Living Heritage Podcast Ep194 Lighthouses and Lighthouse Keepers

We're all about lighthouses and lighthouse keepers this week on Living Heritage. Grab a cup of tea, and listen to tales told by Barry Porter, as well as by archival audio from Jack Roberts and Theresa Colbourne, who were both born at lighthouse stations. Plus, an archival recording of Cyril Myrick and a mystery involving the Cape Race lighthouse, plus news of a very strange phenomenon said to happen at the Long Point Light in Twillingate. 

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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.

News from Harbour Grace and Salvage. Plus posters, pound holes, and police!

It is suddenly November, and things are as busy as ever at HeritageNL. In this month's newsletter, we bring you up to date on what's happening with Harbour Grace’s Registered Heritage District, news on how schoolkids can take part in the 2020-2021 Heritage Places Poster Contest, a first in a series of reports on our ongoing research in Salvage, with a story and request for information about the Fisherman’s Museum/Lane-Heffern House, an architectural spotlight on fisheries heritage, pound boards, and side spans, and an article on the history of the Newfoundland Ranger Force. 

Articles by Jerry Dick, Andrea O’Brien, Maryssa Barras, Dale Gilbert Jarvis,  and Ellen Power.

• Download the Heritage Update as a pdf here

Living Heritage Podcast Ep193 Making Snowshoes with Edwin Bishop

Host Dale Jarvis travels to Heart’s Delight-Islington for a chat with boatbuilder and snowshoe maker Edwin Bishop. Listen in and learn about the process of making traditional wooden snowshoes, steaming and bending the wood by hand, the types of styles and wood Edwin uses, and which snowshoe really is the best kind to wear while checking your rabbit slips. 

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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.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep192 Hallowe'en Special - Newfoundland Ghost Stories

Hallowe'en comes to Living Heritage! In this special spooktacular edition of Living Heritage, host Dale Jarvis has dug through the archives to unearth some of his favourite recordings of Newfoundland ghost stories. We've got strange tales from Andrew Parsons, Jack Mansfield, Mike Flynn, Jesse Rideout, Sarah Jackman, and the late, much-beloved storyteller Alice Lannon. Listen in, if you dare!

Living Heritage Podcast Ep191: Newfoundland Ponies with Libby Carew

 

Libby Carew (center) with volunteers at the Newfoundland Pony Heritage Pasture in Cupids, NL.

Libby Carew is a board member of the Newfoundland Pony Society. Libby first encountered Newfoundland ponies as a child while visiting her grandmother on the Southern Shore. In this episode, we talk about the history of the Newfoundland pony, why they are an important part of the province’s heritage, and the Newfoundland Pony Society’s hope to build a pasture where residents and tourists can visit these beautiful animals.

Volunteer Nima pets a Newfoundland pony in the pasture.

 

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.

 

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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.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep190 - Nurse, you have got to come!

 

Gwenllian (Gwen) Decil LeGrow was born in South Wales on December 10, 1912. She served as a radio operator during World War II, and became a nurse in London England. Gwen loved adventure and in 1949 went to Newfoundland to serve as a nurse in the outports. It was there she met and married the local RCMP officer and love of her life Reg to whom she was married for fifty-three years. In the 1980s, Gwen LeGrow was interviewed by Marilyn Marsh on nursing practices in Newfoundland. In this remarkable bit of archival audio, she talks about her experiences as a nurse in outport Newfoundland, London during the blitz, and her early work as a midwife. Gwen Legrow passed away in Calgary in 2009 at the age of 96 years.

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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.

Job Posting: Historic Places Researcher - a recent graduate internship.

Are you passionate about sharing the stories of historic places in Newfoundland and Labrador? Do you have a background in oral history interviewing and historic research? A love of public history and folklore? We might have a job for you!

The Intangible Cultural Heritage office of HeritageNL is hiring a Historic Places Researcher, to help research the hidden histories of historic places, and making those stories more accessible to the general public. The position will be researching the heritage, architecture, and oral history of local historic places, with the goal that the collected information and images from the research will be featured in online collections.

The applicant must have excellent oral and written communication skills; knowledge of Newfoundland and Labrador heritage; availability to travel locally; and an undergraduate or masters level degree in history, archaeology, folklore, or architecture. 

Hourly wage: $20.00                                                                                   
The position will run for approximately 25 weeks, finishing Friday, 26 March, 2021.

Application Deadline: 5:00pm, Wednesday, 7th of October,  2020.

The position is funded through Young Canada Works at Building Careers in Heritage, and the applicant must fit the following criteria:

• Canadian Citizen, permanent resident, or have refugee status in Canada
• Legally entitled to work in Canada
• Will be between the ages of 16 and 30 years of age at the start of employment
• College, CGEP, or University graduate
• Graduated from a post-secondary institution within the past 2 years
• Has not participated in the YCW program with Heritage NL in the past

Send cover letter, cv, and 3 references by email, by October 7th, to:

Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer
dale@heritagenl.ca 

Living Heritage Podcast Ep189 - Down on Bellvue Farm

Did you know that Admiralty House Communications Museum was once a farmhouse? In this episode, folklorists Shannon Bateman and Alyson Small trace the domestic history of the property, its furry inhabitants, and the legacy of the Parsons family who cultivated the land for nearly fifty years. Settle in as we share stories of blossoming young love, Saturday afternoons spent baking, and a clever cow named Swiss – which all took place at the Bellview Farm.

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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.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep188 Venereal Disease in the First World War

Today on the Living Heritage podcast, we are in conversation with Allison Bennett, a Ph.D. Candidate at Memorial University. Her research investigates the soldiers of the British Army who contracted venereal diseases while serving in the Middle East during the First World War.  Her research interests include War and Society; Gender History; and the History of Medicine. We talk prophylactics, prostitution, and recent pandemics!

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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.

Living Heritage Economy Case Study - Hiking and Heritage with Barb Parsons-Sooley

 

Our newest in our Living Heritage Economy case studies is released today: A Walk Back in Time: Hiking and Heritage with Barb Parsons-Sooley.

Barb Parsons-Sooley is an avid hiking enthusiast and owner of Wind at Your Back Guided Adventures. She has been a hiking guide for several years for Routes Adventures, touring people around the Bonavista region and sharing Newfoundland and Labrador’s history and stories. She is also the president of the Hike Baccalieu trail maintenance association.

These case studies examine the links between living heritage, traditionality, entrepreneurism, and community economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador. Barb's case study is number 7 in the series, and you can find all of them at https://www.mun.ca/ich/resources/,

For more information, email ich@heritagenl.ca 

Living Heritage Podcast Ep187 The Great War Spy Panic

 

This week, we are handing over the podcast to Admiralty House Museum, in cooperation with Memorial University Folk6740 Public Folklore students Katie Crane, Micaela Muldoon, and Mariana Esquivel.

This episode of the Pigeon Post podcast centres on (purported) German spies in Newfoundland during World War I. The hosts discuss various stories about people of German ancestry, or people who were perceived to have German ties, who fell under suspicion and the consequences of this. The hosts also discuss rumour theory, the social and political climates that breed rumours, and the dangers of believing and spreading them blindly — in World War I and at all times. 

Download the mp3 here

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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.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep186 Carding and Weaving in Millville, Codroy Valley

Today, we are taking a trip to the community of Millville, in the Codroy Valley on Newfoundland’s west coast.  We’re going to have a chat with Edwin “Hockey” Gale, whose family started the carding mill that gave the town its name.  Joining him is Megan Samms, who is a weaver and textile artist living and working in Millville near the house she grew up in, and where she learned to spin yarns and knit them together. 

You can visit Megan's website and see some of her gorgeous work here:
https://livetextiles.online/

You can also follow her on Instagram here:
https://www.instagram.com/livetextiles/

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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.

Living Heritage Economy Case Study - Living History Meets Social Enterprise: The Green Family Forge

The Green Family Forge is the focus of August's Living Heritage Economy Case Study.

The Green Family Forge. Photo by Dale Jarvis.

The Green Family Forge is a Registered Heritage Structure in Trinity. It is both a Living History museum and a fully functional forge, supporting two blacksmiths who create stunning metal crafts. The Trinity Historical Society hopes to grow this social enterprise and generate new opportunities in old traditions.

Blacksmith working at Green Family Forge. Photo by Dale Jarvis.

You can download a pdf version of the case study here.

This is part of a series of case studies examining the links between living heritage, traditionality, entrepreneurism, and community economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador. For more information, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca. Photo courtesy of Wooden Boat Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep185 Using the BillionGraves app to document local cemeteries

Cemetery sleuths Dale Jarvis and Katie Crane introduce you to the BillionGraves app for your mobile phone.  BillionGraves is the world's largest GPS-linked cemetery data resource. As you take photos with the BillionGraves app, each gravestone is automatically marked with a GPS location. The data is then made readily available at BillionGraves.com for free for millions of families around the globe for generations to come. Dale and Katie talk about the intro workshops they've been running with communities, and give you some tips on how you can get started using your phone to document and map local cemeteries and grave markers.

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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.

Heritage Weaving - Condon's 100% Pure Wool Blankets, Prince Edward Island to Newfoundland

 

A while back, I got an email from Joanne Morrissey, who we've been working with on her North River project. She had just cleared out an old trunk that had been stored in her basement since 1992. Her mother used to buy sheep's wool when they were shorn in the spring, wash it, pick it and mail via Canada Post to Wm. Condon and Sons, PEI, to have blankets made. 

She writes, "They would make and return in the mail, or return a blanket in the mail, maybe not from the exact wool, but at the time I thought it was from the exact wool!"

If you have a memory of wool processing in Newfoundland, or the Condon mill in particular, email me at dale@heritagenl.ca.

Cemetery Conservation in Placentia: St. Luke's Anglican Churchyard

Last week we visited the most adorable churchyard in Placentia to teach a cemetery conservation workshop with the O'Reilly House Museum and other heritage volunteers.

St. Luke's Anglican Churchyard. Photo by Katie Crane.

St. Luke's Anglican Church has an ancient history. The current church was built between 1906 and 1908, but the original church that was on the site was built in 1689. Many of the stones in the churchyard are fieldstones, and there were a number of 17th century Basque stones which were removed for preservation, suggesting the use of the site as a burial ground predates the 1689 church. You can read more about the history of St. Luke's here.

Memento Mori stones for the Hobson family. Photo by Katie Crane.

Student workers, museum staff, and other heritage volunteers met inside St. Luke's Anglican Church to listen to Dale Jarvis and Andrea O'Brien discuss cemetery conservation. 

Dale talked about the Do's and Don'ts of cemetery conservation. Everyone was curious about how to properly clean and maintain gravestones in historic cemeteries, and how to make sure that information about the gravestones are properly documented using either written marker record forms, or apps like BillionGraves.

Andrea talked about how municipalities can designate historic cemeteries which can help protect them. She talked about the work that the cemetery committee and the Conservation Corps Green Team are doing in the Immaculate Conception cemetery in Cape Broyle. 

Afterwards, we had a short break in the rain, so we went outside and I walked people through how to use the BillionGraves app to document the inscriptions on the headstones. The recording is a work in progress, and you can check out the St. Luke's Anglican Cemetery page here.

Gravestones at St. Luke's Churchyard. Photo by Katie Crane.

If you want to learn more about the work that's going on in the Immaculate Conception cemetery in Cape Broyle, or why cemetery documentation and public engagement is important, you can check out the most recent HeritageNL newsletter here,

We'd love to visit more communities and help cemetery committees, museum workers, and heritage societies safeguard historic cemeteries. Have questions? Want us to visit your local cemetery and lead a documentation workshop? Get in touch! dale@heritagenl.ca or andrea@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Economy Case Study - Revitalizing Barking in Southern Labrador: The Labrador Artisans Co-operative

July's Living Heritage Economy Case Study features the Labrador Artisan's Co-operative.

Barked Labrador cossack. Photo by Cindy Colosimo Robbins.

A newly incorporated organization, the Labrador Artisans Co-operative is using old traditions in new ways to tell the story of Labrador and its history. Barking is a centuries-old tradition used by both Indigenous and settler communities to preserve animal hides, textiles, and fishing gear. The Labrador Artisans Co-operative is mixing this Labrador tradition with innovative materials dyeing techniques to create products that showcase what makes Labrador unique.

Barked hand bags. Photo by Cindy Colisimo Robbins.

You can download a pdf version of the case study here.

This is part of a series of case studies examining the links between living heritage, traditionality, entrepreneurism, and community economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador. For more information, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca. Photo courtesy of Labrador Artisans Co-operative.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep184 Eileen Matthews and NERRL Hand Painted Designs

Eileen lives and works in New Perlican, where she creates unique arts and crafts for her business, NERRL Hand Painted Designs. Eileen is also an active member of the New Perlican Heritage Committee. In today’s episode, Eileen talks about how Newfoundland scenery inspires her art, and some recent heritage projects in New Perlican. Listeners may know the small community for their colourfully painted stages. Picturesque New Perlican is not to be missed if you are taking a drive along the Baccalieu Trail. 

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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.

Heritage Update: Modernist Architecture, Spruce Beer, Adaptive Reuse, and Cemeteries!

Van Ginkel Footbridge, 1962

In this edition of the Heritage Update: Sarah Reid on the Hidden Modernist Architecture in Bowring Park; Rebecca Newhook is looking for possible placements for the MUN Folklore fall 2020 work terms; Dale Jarvis investigates the “St. Johns’ Spruce Beer Brewery” on Signal Hill; a note on possible adaptive reuses for the Greenspond Courthouse by Myles Burry; and Katie Crane and Andrea O'Brien take us for a walk through some historic cemeteries, with some tips on what your communities can do to safeguard our landscapes of memories!

Download the pdf here

Living Heritage Podcast Ep183: Grates Cove Part 2

In this episode, we’re back for Part 2 with Terrance and Courtney Howell from Grates Cove Studios. Terrence and Courtney moved to Grates Cove over a decade ago and started their studio. The business has grown since and they also have a restaurant featuring Newfoundland, Cajun and Korean flavors, offer accommodations, and harvest their own seaweed to make their seaweed lotion. You can also sign up for cooking or art classes during your stay. In this episode, Terrance and Courtney talk about the history of the community and that elusive characteristic that makes Grates Cove such a unique and special place.

This episode is part of a special series about the Baccalieu Trail region of Newfoundland and Labrador. Join us as we explore the hidden gems of the Baccalieu Trail- from stories of phantom ship sightings to local art and history.

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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.

The Death of Mrs. Leah Rendell, Heart's Content, 1913

Yesterday, we posted a story by Ted Rowe about the Rendell Forge and a picture as it was in 2003. Above is a photo I took of the same building.  You can see the roofline has changed, and the siding was replaced with cedar shakes (shingles). The trees have grown up dramatically behind the building.

The other photo that Ted shared was of the Rendell boys at the time of their mother's funeral in 1913. Below is a copy of the article that ran in the Evening Telegram, 1913-09-30:

We will have more on the Rendell Forge in the future! 

There Would Be None Left Around to See: Wriggle Fences with Kevin Andrews #MakerMonday

For #MakerMonday we'll be profiling some of the people practicing traditional skills on the Baccalieu Trail.
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Kevin Andrews of New Perlican learned how to make wriggle fence by helping his uncles and grandfather make their own. Eight years ago, he and his wife Bonnie made one of their own to show their kids how it was done.

I just wanted to show the kids the type of fences that were around the community 40 and 50 years ago because there's none left here now. So I just made an 8 foot section, that's all. Just for them to have a look at it and just see the work that was involved.

He says that there is a fair bit of work involved in constructing a wriggle fence, but that it is worth it to preserve this knowledge for future generations. It is also what he calls a "long time fence." A wriggle fence will last up to 20 years.

Kevin Andrews' wriggle fence. Photo by Dale Jarvis.

Kevin likes that the wriggle fence is cost effective. The wood is harvested locally. He uses spruce or var for the wriggles and rails, but he says whatever wood bends easiest is a good choice. It also only uses four tools, so it does not require a lot of specialized equipment. He says all you need is an axe or power saw for cutting the wriggles, a hammer or wooden mallet for driving in the posts and wooden dowels used to secure the rails in place, an auger or drill for making holes in the rails for the wooden dowels, and a pocket knife for sharpening the wooden dowels so they can be used as nails.

If you're curious on the steps to making a wriggle fence yourself, listen to Kevin describe how he built his own.

Heritage Foundation NL · Kevin Andrews - Wriggle Fence

We took the wriggles and we come out and you need some rails too for to weave the wriggles in around. You need one on top, one in the centre, and one on the bottom. So you take the wriggle and you bend it, and you go in through the centre one from the top and come out through the bottom one, and that applies the wriggle out facing you. Then the next one you put in, you put it in on the opposite side of the centre piece and the three rail fence, and you weave it the opposite way and put it in through the centre and come down and come out through the bottom. So, each one, every second one goes the same way. There's no nails involved because, well, years ago they had no nails, so they used to make wooden dowels and they'd nail the rails onto the fence, drive the wooden dowel in through the rail and into the stake and weave the wriggles in the way I just told you, and you end up with the wriggle fence. But now, in the beginning you got to put the stakes down in the ground first. 6 or 8 feet apart, however wide you want it. And then you start from there after you get the stakes down in the ground. You drive them down through with a wooden mallet. And then you start from there and put your rails on and then after the rails on then come with the wriggle fences which you weave in through. I done 8 feet and it took me 8 hours, so it was roughly an hour a foot for to build the fence.

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Do you live on the Baccalieu Trail and practice a traditional skill or know someone who does? Fill out our survey!

The Rendell Forge, Heart's Content - guest post by Ted Rowe

Rendell Forge, 2003, courtesy Ted Rowe

The Rendell Forge, Heart's Content by Ted Rowe

The Rendell family of Newfoundland has its origins in Somerset, England.  Blacksmith Charles Rendell moved to Heart’s Content from Trinity in the early years of the 1800s and settled at the northern end of Rowe’s Bank, where he provided the ironwork for the vessels coming off the stocks at Rowe shipyard.  Descendents of Charles Rendell produced an unbroken line in the blacksmith trade in Heart’s Content for three generations.  His four sons Charles, Giles, James and John all took up the trade.  Son Charles was also Heart’s Content’s first constable, appointed in the 1830s, and was prominent in the Loyal Orange Association.   Bela, son of Giles, operated this forge with his son Jim in the 1920s.  When business fell off during the depression years Jim moved his family to Hants Harbour.  In 1941 at the age of 60 Bela went to Scotland as a blacksmith with the Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit.  He returned to Heart’s Content at the end of the war and continued with the forge in the 1950s, turning out grapnels, horseshoes and custom ironwork.  Following his death his son Ray worked the operation on a part-time basis.

 The Rendell brothers at the time of their mother's funeral in 1913.
From left to right Bela, Tolson, James, Giles, Charles