Toponymie | Canton de Potton | Place Names

Route de Mansonville refers to that part of provincial Route 243 which crosses the Township of Potton and ends at the U.S. border crossing at Highwater/North Troy.  It is the principal road of our Township, much as it was in the earliest days.  Formerly Route 243 was called provincial Route 39.

“The building of the road from Bolton Townships Highway, from the Bolton Pass in a southerly direction, joining the Queen's Highway (…) near School House # 7 in Potton, was reported upon by the Superintendent of Roads, Captain James Ball, in 1860.  This is now a much-used road as being the shortest route from Mansonville to Knowlton.  This road was surveyed by the late Felix Farnam, who received six dollars for the work.”^[1]  (School House # 7 in Potton was the Sweat school not far from the Kirby farm, at 683 Route de Mansonville.) 

This seems to say that this road from the province line in South Potton through to South Bolton, and beyond to Knowlton was problematic; particularly at Bolton Pass.  A new road through the “Pass” was “opened for travel in 1848”.  Before that, the “old Magog road” led over the mountain, even now called Stagecoach Road.  The opening of a new route to skirt the tortuous section would have meant a great deal to the economy of our Township.

In November 1927, the population of Potton was greatly inconvenienced by tremendous flooding, which destroyed much property in the Township, including the iron bridge in Highwater.  “(…) it was taken from its piers and landed some distance below.  It has since been restored to its former place, however.”^[2]  A new bridge, the present one, was constructed in 1936.^[3]

According to Ministry of Transport records, the section of Route 243 between Mansonville and Highwater largely follows the original road, as shown on the earliest maps of the area.  The road was improved (widened) in 1939-40.  It is one of the oldest roads in the Estrie region under the authority of the Ministry of Transport.^[4]