New Perlican Field Trip

Jillian, Rachael, Eileen, Betty, Ruth, Kelley, and Dale talk with Ches Peddle of New Perlican.

On Tuesday, June 4, I headed out to New Perlican, Trinity Bay with Dale, our new summer student Rachael, and two professors in the folklore department. We were taking Dr. Jillian Gould, and Dr. Kelley Totten from Memorial University's Folklore Department to meet with members of the community in order to explore future partnerships between the heritage committee and the folklore department.

St. Augustine's Anglican Church

Our first stop was the town hall where we met with four members of Heritage New Perlican to talk about the possibility of the two groups working together on a future folklore field school. After our formal meeting we explored the community with a stop in St. Augustine's Anglican Church. This church was built in 1927 and is set to be deconsecrated this month.

Ches Peddle

Our next stop was one of the colourful stages that dot the harbour of New Perlican. Ches Peddle, who showed us around his stage, grew up and lives in Vitters Cove, New Perlican. He worked on boats, and spent time in the north with the Hudson Bay Company. Ches also builds boats, and each summer he places a flag on the local landmark, Peter's Finger. Ches took us through his stage, explained the different fishing gear, and pointed out who built some of the boats, and stages in the harbour.

Grave located on private property.

We made a quick stop in St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery. This cemetery was part of a clean up project in 2017. The project was another partnership with Heritage New Perlican, and Memorial University. We also stopped to see a lone grave from 1816 which is located on private property. Our last stop of the day was stop at Ron Peddle's and the St. Augustine Anglican Cemetery as no trip to New Perlican is complete without goats. Unfortunately we didn't see any cemetery goats! We did however see little Bella, who is a pet pygmy goat owned by a community member.

Folk art in New Perlican by George Burrage

Introducing our new Craft-at-Risk researcher, Rachael Green

Hi! I’m Rachael Green. I study Archaeology/Geography at Memorial University. As a Co-operative Education student, I am currently interning as a Craft Researcher for the Craft Council in partnership with Heritage NL. The creativity of the craft has always inspired me. I'm thrilled to learn and broaden my horizons of all things craft, folk, and heritage!

My major goals for the summer are: Firstly, to recreate “The Radcliffe Red List of Endangered Crafts”, NL style! In hopes to allow the public a better understanding of crafts at risk, all while creating an organized database of craftspeople around the province. Secondly, to conduct research on the craft council’s new home, 275 Duckworth Street, and create storyboards of the history of each level of the building. Then, to obtain enough information to eventually create a historical report. To give a little overview on the building, it was initially built 1908-1911, homing the Newfoundland Clothing Factory, The Telegram, and then Compu College. If you have any information or questions on my upcoming projects, my email is craft@heritagenl.ca.

As my first week here comes to an end, I couldn't have asked for a better start! So far, I have visited the quaint town of New Perlican. Here, we roamed and spoke to locals on the towns fishing heritage, as they recalled stories of the true beauty of growing up in the area.



I also got the chance to visit some Icelandic sheep, and witness sheep shearing! I will never forget the experience, and the wool was just incredible. We were provided with substantial knowledge on the breed of sheep, as well as, the correct way to shear for a safe and positive experience for both yourself and the animal.

I'm super excited to spend the summer working with the Craft Council and Heritage NL. I’m looking forward to all the exciting adventures to come!

- Rachael

Memory Mug Up at the Market - Sunday, June 9

Poster design by Graham Blair.

Have you had the opportunity to join us for a Memory Mug Up at the St. John's Farmers' Market? This weekend is your chance!

Come to the community room at the St. John's Farmers' Market for our Memory Mug Up at The Market. This is a free and informal story sharing session where people gather, have a cup of tea, and share memories. You bring a memory of growing up, organizers in partnership with vendors at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market supply the tea and local food, and everyone has a chat. Following the sessions, those who are interested can set up a time to have their stories recorded and archived by one of our story collectors. These stories will be edited into a booklet, which will be launched during the final storytelling session in March 2020. 

Heritage NL is partnering with the St. John’s Farmer’s Market, and the St. John’s Storytelling Festival to host a monthly Memory Mug Up at The Market. This Mug Up will take place the second Sunday of each month from 2-3 p.m. at the St. John’s Farmer’s Market, 245 Freshwater Road.

If you have any older photographs you would like scanned bring them along and we will scan them and provide you a digital copy!

For more information please contact Terra Barrett with the Heritage NL toll free at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep153 Thrill of the Dark: Katie Crane on Fairies, Coffins, and Pirates

Learning the stories of a place is one thing that tourists seek out when they travel.  But what if some of those stories deal with darker themes? Towns and tourism operators are coming to see the value of what is known in the industry as “Dark Tourism.”

In this podcast, Folklore MA candidate Katie Crane talks to us about her studies in the field, escape rooms, pirate lore, coffin hardware, and her recent participation in “The Thrill of the Dark: Heritages of Fear Fascination and Fantasy” Conference in Birmingham, UK.

Katie Crane is a graduate student in the Public Sector program of Memorial University’s Department of Folklore. She has worked for the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove Museum, the Historic Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, and for Admiralty House Communications Museum. Her academic research interests include public folklore, museums, heritage interpretation, legends, linguistics, and language revitalization.

Download the mp3

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The Living Heritage Podcast 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. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Living Heritage Podcast Ep152 Goatlore - The Goats of New Perlican

Goats wearing yokes on Pinsent's Lane, 1940s.
Photo courtesy of Heritage New Perlican.

Curious how goats predict the weather? Want to know what goats and Girl Guide cookies have in common? Need to know what a goat yoke is? Listen to this goatlore podcast to learn all about the goats of New Perlican. We’ve sifted through the archives for our favourite audio clips about goats. Listen to stories and memories from Bertha Conway, Ron Peddle, Susie Smith, and Max Warren of New Perlican, and Grant Tucker of Winterton. It’s a podcast for all goat lovers!

Download the mp3


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The Living Heritage Podcast 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. Past episodes are hosted on Libsyn, and you can subscribe via iTunes, or Stitcher. Theme music is Rythme Gitan by Latché Swing.

Today's Red Ochre adventure: from bucket to board, an experiment!

We've been doing some research here on the traditional use of red ochre (you can read our preliminary research right here) and how people used to mix it with some type of oil (linseed, seal, or cod liver) as a paint for outbuildings in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A while ago, Heather Fifield, the Coordinator of Laboratories and Services at the Department of Biochemistry at Memorial University, emailed me about some seal oil that Dr. Fereidoon Shahidi's lab no longer needed. So today, I picked up a bucket of the stuff and carefully transported it back to our office.

As an experiment Michael Philpott in our office treated one side of a piece of wood with the pure oil, and then we mixed the oil with some powdered red ochre I had been given by Pete Porter of Change Islands. Michael coated the other side of the board with the red ochre/seal oil mix, and now we'll see how long it takes to dry. Even just a small amount of oil and ochre gave us a beautiful first coat stain, and we're looking forward to seeing how it looks after another coat.

We've been floating around the idea of doing a bigger project, mixing up a larger amount of red ochre paint and testing its effectiveness on an outdoor project like a stage or store. Stay tuned!

If you've got a memory of red ochre (or have some in your shed) send me an email at dale@heritagenl.ca

Check out this amazing carved wooden butter stamp! #FoodwaysFriday

We continue our #FoodwaysFriday theme of wooden kitchen implements with this fantastic piece from Robin Dooley of Frederickton, NL. Robin writes,

This is a butter stamp that my grandmother, Olive Sanger 1929-2017 of Lewisporte, gave to me when I went out on my own. Although we didn’t make much butter (only as a science experiment), we did use it to stamp the homemade play dough or shortbread cookies nan would often make for us. And I let my own daughter do the same now. 

My nan was born Olive Boone Of Burnt Head, Cupid’s. Her parents were Arthur Roland (Rolly) Wilson Boone and Diana Carolyn Bishop. She grew up in the last house on the right before you go up around the loop, there is a shed at the end of the driveway that once was her families shoppe. The house was bought by Mrs Ingeborg Marshall in the '60-'70s and then bought again in the 2000s and restored by a Miss Mackey and her husband. 

Apologies for not knowing her married name. I wish my nan was still here as I am not 100 sure where exactly this came from. She used to say her own great grandmother used it and it was probably around even longer than her! The house was full of treasures when it was sold, I often wish we had more of them to remember her with.

Robin also included the photo below, of her nan in the early 1930s in front of her family store. She writes, "The store sign was a porcelain Sunlight Soap sign and used to say A R Boone and they were in the process of mounting it when this photo was taken."

If any of you have stories or photos to share of Burnt Head or Cupid’s and the Bishop/ Dawe/Boone families, Robin would love to hear or see them. And, as always, if you've got a beloved hand-made kitchen implement, send us a pic and story we'll share it here. Email me at dale@heritagenl.ca

Old Salts (and Herself) - help ID these mystery photographs! #TBT

P10768 Man in winter

Do you recognize this person? Please help us put a name to these faces!

The Research Centre for the Study of Music, Media, and Place (MMaP) at Memorial University is putting the final touches on a website dedicated to the folksongs collected by MacEdward Leach between 1949 and 1951 across Newfoundland and in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We need your help to identify the people in his photo collection!

Please contact Gale at leach@mun.ca (or comment below!) We'll update captions here if we find out more information.

P10773 Woman on porch

P10779 Unidentified men on boat

P10781 Sailor smoking pipe 

P10780 Men and Boys on the dock

Fleming Street photos from the 1950s and 1960s

Tonight is our Georgestown Scanning/Mapping Party, where we are encouraging people to come share their neighbourhood memories and stories. We start at 7pm at The Lantern on Barnes Road.

To get you in the mood, here are a few photos of Fleming Street, sent to me by Channing Holland (formerly Catherine Channing) who grew up on Fleming Street.

Above is a photo of her sister and brother at the front door of 70 Fleming Street in 1955.  She writes, "The entrance changed in later years when the side windows were replaced by full length panes in a sort of rippled pattern." Today the entire front entrance has been replaced, but similar entranceways could be found all along that row of houses, known collectively as Maple Terrace.

The second one is again of her brother, sitting on the front fence.  She notes, "The cement fence was a much later addition sometime around the '60s I think." The bay window immediately behind the boy is 68 Fleming Street, which still has the same configuration in 2019. The open porch on 66 Fleming has been enclosed.

Finally, an interior photo of the living room of 70 Fleming, circa 1956. The mantel and tile surround remains in the house as of 2019.

At the time of these photos, the house was owned by James G Channing, civil servant, Companion of the Order of Canada, and cabinet secretary under Joseph Smallwood. 

Bring your neighbourhood photos to The Lantern tonight! We will share some of what we find in future posts.