The Jingle Pot area is the most RURAL real estate in Nanaimo proper. It slopes gently down from the foot of Mt Benson to the valley bottom, where the Millstream winds through grasslands. This was a farming and resource extraction area from the mid-1800s until after WWII. This SOUTH part of Jingle Pot hasn't developed all that much in the past 70 years!
There are two basic types of neighbourhood here:
- Larger properties, many with small farms and pre-war houses: these appear mainly below (north of) Jingle Pot Rd. These are more likely to be old farmhouses, custom homes, or mobile homes on land. Many have equestrian facilities.
- Subdivisions with homes built SINCE 1970: these are above Jingle Pot Rd closer to Westwood Lake, but also across Jingle Pot Rd, near Cathers Lake. These were usually built as spec homes but on the higher end, with interesting floorplans.
South Jingle Pot isn't a large area; it's roughly everything from the Jingle Pot Pub to the power station, up to Westwood Lake and down to Maxey Rd and East Wellington Rd.
Properties in South Jingle Pot
What's with the name "Jingle Pot"?
There are two common explanations for why it's called Jingle Pot:
1) Miners and their wives used to say "There's gonna be a jingle in the pot" when they talked about payday - referring to coins placed in a vessel of some kind.
2) There was a coal mine with a crude setup for "jingling" something in a metal pot to indicate to coworkers when a load was ready to be lifted - or something.
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