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| Photo of the Gale family circa 1944. Photo courtesy of Don Gale. |
Earlier this month, Heritage NL visited the West Coast and interviewed Terri and Don Gale about the Gale family and their family's carding mill in Millville. Terri and Don’s grandfather, Alexander Gale, started the original Gale’s carding mill during the 1890s.
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| Gale's Carding Mill in 1971. Photo from The Last Stronghold by Margaret Bennett. |
The Gale’s mill would card wool from all over the province, arriving via train. The mill operated throughout the spring and summer, carding the wool from the shearing season. Terri Gale recounts that when she was a child in the 1940s, all the employees of the carding mill were women.
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| Newspaper Clipping from the Western Star September 20th 1905 |
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| Spinning bee in 1935, probably in Millville. Photo courtesy of Don Gale. |
Sending wool to be carded saved time, and yarn was used for creating knitted wares like blankets and knit clothes. Terri and Don recount that most families in the Codroy Valley owned sheep for wool and meat.
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| Current Equipment in the Mill |
The original mill from the 1890s ran using a waterwheel from water diverted from the nearby brook. During the 1940s, a new mill was constructed and a diesel generator was installed, replacing the waterwheel. Alex Gale left the Millville carding mill to his sons Edward and George Gale, who ran the business as Gale Brothers.
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| Advertisement and instructions for the Gale Brothers Carding Mill in the Western Star 1945. |
The Gale carding mill closed in the 1970s.
For further listening check out Living Heritage Podcast Episode 186 on Carding and Weaving in Millville, Codroy Valley, here: http://www.ichblog.ca/2020/08/living-heritage-podcast-ep186-carding.html
You can read more about the Gale Carding Mill on Heritage NL's main website: https://heritagenl.ca/heritage-property/gale-carding-mill-registered-heritage-structure/
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