saanich Peninsula. The peninsula stretches from the outskirts of the city of Victoria north to Deep Cove and Swartz Bay in North Saanich. It is bounded by Finlayson Arm and Saanich Inlet on the west and Haro Strait on the east.
Senanus Island. A small island in Bentwood Bay, once used by W̱SÁNEĆ people. The W̱SÁNEĆ name SEN,NI,NES means “chest out of the water.”
Sluggett. The former name for what is now Brentwood. The area and the post office were named after an early pioneer, John Sluggett, who bought 700 acres of land in Saanich in 1875.
Sluggett Point. Known to the Tsartlip as ĆIETṈEW̱ÁLE, the “owl place,” referring to a site where human remains were placed on a platform above the ground, Sluggett Point is west of Brentwood and marks the southern boundary of the Tsartlip Reserve. (See Sluggett.)
SṈIDȻEȽ. The area around Tod Inlet is known to the Tsartlip people by the name SṈIDȻEȽ, which means “Place of the Blue Grouse.”
Squally Reach. Captain George Henry Richards of the steam sloop HMS Plumper gave the name to the southwestern part of Saanich Arm (i.e., Inlet) between Willis Point (at the north end) and Elbow Point (at the south). The name first appeared on the 1861 Admiralty chart.
Tod Creek. In 1858 Captain George Henry Richards of the steam sloop HMS Plumper gave the name “Tod Creek” to the whole area now known as Brentwood Bay and Tod Inlet. The name refers to John Tod (1794–1882), a noted employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company who later became a member of the council of government for the Vancouver Island colony in 1851, and eventually a member of the later Legislative Council. Today the name Tod Creek applies to the small stream entering the southeast corner of the head of the inlet. (See also Tod Inlet and W̱EĆEĆE.) Tod Creek drains Prospect Lake; other tributary creeks include Heal Creek.
Tod Creek flats. In the 1860s the channel of Tod Creek was moved to the east edge of the flats as the wetland was drained for agriculture, and again in 1915 to accommodate the Heal’s Rifle Range. On a 1914 map, the creek is labelled “Government Ditch.”
Tod Inlet. The inlet extending southward from Brentwood Bay with a narrow entrance channel opening out to the east. Name of the post office and the village established at the head of the inlet in 1904 and lasting until the late 1950s. See also Tod Creek.
Tsartlip. W̱JOȽEȽP, anglicized as Tsartlip, means “land of maples” in the SENĆOŦEN language. The current village came into being after the older village at SṈIDȻEȽ was abandoned.
Wallace Drive. Part of the former right-of-way for the BC Electric Railway, Wallace Drive was apparently named for William Oakes Wallace, who owned the first general store at what is now Brentwood. The southern part of the current Wallace Drive was formerly known as Heal’s Range Road.
W̱EĆEĆE. The traditional SENĆOŦEN name for Tod Creek. The word imitates the sound of the creek as it drops down to the waters of the Inlet.
Whittaker Point. A point south of Willis Point on the east side of Saanich Inlet. Named after Sam Whittaker, who first lived there in the late 1920s.
Willis Point. Named in 1858 by Captain George Henry Richards of the steam sloop HMS Plumper. The origin of the name is not known. There was no Willis with Richards’s BC survey crew or his Arctic exploration crew. The name may have been from a local contact, though there are no Willises listed in the earliest Victoria directories. Willis Point is sometimes used to describe all the land area between Saanich Arm on the west and Tod Inlet on the east. The local SENĆOŦEN name for this whole area is SX̱OX̱ÍEM, meaning “still waters,” referring to its appearance at low tide.
Willis Point Road. Most of the roads at Willis Point were based on the logging roads of the 1950s. The road name was only officially adopted in 1993 as the naming was assumed or forgotten at the time of the subdivision construction.