Royston is a small hamlet which is part of the greater Comox Valley

Comox Valley

The Comox Valley is a region on the east coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada that includes the city of Courtenay, the town of Comox, the village of Cumberland, and the unincorporated settlements of Royston, Union Bay, Fanny Bay, Black Creek and Merville. The communities of Denman...

 region, 100 km northwest of Nanaimo

Nanaimo, British Columbia

Nanaimo is a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. It has been dubbed the "Bathtub Racing Capital of the World" and "Harbour City". Nanaimo is also sometimes referred to as the "Hub City" because of its central location on Vancouver Island and due to the layout of the downtown...

 on Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island

Vancouver Island is a large island in British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several North American locations named after George Vancouver, the British Royal Navy officer who explored the Pacific Northwest coast of North America between 1791 and 1794...

, in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada. It is situated across the harbour from Comox

Comox, British Columbia

Comox is a town of 12,000 people located on a small peninsula in the Georgia Strait on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The warm dry summers, mild winters, fertile soil and abundant sea life attracted First Nations thousands of years ago, who called the area kw’umuxws...

 and just southeast of the municipal boundary of Courtenay

Courtenay, British Columbia

Courtenay is a city on the east coast of Vancouver Island, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is the largest city in the area commonly known as the Comox Valley, and it is the seat of the Comox Valley Regional District which replaced the Comox-Strathcona Regional District...

. Royston is home to just over 1200 people.

History

In the early 1900s, Royston was, and continues to be, the major port for the Comox Valley logging industry. Logs were shipped here by rail, boomed in the harbour, then towed across to the B.C. Mainland to be made into lumber. This port was/is also used for transportation of coal mined in Cumberland

Cumberland, British Columbia

Cumberland is a town in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.-History:The village was originally named Union, British Columbia after the Union Coal Company, which was in turn named in honour of the 1871 union of British Columbia with Canada. The town was renamed after...

.

William Roy and his family settled here in 1890, collaborating with a real estate promoter named Frederick Warren to lay out a townsite that they named Royston. The settlement could have been named as "Roy's Town" but could also have been named after Warren's home town of Royston in Hertfordshire - or both.