Pouch Cove Heritage & Cod Liver Oil

Left to right: Gail Everson, Terra Barrett, Margot Duley.

This morning I had the pleasure of interviewing Gail Everson and Margot Duley of the Pouch Cove Heritage Society for the Living Heritage Podcast. Although this episode won’t air for a couple of months, I wanted to share a little information about today’s interview and a couple of pictures taken this morning.

Gail Everson, formally a Hudson, is a lifetime resident of Pouch Cove. Her family owned and operated 3 Cod Liver Oil factories in Pouch Cove, Bauline and Cape St. Francis from the late 1800s until the mid 1960s. Dr. Margot Duley is a graduate of MUN and the University of London where she received a PhD in history. She currently lives in Pouch Cove, a community that she loves and where she finds inspiration for her ongoing writing in Newfoundland history. Founded in 2009 the Pouch Cove Heritage Society is a non-profit community association which assists the residents of Pouch Cove in identifying and protecting their local heritage.

Gail Everson showing one of her grandfather's diaries.

Our discussion mainly focused on the Heritage Society’s work including the Pouch Cove Heritage Days, storytelling circles, kitchen parties, and a commemoration of the Waterwitch shipwreck and rescue. We discussed how the society created “Our Home by the Sea” which is an extremely popular book about the community of Pouch Cove.

One thing in particular we discussed was the importance of cod liver oil to the community. The importance of this industry led the Heritage Society to create a short video and app with the help of Chris Brookes and a grant from the HFNL. This app can be downloaded on iPhones and android. The listener can choose the armchair option if they are unable to walk through the community itself or the listener can choose to listen by location as they walk through the community of Pouch Cove. Make sure to check out the Pouch Cove Memories app here!

Paid stamp in an account book.

After the interview Gail brought out some of her grandfather’s diaries which included account books with the names of men who purchased supplies such as leather, calico, or overalls and a small book with a list of how much cod liver oil was processed each year. There was note on one page where a man traded cod liver oil for supplies at the Hudson Store. I hope you enjoy the photos and let us know if you have any memories about cod liver oil. Did you enjoy the taste? Have you ever helped process cod liver oil? Let us know in the comments or shoot us an email at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

-Terra

Account book.

Gail Everson and Margot Duley.

Directions for putting preservative with cod livers.