Memories of Lych Gates in Newfoundland - gateways for the dead

This undated photograph shows an unidentified woman standing in front of the lych gate, the entranceway to the grounds of the Alexander Chapel of All Souls, located on Coster Street in Bonavista.

The elaborately beamed lych gate is a feature typical of Anglican churchyards. Traditionally, it was the sheltered point at which the coffin was set down at a funeral to await the clergyman's arrival. In some instances, a portion of the burial service was performed while the coffin rested inside the gate. A common feature in English churchyards, the concept of the lych gate was transplanted to North America. "Lych" is a form of the Anglo-Saxon word "līc" meaning body or corpse.

Once common, the only surviving Newfoundland example I know of is in Bonavista. The original lych gate was constructed circa 1899 and was financed by the Church of England Women's Association of Bonavista (1).

One S. Rees of Bonavista, in a letter dated Dec. 7, 1893 to the St. John's Evening Telegram, noted,

Dear Sir, - on Monday the 4th inst., there was no small stir here among the members of the C.E. Sewing Class, and one would naturally ask the cause. But a poster would apprise of the fact that a “sale of work,” under the auspices of the above ladies, was about about to take place; its object, to provide funds to provide a lych gate for the new cemetery. At about 6.40 p.m. the doors were open to purchasers, and when I arrived a few minutes later - considering inclemency of weather - quite A Crowd Had Gathered.

According to the author, the amount raised, $76, "was far above expectation" (2).

The Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road in St. John's also had a lych gate, which was torn down at some point in the second half of the 20th century. It is shown on aerial photographs from 1961, but was removed afterwards. According to HNFL Executive Director George Chalker, it was removed possibly to allow motorized hearses access to the cemetery.

If you have memories, or photographs, of lych gates in Newfoundland, I'd love to hear from you. You can call me at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2, or email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

- Dale Jarvis

(1) Simms, Gavin. "Gateway to yesterday: Anglican Chapel recreates long lost entranceway." The Packet, November 20, 2008.

(2)  Rees, S. "Pleasant Social Event At Bonavista. Sale of Work by the Church of England Sewing Class - Object: a Lych Gate for the New Cemetery." Evening Telegram (St. John’s, NL) 1893-12-16

UPDATE - 17 March 2014:

You can read or download the final version of this research at Lych Gates in Newfoundland

Exploring a historic well hidden underneath a St. John's home.

I've been working with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador (HFNL) since 1996, for much of it involved with HFNL's work preserving and promoting the built heritage of the province. In that time, I've poked around in more basements and attics of historic properties than I could attempt to count. But today I saw something new, even for me.

A while back, I posted on my personal twitter account (@dalejarvis) a link to a news item from Devon, UK, where a man found a 33 foot deep medieval well underneath the floor of his living room.

I thought this was pretty neat, and then got an note from local real estate agent Janet Kovich (@J_Ko__) saying she had handled the sale a property in St. John's that had a well under its floor. I, of course, wanted to see, so she arranged with the owner for me to go take a peek.

I don't want to give out the street address of the property without permission from the owner, but the house is relatively new, I'd guess having been built in the 1970s or 1980s. It is a curious house,  constructed in the Tudor Revival style, with a central stone-faced tower and spiral staircase. The house was built in a section of the city that would have been on the outskirts of town in the early twentieth century, in farming country.

I arrived at the house, Janet meeting me there and bringing me down into the low, partially finished basement. We ducked our heads under beams, past the base of the central tower, and made our way to the corner of the basement. There, we found a large wooden cover about 8 feet square slightly raised from the level of the concrete floor. Workmen doing renovations on the house assisted by propping up the cover, giving us a clear look at the structure below.

Sure enough, it is a well, circular in shape, about 6 feet wide. The well is constructed with dry stone walls, several feet deep. It very clearly predates the house, and for some reason the original owner of the building had kept the well intact, instead of filling it in. At the bottom of the well is set what looks like a metal barrel or oil drum, filled with rubble or silt. I'm guessing that the drum had been placed inside the well at some point to keep the walls stable.

The well is filled close to the rim with water.  The workmen said the level of the water in the well had risen lately, as had the level of the water in the tiny brook that runs along the boundary line of the property.

I don't know much yet about the history of the property, but will post more later if I find out anything. I suspect there was an old house or barn near the site of the present house.

I'm always interested in hidden architectural gems and oddities like this. If you know of hidden wells or passages in or around St. John's, you can email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca as I'm always up for an underground adventure! Have you seen something like this? Or have any theories on this one? Drop me a note!

Hay Barrack photo from Cape Anguille, Newfoundland.

In my ongoing quest to document the seemingly now-vanished tradition of hay barracks in Newfoundland, I've come across another photograph.

This one comes courtesy of John Pratt, who took this colour slide in the early 1990s around Cape Anguille, on Newfoundland's west coast. It shows the pyramidal wood roof laid on the ground, and the four support poles caught mid-twist.  Left empty and unattended, these structures quickly toppled over.

Hay barracks were once a typical technology for the storage of hay in certain regions of the province, in particular the Codroy Valley area and in the Goulds/Killbride region. If you have a memory of a structure like this, or know of a photograph, please email me at ich@heritagefoundation.ca or call me toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext 2.

The Riddle of the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Stage

The Newfoundland Historic Trust is holding its Annual General Meeting
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
7:00 pm
Hava Java Upstairs, Water Street

Followed by a presentation by Dr. Gerald Pocius
"The Riddle of the Newfoundland and Labrador Fish Stage"
7:30pm

Dr. Pocius is University Research Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, where he has taught since 1977. Among his many accomplishments, he has recently been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. By looking at how everyday things are used Dr. Pocius has produced studies both sensitive and rigorous, earning him international standing as a scholar. His publications include A Place to Belong, Textile Traditions of Eastern Newfoundland, and A Field Guide to the Vernacular Architecture of St-Pierre et Miquelon.

All are welcome to attend - Please feel free to circulate

Deborah O'Rielly
Executive Director, Newfoundland Historic Trust
www.historictrust.ca
709.739.7870 Tel. 709.739.5413 Fax

Photo of Pete Porter's Stage, Change Islands, courtesy HFNL

Moravian architecture slides added to Memorial's Digital Archives Initiative

We are in the process of adding a series of scanned photographic slides to the ICH Inventory on Memorial University's Digital Archives Initiative. The Moravian Architecture of Labrador collection is from folklore thesis fieldwork I did along Labrador's north coast in the summer of 1995. At the moment, there are photos from Hopedale, North West River, and Happy Valley, with more photos to be added shortly from Nain, OKaK, Hebron, and beyond. All photos were digitized by DAI staffer Chris Mouland.

Walking on Water: Vernacular Architecture walk of St. John's

Last week, I met up with students of Gerald Pocius's Vernacular Architecture graduate level class, and gave them an overview of the Heritage Foundation's work, and a tour of a few sites in along the west end of Water Street.

Tomorrow, we're heading east, and I compiled a list of places we'll pass by for the participants. I thought that since I had it, I'd share it with you, my beloved blog audience, so you can take a little virtual walk along historic Water Street from the comfort of your computer screen.

On the route tomorrow:

Murray Premises
http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2232

O'Dwyer Block
http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2154&pid=12030&h=Odwyer,Block

Yellow Belly Brewery
http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=5341
http://www.greatcanadianbeerblog.com/2008/06/yellowbelly-brewery-public-house.html

Grace Building (Model Shop)
http://www.heritagefoundation.ca/property-search/property-details.aspx?id=1890

Bowrings
http://bowring.com/about.asp
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/law/merchants.html

O'Brien's Music
http://obriensmusic.com/site/obriens-history/

Rocket (Neil Soper Hardware/Auntie Craes)
http://www.thetelegram.com/Business/Economy/2010-10-18/article-1856592/Historical-Auntie-Crae%26rsquo%3Bs-shutting-its-doors-in-December/1

Commercial Chambers Building
http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=2149&pid=0

And I'll also be talking about the [Here]Say project.

More photo treasures from the Newman Wine Vaults

A while back, I posted about a small digitization project we were undertaking with Provincial Historic Sites and the Newman Wine Vaults. Those photos have been scanned and placed online as part of Memorial's Digital Archive Initiative. They show the interior and exterior of the Vaults and adjacent buildings, and show that the Vaults were used for storage of more than Newman's Port, including things like Javex bleach and potatoes!

This exterior photo, taken from Water Street, shows the west end of the Vault warehouse, and two now-demolished buildings. Also visible is the "Book and Bible" shop, located where Babb Lock and Key is now.

Any vintage car experts out there? I'd love a rough date for this one! Post your suggestions.

What is a Hay Barrack, you ask? A Newfoundland-wide photo hunt

I'm hoping that someone out there in Newfoundland has a photo (or memories) of a hay barrack. I'm working on a little article on hay barracks for a future newsletter, and would love a good illustration.

Here is what the Dictionary of Newfoundland English says:

barrack n Cp DAE hay barrack (1807-). Structure consisting of four posts and a movable roof, designed to protect hay from rain and snow (P 245-56). M 71-39 A barrack is composed of a square base of criss-crossed poles, to keep the hay from the ground, and at each corner a large upright pole. In each pole there are holes through which a large bolt can be passed. Resting on four large bolts, one in each pole, is a four-faced cone-shaped roof. These barracks are usually boarded in for about four feet from the ground. 1974 MANNION 176 ~ A roof sliding on four posts, under which hay is kept.

I'm hoping that someone might have seen one in a photo, perhaps not really knowing what it might have been. If you've seen one, let me know at ich@heritagefoundation.ca

Thanks to Philip Hiscock for pointing me towards this excellent photo of one in the Ukraine. The illustration above is of both a five and four pole barrack, the four pole barrack showing boarding similar to the description in the Dictionary. Illustration taken from the Dutch Barn Preservation Society website, which writes:  Five-pole hay barrack (left), published in van Berkhey, 1810 (Vol. IX). The Dutch wagon size suggests this barrack is about 24' wide and 33' high. Note the winding jack set in position to raise the roof using a long pole. Its form is similar to that of a cheese press. Its relative size, however, appears exaggerated for clarity. Four-pole barrack at right, also from van Berkhey.

See also:

• Quebec example
• Netherlands example
• More about haystacks, hay barracks and hooibergs than you ever wanted to know