Friday, March 19, 2021

Living Heritage Podcast Ep202 Black Cat Cemetery Preservation

Black Cat Cemetery Preservation specializes in historic gravestone and monument conservation and restoration in Canada. Husband and wife team Robyn Lacy and Ian Petty, have a combined 20 years of experience in the heritage sector as archaeologists, gravestone conservators, and cultural heritage technicians. They have worked across Canada and the United States, as well as on the Isle of Man, recording gravestones and cemeteries, conducting archaeological surveys, mapping sites, and evaluating heritage structures and landscapes.


What's that strange image on the stone? Listen in to find out!




###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Salmon Fishing on the Quinton Premises



Historic image of a schooner in Red Cliff

The Quinton Premises was an important, central, place of business in Bonavista Bay from the mid 19th century until the late 20th century. In fact, in an interview with Hilda and Dorothy Quinton, who both married into the Quinton family and worked for the premises for many years, the women recall that people would come from all over to package their fish and purchase bulk supplies from the shop. In this interview, Hilda and Dorothy also talk about the salmon fishery on the premises - and how the business would ship fish across Eastern Canada and as far as New York.

The salmon fishery was not a small operation. Dorothy told us that at its peak, she remembers they packaged and shipped 100 boxes of salmon in a day - with each box weighing around 100lb. Preparing salmon is a different process from preparing cod, in part because salmon needed to be kept cold unlike cod - which doesn’t need to be cold once salted. Before refrigerators were invented, and before electricity was installed in Red Cliff, the best way to keep salmon cold was with an ice house. In the winter, men from the town of Red Cliff would cut ice from nearby Tickle Cove Pond and stored in sawdust in the ice house to keep it from melting. During the fishing season, men would go up to the shore of Labrador to catch salmon in a schooner. When the salmon arrived on the premises it would be prepared and packaged in the icehouse before being sent off to North Sydney, where it would be re-iced and shipped off to its final destination.

While they didn’t fish themselves, Dorothy and Hilda played their part in the fishery as well. When the fishermen came into town the population would temporarily grow, with many people staying at or near the Quinton Premises during their stay. In addition to their duties in the shop, Hilda, Dorothy, and other women on the property would make sure that all the workers had something to eat. In fact, both Hilda and Dorothy made sure to tell us that getting to eat fresh, fatty salmon was the best part of the fishery!

Friday, March 12, 2021

Living Heritage Podcast Ep201 Shetland History and Folklore with Dr Andrew Jennings

Lerwick, Scotland. Image via swifant/wikimedia.

Dr Andrew Jennings is based in Lerwick, Shetland's capital. He enjoys everything about life in this beautiful archipelago, from rowing in the local yoal team and taking part in the Fire Festival, to walking the dog and experiencing the wild Shetland weather. Living in Scotland's most northerly islands, with their Nordic cultural inheritance, inspires his research and his teaching. He is the programme leader on the MLitt Viking Studies, Island Studies, Orkney and Shetland Studies and Highlands and Islands Literature.



###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Monday, March 8, 2021

Join us for our Baccalieu Trail Thriving Regions: Researcher Updates & Community Conversation March 19


Are you from the Baccalieu Trail Region? Join us for our Baccalieu Trail Thriving Regions: Researcher Updates & Community Conversation

On March 19th (Friday) from 11:30am - 1pm, the Harris Centre of Memorial University will be hosting a virtual session at which two of our researchers will present the results of their work: 

Hidden Gems of the Baccalieu Trail
Ms. Natalie Dignam 

Traditional Knowledge Inventory of the Baccalieu Trail: Mobilizing Intangible Cultural Heritage
Mr. Dale Jarvis 

There will be opportunities to ask questions of the two researchers and to explore potential opportunities for using their products.

Registration information can be found here on the Harris Centre website:
https://www.mun.ca/harriscentre/news.php?id=14112&type=news 


Tuesday, March 2, 2021

New Publication on the Burgess Property, Whiteway NL

Burgess Property in 1948, taken by Margaret Mackintosh


Heritage NL has been researching the Burgess Property, a designated Registered Heritage Structure in Whiteway comprised of six buildings built throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Over 150 years and several generations of the Burgess family have operated fishing, coopering, and sawmilling industries from the property. Collectively, the Burgess Property buildings today are an excellent example of the diverse economies outport families participated in, in addition to showcasing typical Newfoundland vernacular architecture. Today, the property is still being taken care of by the sixth consecutive generation of Burgesses, and holds an impressive collection of historic documents and artefacts used throughout the building’s history. 

Working with the Burgess family, Heritage NL received an overwhelming amount of information carefully curated on the property. Using these resources and additional research, Heritage NL has created an initial report documenting the historic buildings currently on the property and mapping the historic landscape. 



Thursday, February 25, 2021

Folklore DIY tip of the day: How to make a tape log for a recorded audio interview

If you are working with archived audio material, or recording new audio interviews, a tape log will help you keep track of information, and make your recordings easier to search. 


Example of how to write a tape log:


Essentially there are three sections repeated over and over:


Minutes:Seconds of where the discussion topic starts 00:39 

Simple text description of topic                 his father’s work, Hiscock names his  

                                                                                                        Grandparents

Semicolon separating description from new timestamp ;


In the body of the text, use commas to separate ideas within one topic, use the semicolon between topics to indicate a new starting timestamp. If writing a date use Day Month Year (28 February 1944 for example). 



This is what a finished tape log should look like:



00:00 Ben Hiscock from Champney’s West, Trinity Bay, NL describes how his father met his mother; 00:39 his father’s work, Hiscock names his grandparents; 1:12 Hiscock was born on 2 December 1942 and explains his name Benjamin St. Clare Hiscock and where it came from; 2:07 growing up in Champney’s West and how supportive the community was, changes in the community television, population, hydro, plumbing, telephone, question of what will happen in the community once the senior citizens pass away, need for something to keep the community going; 5:01 an early memory of growing up in Champney’s West and hammering a penny to close the hole in the penny in order to buy a ginger snap at the shop owned by Mr. Myer Goldsworthy; 7:42 describes fishing with his father, Fishing grounds, Hand lining and trawls, 9:16 changes in the fishery in Champney’s West with new technology and regulations; 11:45 Keeping up the fishing stages; 12:22 Change in visiting in the community; 13:01 the shipwreck of the Saladin on 28 December 1943; An older man went outside to use the washroom and heard people screaming, Local man made a bosun’s chair, Community men rescued the people from the Saladin, Local man Wilfred Hiscock who jumped out on the rock to save the men; 18:27 a bosun’s chair and the captain of the Saladin; 19:45 the shipwreck of the Hazel Pearl on 28 February 1944; Hazel Pearl hit the hard ice and sunk, how Wayne a local man salvages the spar from the Hazel Pearl; 22:10 other shipwrecks in the area such as the Mayflower; 22:38 story of the person buried on Fox Island, Describes how his family settled Fox Island, Hiscock suspects the body found in the bog on Fox Island which has long hair and was wrapped in a blanket was the grave of Joseph Hiscock; 26:35 why families moved from Fox Island to Champney’s West, the main family names in the community; 28:47 how the name of the community was changed from Salmon Cove to Champney’s West, Hiscock explains how he thinks Champney’s East is older than Champney’s West there are Champney’s West families buried in Champney’s Arm; 30:05 Champney’s West during World War Two blackouts, low flying planes; 32:14 Description of local characters, Story about a local character Bill who worked on the Labrador and put a pair of women’s underwear in a keg of molasses as a practical joke; 37:20 Description of Christmas when Hiscock was growing up visiting, caroling; 38:13 Description of mummering and mummering rig up, Visiting and drinking during Christmas; 40:17 Celebrating bonfire night, Stealing tubs to burn; 41:30 what he feels is the most important thing in the community to save, Description of square dancing, Language; 43:09 Description of who would play button accordion for square dancing, how many couples you would need. 


http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/singleitem/collection/ich_en/id/984/rec/3



Pro tip: Accession numbers are your friends! Make sure you label your log with the number/name of the sound file you are indexing! 



Watch the YouTube tutorial here:

https://youtu.be/qPSDewUnd5w 



What Did You Do with Sawdust in Whiteway?

Whiteway, a community around Trinity Bay, was once home to two sawmills run by two different local families. The Drovers, who lived to the North of the brook which powered their mill, had a shingle mill which they established soon after arriving in Whiteway in the 19th century. The Burgess mill (pictured below) was established many decades after the Drover mill, in 1919. In both cases, milling provided some supplementary income to declining fishing wages and prospects. 


Photo of the Burgess Sawmill today. It is a short, long building, with an orange shingled exterior, a pair of wide garage doors painted red, and a regular door also painted red.

Beyond making Whiteway a great place to get lumber and shingles, these two mills also changed Whiteway’s landscape by producing mountains of sawdust through the milling process. The Drovers mill produced so much sawdust, in fact, that locals today highlight an area on the western portion of the north bank of the brook their mill was powered by as being the historic location of the ‘Drover’s Sawdust Pile.’ Similarly, members of the Burgess family recall a mount of sawdust being put between the house and mill until the mid 1920’s, when a garage was built. After that period, sawdust was piled behind the sawmill.


Far from being useless, sawdust is a very versatile material because of its insulating properties. In the case of Whiteway, the abundance of sawdust made it an easy material to use to help preserve ice after the winter. Some of the Burgess family today even recall that in the winter, blocks of ice were cut from Jimmy Rowe’s Pond and buried in sawdust. The ice was used to preserve salmon which had been caught out in the bay, which was later sold to the Harnum's in Hearts Delight, Cramm's in Green’s Harbour, and the Moores in Carbonear. Saws used to cut ice from Jimmy Rowe’s pond remain in the Burgess sawmill to this day. As Bob Burgess writes,


‘Once the ponds froze over, the horse and sled would be driven across the pond in the morning, logs would be hauled out before lunch time, lunch was eaten and our uncles would change out of sweat-filled clothes, then head back across the pond to bring out more wood. This continued until the pond ice broke up in the spring.’


Below, you can see a painted wood carving of the Burgess family collecting ice to be stored in sawdust. Today, the piles of sawdust that were once around Whiteway are gone, and the mills have fallen out of use, but the legacies of the Drover and Burgess milling enterprises continue to be featured in local historic accounts.






Call for online papers and presentations: Folklore and Crisis. #FolkloreThursday


The Folklore Studies Association of Canada will hold this year's annual meeting online! The meeting will take place between June 2 and 7. Specific dates and technologies will be communicated shortly.

The theme of the conference is Folklore and Crisis.We invite applicants to reflect on creative responses to situations of difficulty and distress. Creativity, a key characteristic of folklore, often comes into play at such times. The current pandemic, for example, continuously affects our daily lives, prompting us to create vernacular mechanisms to cope with new fearful realities, resist inequalities, fill gaps in institutional knowledge, maintain a sense of normalcy, and build future plans. Creative impulses range from traditional practices revived during lockdowns to emergent health beliefs and conspiracy theories. Folklorists also face the need for creative innovations. During the pandemic, scholars have had to adjust their methodologies, research questions, and knowledge dissemination trajectories. Likewise, public folklorists and practitioners have developed alternative platforms and strategies for museums, archives, government organizations, arts institutions, and businesses.

We invite academic and practice-based paper proposals on all manifestations of folklore and folklife that address crisis and creative responses to it. How can folklorists, as well as the individuals and groups we study, shed light on the nuances of human experiences at times of difficulty, discomfort, or danger? In the case of the current pandemic, what implications do the new realities have for our field in both academic and public spheres? Proposals for panels, discussion sessions, and individual papers related to other themes in the disciplines of ethnology and folklore are welcome.

We especially encourage proposals from graduate students. Given the nature of the virtual format, this is an affordable chance to present at a national conference. We also intend to create virtual opportunities for networking.

Please send abstracts of 150 words, in English or French, to Dr. Mariya Lesiv (mlesiv@mun.ca) by March 1, 2021.

All accepted presenters must be paid-up members of FSAC/ACEF for 2021. To join or renew your membership, visit https://www.acef-fsac.ulaval.ca/en/join.

Monday, February 22, 2021

Historic Paint Colours, Heritage Palettes, Red Ochre Paint, and Jellybean Row!


Two-tone house in Hickman's Harbour, Random Island, late 1990s. 


In the early days, the colour palette used on Newfoundland and Labrador buildings was much more limited than today. Colours available were those that could be made from natural materials such as minerals (for example, red and yellow ochre, zinc white or lime white wash) or plant dyes. In the first half of the 19th century many wooden buildings, particularly in rural parts of Newfoundland and Labrador were either unpainted, whitewashed, or covered with red ochre paint comprising powdered ochre mixed with seal or fish oil. Evidence of red ochre paint has been found in the archaeological remains of the province’s earliest known residential building constructed in 1610 at the Cupids Cove Plantation. 

In the 19th century the houses of the wealthier residents sometimes employed a different colour for trimwork while most houses were a single colour.  Until well into the 20th century, houses in many outport communities were white with a coloured trim.  Fishing structures such as stages and storehouses were generally either white, red ochre or brown or not painted at all, although there were always exceptions to the rule in terms of colour. 

In the early 20th century, pre-mixed paints became available, particularly with the establishment of the paint division of Standard Manufacturing in St. John’s in 1907. After World War II, a much broader range of colours became available around the province, the product of modern industrial paint production processes. The 1970s and '80s saw the beginning of a significant expansion of the colour palette, particularly in St. John’s. The St. John’s Heritage Foundation played a significant role in the revitalization of the old downtown residential neighbourhoods during this period.  The foundation encouraged livelier colour schemes with one or more accent colours for exterior trims and mouldings


Heritage Paints

Historic paint colours in Newfoundland and Labrador
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q9sG2zmR2lM3ixsznf542E9WDgjy7Zok/view?usp=sharing

Historic Paint Chart from Templetons
https://heritagefoundation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/nl-historic-paint.pdf

Shane O'Dea on heritage paint schemes:
http://www.ichblog.ca/2016/03/an-oral-history-of-heritage.html

Red Ochre and Lime Whitewash
http://www.ichblog.ca/2019/01/looking-for-people-who-remember-making.html

Making red ochre paint
http://www.ichblog.ca/2016/05/fisheriesfriday-red-ochre-and-lime.html

Way more on red ochre than you would ever want to know
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hp8ndU8-K6a99KARGh0WNjiG4Io-6KJf5PLuNPk5Qlk/edit

Paint in Twillingate
http://www.ichblog.ca/2014/05/folklore-photo-painting-jenkins-house.html


Jelly Bean Row Colours

The Jelly Bean Palette
https://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/trip-ideas/travel-stories/the-jelly-bean-palette

Is the bay being bedazzled by Jellybean Row colours and losing its unique identity?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/jellybean-row-shift-1.4777383

Candy Coloured Homes
http://www.outdoorlifestylemagazine.com/2017/03/candy-coloured-homes/



Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Memories from Whiteway: Uncle Jesse's Cellar


Image of Uncle Jesse's cellar in Whiteway. The cellar is partially underground, with a concrete lined entrance. The cellar has been converted into a greenhouse, and is covered in stiff, clear, material to let sunlight in.

Uncle Jesse’s cellar is a root cellar built into the size of a hill in Whiteway sometime in the 1930s, located just behind the Burgess Designated Heritage Property’s Cellar. In typical cellar fashion, it is not a very big building, but it is unique in the way that it is only partially underground. 

Like all root cellars across Newfoundland Uncle Jesse’s cellar would have been built to store vegetables over the winter. Unlike other root cellars, however, Uncle Jesse’s cellar was reused by the Burgess family over the years for a variety of reasons, and even featured some built in benches and furniture at one point. Ian Burgess recalls, for example, that Uncle Jesse would nap or lay down in his cellar during the summer months because:


‘He had some kind of consumption or issue with his lungs and found it difficult to breath so uh, on-uh, on-uh muggy summer days they-they had uh, y’know the uh-th’ fainting couch? Th-the the one with the rounded back? uh, uh, the s- the settee I guess you’d call it? Uh he had one of those put out there and he would go out there and uh, an get some relief on-uh, on warm days.’


Bob Burgess recalls this as well, saying that his Uncle Jesse had severe emphysema, and may have even lost a lung to his illness at one point. Bob also informed us that, because of its second use as a resting place for Uncle Jesse, the cellar was actually quite cabin-like in his youth, around the 1970s. 


More generally, Uncle Jesse and his wife were known around the community for always having a household full of young people. While they did not have any biological children themselves, the couple took in a few kids over the years who lived with them for a period of time. Bob Burgess recalls that there was always a ‘jeer’ of kids around his Aunt and Uncle’s house. He told us, more specifically:


‘I remember being it in - in it - as a cabin. Right? Like it had a roof and all that kind of stuff, and um… Just being in there...and, y’know, th-the boys were hanging out, my brother - older brother - was there and all that kind of stuff yeah I remember being in there….It’s not very big. Its was tight quarters right? yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. And there was...uh, my memory is foggy about it, but it was just a series of benches and maybe even bunks somehow in there, right, but uh, yeah, I can remember being in there.’


Both Bob and Ian Burgess also recall that there was a musical component to their time in Whiteway with their Uncle and his kids. Bob recalls that they were often singing and playing guitar, and Ian told us:


‘I can remember them playing guitar and I still play the same chords that-uh junior taught me[….] And down on the-uh, down on the, near the beach of the drum going down uh, to there, I can remember them playing there for some guys who came over from-uh, they spent a couple weeks over here catching eels in the brook. And I can remember Junior and Ches down there playing for them.’


Today, the cellar, along with the rest of the Burgess Heritage Property, are still owned by members of the Burgess family. Uncle Jesse’s cellar, unfortunately, fell into disrepair after years of neglect, but has recently been renovated into a greenhouse, bringing it into a new phase of existence. While Uncle Jesse’s cellar is not a designated building, the stories attached to it are compelling and help illustrate to ways in which buildings evolve and are adapted or refit to suit the needs of the people who use them. 


Friday, February 5, 2021

Living Heritage Podcast Ep200 - Doughboys and Molasses, Oh!



We chat with folklorist Dr. Anna Kearney Guigné about the new CD - Doughboys and Molasses, Oh!, which offers listeners a fresh perspective on the musical heritage of the Gros Morne region on Newfoundland’s west coast. Available on disc and digital download, the album features 22 carefully restored tracks originally recorded from local singers by folk song researchers in the mid-20th century. 

Also included are four new performances specially commissioned for the compilation from musicians Anita Best, Matthew Byrne, Daniel Payne and Jim Payne. The accompanying booklet explores the stories of the songs, the singers and the collectors, as well as the role of singing in family and community life.





###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Heritage Update for February 2021 - Sustainability, and Craft at Risk



In this edition of our newsletter: heritage and what the past has to teach us about a sustainable future; threats to the continued transmission of craft skills in Newfoundland and Labrador; and the history of the Burgess family of Whiteway, Trinity Bay; plus a link to our ongoing Fieldnotes series!

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Community Development and Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Newfoundland and Labrador

a group of people at work building a wooden boat
Boat building workshop, courtesy Wooden Boat Museum of NL

 

As part of Heritage NL's ongoing Fieldnotes series, this publication provides an overview of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) program developed by Heritage NL. It traces the early development of the program, and outlines the ICH Strategy and the shifting role of heritage work in Newfoundland and Labrador. 

It then provides an overview of two ongoing projects that explore, document, and encourage the continued safeguarding and sharing of ICH knowledge and skills: the Living Heritage Economy Case Study project, and the NL Heritage Craft at Risk project. 

Download the pdf version here

Friday, January 29, 2021

Heritage NL has two job postings: Executive Director and Training Coordinator

 Two new job postings with Heritage NL


Training Coordinator

Heritage NL seeks an individual to perform the role of Training Coordinator to help develop and deliver a series of modules and mentorships targeted to: a) individuals involved in the building trades who are interested in developing their knowledge of traditional building practices and restoration and; b) members of the public interested in developing knowledge and practice of traditional skills that are at risk of disappearing in the province. 

PDF of job ad - Deadline Feb 12, 2021


Executive Director

The position of Executive Director is responsible for the management of all staff, all reporting functions to the board and Provincial Government; budgeting and financial management, providing support to the board in its planning and policy making functions, and the implementation of all plans and policies. Heritage NL seeks a highly motivated individual with experience in organizational management and planning. Candidates should have demonstrated training, knowledge of, experience in, and a broad understanding of the heritage field and current thinking and issues relating to it. They should be comfortable working at the grass roots community level at the same time that they can work with senior government officials, community leaders, and decision-makers. Good facilitation skills are a definite asset as is recognized leadership in the heritage field.

PDF of job ad - Deadline Feb 24, 2021

Living Heritage Podcast Ep199 Growing up as a Lebanese Newfoundlander

Folklorist Wyatt H. Shibley interviews retired local politician Lorraine Michael about what it was like growing up with Lebanese roots in downtown St. John’s.

https://anchor.fm/living-heritage/episodes/Ep199-Growing-up-as-a-Lebanese-Newfoundlander-epl2lu



###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.


Tuesday, January 26, 2021

A history of the Lane/Heffern House in Salvage, Bonavista Bay


The Salvage Fisherman’s Museum (alternatively, the Lane/Heffern House) was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by Heritage NL March 20th, 2020 due to its historic and aesthetic value. Supposedly the oldest surviving home in the area, the museum building was constructed sometime in the mid 19th century by members of the Lane family who lived in Salvage by 1830.

Heritage NL has been working with the museum committee on documenting the history of the structure, which has proven to be more complicated than originally thought. It may be that the building was constructed in two phases, which would explain some of the quirks of the building itself.

You can download the full report in pdf format and get all the architectural gossip right here

Thursday, January 7, 2021

Living Heritage on the Baccalieu Trail

It may have been "Stay Home Year" here in Newfoundland and Labrador, but that didn't stop the Living Heritage Podcast from exploring! In "Hidden Gems of the Baccalieu Trail," host Natalie Dignam takes you on an audio tour of the Baccalieu Trail region on the island of Newfoundland. Explore all the episodes in the series by clicking the pinpoints on the map.

Listen to Living Heritage Episode 198: Make Your Own Podcast. Natalie walks your through creating your first podcast!

Thursday, December 24, 2020

Living Heritage Podcast Ep197 The Bowring Park Footbridge and Blanche Lemco Van Ginkel


In 2020, Heritage NL designated a concrete footbridge in Bowring Park as a Registered Heritage Structure, one of the first modernist structures in NL to be recognized as such. The bridge was designed in part by influential architect Blanche Lemco Van Ginkel, and it has been an object of fascination and study for Newfoundland architecture student Sarah Reid. Folklorist Dale Jarvis chats with Sarah about her interest in the footbridge, and shares some of the audio she recorded in conversation with Blanche Van Ginkel herself.


###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Quick Reads in NL Vernacular Architecture: What is a Trunnel?

 


The photo above was taken underneath the Fisherman’s Museum in Salvage, Bonavista Bay, and shows the sill of the building, with a protruding trunnel. But what is a trunnel? 

A trunnel (also spelled treenail, trenail, or trennel) is a remnant of ancient building technologies which you can still see in some Newfoundland and Labrador historic buildings. A “treenail” is essentially that, a nail made from a tree: a peg or tenon.  Devine’s Folklore of Newfoundland defines it as “Corruption of trenail: a wooden peg, a foot or so long, used for fastening ships' timber, wharf sticks, etc.”



The use of wood as a fastener can be traced back over 7,000 years, and archaeologists have found traces of wood nails in the excavation of early European sites. When settlers arrived in Newfoundland, they brought their knowledge of trunnels with them, and used them in both house and ship building.  The Slade and Kelson Diaries, Trinity, for Monday 16th, April 1832, reports that a leak in the Caroline was found to have been caused by a “trunnel vacuum” - a hole left where a trunnel should have been driven in. 

Treenails are cut from a single piece of wood, and used so that the grain of the treenail runs perpendicular to the grain of the receiving wood. This adds structural strength to the joint. Hardwoods were preferred, and when they couldn't be found in Newfoundland, they were imported, as the P. & L. Tessier advertisement below, from the Evening Herald of 1892-06-22, demonstrates:





Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Salvage Fisherman's Museum - the mystery of the missing chimney

 

Photo shows the remains of the back wall of what was once a stone chimney

We've been doing some research in Salvage, helping out the volunteers at the Fisherman's Museum (the old Lane/Heffern House) to better understand the history of their structure.

Pictured above is the remains of what was once a large stone chimney/fireplace. What is visible is the back wall of the chimney, and if you look at the top of the photo, you can see hole where the fireplace used to be. There is a very heavy wooden beam that runs from wall to wall in front of the opening, which indicates how far out the fireplace once went. 

 
View of one of the small bedrooms upstairs in the museum, with the outline of the original chimney visible to the right.

Above is a view of the back small bedroom, where you can see the outline of the original chimney, intruding into the floorspace of the room. It tapers upwards toward the ceiling.

Last week, we were able to explore the building more fully, and I was able to get up into the attic of the building. There, one can see the remains of the top of the original chimney:

Shows the stone remains of the top of the chimney, with the more modern roof built around it.


In the photo above, you can see the remaining back wall of the chimney. A blower vent had been installed at one point, and is no longer connected.

We were also able to crawl under the house, where the remains of the original chimney foundation are still visible. These are large stones, measuring about 1.5m from the back wall of the house, and about 2m wide. 



Looking at the remains of the chimney help us better understand the history of the Lane/Heffern House. We suspect the building was rebuilt/expanded in the 1880s or early 1890s, and the chimney may have been removed at that point. The height of the chimney suggests that the roofline was much lower at one point, possibly with the house being only 1.5 storeys high. Other physical evidence in the building suggests it also occupied a small footprint, and would have been a roughly square building, likely with one room centred around the large gable-end walk-in or "inglenook" chimney.  Originally, it may have looked something like the image below, taken from D.C. Beard's "Shelters, Shacks, & Shanties" published in 1914:


There are still a lot of questions to answer about the history of the house, including when and how it was originally constructed, and when it was modified and why. Stay tuned! If you have any information about the building, or memories of it before it was a turned into a museum in the 1960s, email research@heritagenl.ca or comment below. 






Friday, December 18, 2020

Living Heritage Podcast Ep196 - Roger Tinney, furniture maker

 


Roger Tinney is a furniture maker based in Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Originally from Prince Edward Island, Roger inherited some of his skill as a carpenter from his father and grandfather, and then expanded his knowledge of furniture-making after moving to British Columbia. We chat about family origins, working with wood, finishes, and the importance of whimsey!


###

Living Heritage is about people who are engaged in the heritage and culture sector, from museum
professionals and archivists, to tradition bearers and craftspeople - all those who keep history alive at the
community level. The show is a partnership between HeritageNL and CHMR Radio.
Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Report on the 2020 Salvage People, Places, and Culture Workshop

hands holding a pen, making notes on a map of the town of Salvage, Newfoundland


Monday, 2 November 2020, the Town of Salvage hosted a “People, Places & Culture “Workshop, facilitated by Heritage NL. The event was attended by approximately 15-20 individuals from the community on the first night and 20-25 the following day, Tuesday, 3 November 2020, including some partner and governmental organizations.  

The workshop comprised two parts: I) a cultural mapping activity that considered the community’s tangible and intangible cultural assets and; II) a session to explore opportunities for protecting, safeguarding and developing these assets that included representation from stakeholders.  The latter activity involved the ranking of themes and clusters of cultural assets that emerged from the mapping session. 

This report is a summary of what was discussed, and includes a number of recommendations, resources, and links from HeritageNL.

You can view the full report here

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

Visiting the Burgess Property, Whiteway, Trinity Bay.

Burgess Fishing Stage

The Burgess Property is a collection of 6 buildings in Whiteway, NL, dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was designated a Registered Heritage Structure by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2020. Built and operated by an unbroken line of Burgess family members over six generations, the cluster of closely spaced buildings are part of a single family enterprise. Their continuity helps to imbue a sense of how the property was inhabited and operated for more than 100 years, and the diversity of buildings speaks to the variety of functions and income sources of outport family premises.

We visited the site yesterday, and are working with the Burgess family to document and better understand the history of the premises. Stay tuned for more info and photos on this group of structures in the weeks to come!

Burgess Dwelling House

Burgess Stable/Store (left) and sawmill (right)