The town of Grand Bay-Westfield, New Brunswick, owes its hyphenated name to a series of amalgamations since 1966. The Parish, and later the village, of Westfield was named in honour of either Westfield, Massachusetts, or Westfield, New Jersey, by the Loyalists. The name may also simply be in reference to its location in the western corner of Kings County, New Brunswick.
The name Grand Bay was used for the body of water by the Acadians and Loyalists, and it only became associated with the settlement at the edge of Westfield Parish around 1869.
Grand Bay-Westfield exists on traditional Wolastoqey land. The river that runs along the town is known as Wolastoq, along which the Wolastoqiyik, the people of the beautiful and bountiful river, have lived since time immemorial. The history of Indigenous lands in New Brunswick, and so too Grand Bay-Westfield, is complicated by the fact that no land treaties were concluded between the Indigenous peoples and the Crown.
Contrary to common misconception, Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons did not visit and name the Grand Bay. However, following Champlain's discovery of the St. John River on June 24, 1604, French settlement of the area began in earnest. The area of present day Grand Bay-Westfield was included in the Martignon seigneury, which extended from the mouth of the Wolastoq up the west bank across the Nerepis to Long Reach.
When Loyalist transport ships arrived at Saint John in 1783, the area now referred to as Grand Bay-Westfield was part of Sunbury County, most of it within the Township of Conway. The Loyalists established the Parish of Westfield within Kings County in 1786. Among the Loyalists who settled in present-day Grand Bay-Westfield were a small group of 31 Black Loyalists.
The first incorporated villages in the area now incorporated as Grand Bay-Westfield were created during the Equal Opportunity Program after the abolition of county government. The villages of Pamdenec and Westfield incorporated in 1966. In 1972, the village of Westfield absorbed the neighbourhoods of Lingley, Sagwa, and Nerepis. Pamdenec absorbed the neighbourhoods of Grand Bay, Epworth Park, and Ingleside to become the village of Grand Bay in 1973. In 1988, Grand Bay became a town.
In 1869 the European and North American Railway Western Extension was opened through the area between Saint John and Vanceboro, Maine. The rail line changed ownership to the New Brunswick Railway before becoming part of the Canadian Pacific Railway mainline from Saint John to Montreal in the 1880s.
Route 177 is the town's main road, called River Valley Drive in the Grand Bay section of town and Nerepis Road in the Westfield part. Other main streets are Woolastook Drive, which winds through the highlands of Grand Bay, and Inglewood Drive is host to the Pamdenec, Epworth Park, Brandy Point & Ingleside subdivisions on Grand Bay's shore front. Also, NB Route 102 which begins north of Fredericton ends in Westfield. Highway 7, the main route from Saint John to Fredericton, passes through the western extremity of the town.
The town has a ferry landing at the end of Ferry Road in Westfield. The Westfield Ferry, a cable ferry route operated by the provincial Department of Transportation using a pair of ferries, connects Westfield with the community of Hardings Point on the Kingston Peninsula.
Grand Bay-Westfield is home to several distinct neighbourhoods, including Grand Bay, Highlands/Round Lake, Pamdenec, Epworth Park, Brandy Point Estates, Ingleside, Panoramic Estates, Epworth Park Heights, Beverly Hills & Valley View Estates, Brookdale Heights, Ononette, Hillandale, Westfield Beach, Lingley, Sagwa, and Nerepis.
Grand Bay-Westfield boasts numerous parks, from simple greenspace to ballfields and playgrounds. These include Henderson Brook Nature Park, Southwood Park, Inglewood School, Grand Bay Primary School, Grand Bay Tennis Courts, Pamdenec Place, Lions Field, Epworth Park Field, River Valley Middle School, Brookside Park, Unity Park, Westfield School, Brundage Point, Westfield River Landing, and more.
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Grand Bay-Westfield had a population of 4,967 living in 1,965 of its 2,031 total private dwellings, a change of 0.1% from its 2016 population of 4,964. With a land area of 59.82 km2 (23.10 sq mi), it had a population density of 83.0/km2 (215.1/sq mi) in 2021.
