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

The Art, Archaeology, History and Heritage of Graveyards

Tuesday, December 4th, 2012
1pm - 5pm
Johnson Geo Centre Celestial Gallery
175 Signal Hill Road, St. John’s

Cemeteries throughout Newfoundland and Labrador are revered as special, sacred places.They occupy both emotional and physical space in our communities. Cemeteries are also expressions of our spiritual beliefs and cultural values, as well as rich repositories of genealogical and community history. This half-day workshop offered by the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador looks at the history, folklore and conservation of historic graveyards in the province, and will give opportunities for participants to ask questions of the experts.

Moderator: Dale Jarvis, ICH Development Officer, Heritage Foundation of NL

Art and Archaeology Session
Gerald Pocius, MUN Folklore - Reading Newfoundland Gravestones
Martha Drake, Provincial Archaeology - Archaeology and the Portugal Cove Cemetery
Melanie Tucker, The Rooms Archive - Stone Pics Database

Conservation and Heritage Session
Andrea O’Brien, Heritage Foundation of NL - Cemeteries and Municipal Heritage Designation
Lisa Wilson, Heritage Foundation of NL - Port Royal Restoration Project
Annie McEwen, Folklorist - Headstone Rubbings and Maker’s Marks

Cost to participants:
$40.00 for the day, includes break

To register, contact Lisa at:
1-888-739-1892 ext 3
lisa@heritagefoundation.ca

Making Memory Maps

On Saturday November 10th, the ICH team at the Heritage Foundation put on a Memory Map Workshop facilitated by visual artist Marlene Creates. We had a good turnout with around 20 participants ranging from Memorial University students and faculty to community organization representatives and other people who have an interest in mapping projects.

Marlene first talked about some of her previous mapping work, including an excursion to Labrador to make memory maps with elders, as well as projects which involved asking community members to give awards to special places in their towns. After setting a foundation for how memory maps are made and how they can be useful tools in learning more about a community, she asked the participants to make a map of their own. We all sat down with paper, pencils and pencil crayons to draw a map from memory of a place that we feel closely connected to. One of Marlene's techniques that I found quite useful is to put tracing paper over a foundation map in order to create layers with specific themes. For example, on tracing paper above my memory map, I indicated where all of the vanished buildings once stood in my Mother's hometown. Other layers that I could have chosen to add include green spaces/trees, waterways and footpaths. Doing such layers asks the map maker to think about the space and visualize what it looks like (or looked like in the past) and how it makes use of space. My map, along with all the others made on that day, became a celebration of our special places, both past and present, from very personal perspectives.

Marlene Creates giving a talk on making memory maps.

Workshop participant working on the foundational layer of her memory map. 

Workshop participants working on their personal memory maps. 

A second layer is added to the map using tracing paper and colored pencils. This participant marks off the social spaces of her hometown, with indications of gender and frequency through the size and color of her dots. 

Workshop participant showing the map that she created for the workshop. After this we added a third and final layer which involved writing down information about the places marked off on our maps. We were encouraged to be as creative as we wanted to be!

One of the last things we did together during the workshop was share the contents of our maps with the other participants. It was very interesting to see how diverse the range in topic and style was. Some maps were very traditional with streets and buildings, others with more innovative with only one building and it's associated memories, plants, animals, and other unexpected features showing up. It was clear to us how mapping from memory can be used in many ways for all kinds of different personal and/or community building activities. More documentation and information regarding Marlene Creates' mapping projects can be seen on her website: http://www.marlenecreates.ca/ .
-Lisa

Mizzen Heritage Society Visit, Heart's Content

Yesterday I traveled to Heart's Content to spend some time with members of the town's Mizzen Heritage Society. This group of individuals have a vested interested in the heritage structures within their community. With their help, the Heart's Content Town Council has submitted an application to the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador to have an officially designated heritage district in their community. In the proposed district there are 18 buildings of historic interest, many of which are connected to the cable companies that once operated in Heart's Content. The Mizzen men discussed the proposal with me, and offered some historic background on some of the heritage buildings the are within the district. Over the next few months I will be making many trips to Heart's Content to visit not only the Mizzen Heritage group, but members of the town council and greater community too. Ultimately, I hope to figure out how I can help the Heart's Content heritage district be as successful as possible, as both a provincial point of interest as well as a tool for local community-building initiatives.

Here are John, Bob, and Claude (L to R) of the Mizzen Heritage Society standing in the town hall conference room. They told me all about what they do as a society, what some of their successful campaigns have been, and what some of their future plans are. They also gave me a sneak peek inside of some of the heritage buildings within the district (see below). I look forward to collaborating with them in the coming months.

The above photograph shows the interior of the Methodist School House (c.1919) in Heart's Content. It is now owned by the Mizzen Heritage Society who have converted it into a community museum. The amazing tiled floor is likely from when it was used by the Masonic Order from the 1940s-1960s.

 This model, on display in the community museum, depicts the historic Anglican Church that once stood in Heart's Content. Sadly this building was lost in a fire in the mid-1980s-- a tragic event that has not been forgotten. While the town still misses this beautiful structure, community members have found ways to celebrate it and keep it in the collective memory.

On my next Heart's Content excursion I hope to speak with some of the owners of heritage buildings within the district -- stay tuned!

-Lisa

Weaving in the Woods

This past Saturday the ICH office, in partnership Memorial University's Folklore 6740 graduate class, put off a pillow top making workshop.

Pillow tops are woven with wool on wooden frames and were traditionally crafted by Newfoundland lumber camp workers to be gifted to their wives, girlfriends or mothers. They are sewn onto pillows, used as throws, pot holders or place mats.

Today this handcrafted tradition is being carried on by Elizabeth Murphy of the Burin Peninsula. She grew up in a house where crafting pillow tops was a winter pastime and learned to make them from her parents in the early 1960s. This is a skill which she has gone on to teach for several years and we were fortunate to have her lead this workshop. The event was a great success and everyone who participated walked away with a lovely pillow top and the skills they require to continue this traditional Newfoundland craft.

 Susan Lee, June Russell, Arlene Penney, Nicole Penney, Elizabeth Murphy and Raymond Russell (left to right) examine the differences between the Russell's pillow top and the three Murphy brought. All these pillow tops are between 30-50 years old.  

The beginning step of making a pillow top is layering the wool on the wooden frame.

Raelene Thomas

  

Jillian Gould teaches Folklore 6740 and
 partnered with the ICH office on this project

Elizabeth Murphy instructing Jenny Taroff,
a student in the Folklore 6740 class

Caitlin Bethune of the Folklore 6740 class (blue hat/shirt) works alongside a workshop participant

After layering the wool the next step is to tie off the back. We were shown by Murphy how to use fish net twine and a twine needle for this step. 

Raymond Russell, who made a pillow top while working in the lumber camps in 1958, helps his daughter, Arlene Penney, with her pillow top. 

Murphy (back) looks over some of the workshop participants as they weave their pillow tops. 

The Next step, after layering all the wool and tying off the back, is to cut the wool. This  cutting will  form the  pom poms on the pillow top. Be careful not to cut all the way through! As you can see in the picture above, a few strands of wool are not cut in order to form the backing of the pillow top.

Dale Jarvis and Nicole Penney, of the ICH office, cut their pillow tops to form the pom poms

Shamus MacDonald, of the Folklore 6740 class, tries his hand at cutting wool.

The very last step is to steam the wool in order to fluff up the pom poms

A close up on the pom poms

Two of our participants showing off their finished pillow tops. 

If you have any pillow top memories please contact Nicole Penney with the ICH office. We are actively collecting information about this interesting Newfoundland craft. Nicole can be reached at (709) 739-1892 ex. 6 or via email at nicole@heritagefoundation.ca.

Photographs courtesy of: Christina Robarts

Making Memory Maps Workshop with Marlene Creates

Memory maps are subjective drawings based on personal experience in, and perception of, a specific lived place. This is a device Marlene Creates has used in her teaching and in her own artwork for over 30 years. Drawing memory maps can help you remember, record, interpret, investigate, and communicate both present and lost attributes of local places and everyday life –– ones not normally registered in the larger historical record. This is an excellent device to stimulate conversation for anyone doing oral history research.

Marlene will show examples from her own works based on memory maps that were drawn for her by elders in various areas of the province: Inuit and Settlers in Nain and Hopedale, Mushuau Innu in Davis Inlet, and her own elderly relatives in Lewisporte and Joe Batt’s Arm, as well as from some of the multi-disciplinary place-based projects she has done with other adults and over 2,000 schoolchildren in the province.

About the instructor
Marlene Creates is an environmental artist and poet who lives in Portugal Cove. She was born in Montreal and in 1985 she moved to Newfoundland, the home of her maternal ancestors who were from Lewisporte and Fogo Island. Her artwork, spanning more than three decades, has been an exploration of the relationship between human experience, memory, language and the land, and the impact they have on each other. Since the 1970s her work has been exhibited in over 300 solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally. She has been a guest lecturer at over 150 institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Glasgow School of Art, the University of Oxford, the University of Kent at Canterbury, the University of Hartford, and many Canadian universities. This year, she was a plenary speaker at Space + Memory = Place, the biennial conference of the Association for Literature, Environment, and Culture in Canada.

Workshop Details

Saturday, 10 November 2012, 1pm-4pm
MMAP Gallery (Old Art Gallery Space)
Arts and Culture Centre, St. John’s, Newfoundland
Workshop fee: $20
Pre-registration required.
Contact Nicole at nicole@heritagefoundation.ca or call 709-739-1892 ext 6

Materials list for the participants to bring:

• plain HB pencil
• colour pencils
• white art eraser
• glue stick

image credit: Memory map of Freake land in Joe Batt's Arm drawn by Bert Freake for Marlene Creates, 1989; excerpt from where my great-grandmother was born, in the series Places of Presence: Newfoundland kin and ancestral land, 1989-1991.

Fortis Memorial

Sadly, a construction worker recently fell 80 feet to his death while working on the new Fortis office building on Springdale Street in St. John's, just behind the ICH office. Below are some photos of the spontaneous memorials that popped up within a day or two.

Spontaneous memorials are a first reaction to the unanticipated, unexpected and violent loss of life. Most spontaneous memorials start within hours of death notification; someone leaves a candle or bouquet of flowers, which is often followed quickly by contributions from others. They can be the limited, personal expression of the family and friends who place flowers, candles, stuffed animals, and notes on a tree by the roadside where a fatal accident occurred, or occur on a global level. 

Spontaneous memorials tend to be impermanent, but can become the place of a permanent memorial. For more on spontaneous memorials check out Holly Everett's book, Roadside Crosses in Contemporary Memorial Culture.

Two ICH Workshops - Pillow Tops and Memory Maps!

This November, the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador is offering two workshops related to intangible cultural heritage:

November 3, 2012 - Weaving in the Woods with Elizabeth Murphy
November 10, 2012 - Making Memory Map with Marlene Creates
Weaving in the Woods: Recreating a Lumberman’s Pastime with Elizabeth Murphy
Saturday, Nov. 3rd, 2012
1pm - 4pm
Cochrane Street United Church
Registration fee: $20
What are pillow tops? Woven with wool on wooden frames, these Newfoundland textiles were traditionally crafted by lumber camp workers to be gifted to their sweethearts or sewn onto pillows, used as throws or even placemats. Today this handcrafted tradition is being carried on by Elizabeth Murphy of the Burin Peninsula. She grew up in a house where crafting pillow tops was a winter pastime and learned to make them from her parents in the early 1960s. This is a skill which she has gone on to teach for several years.

Making Memory Maps with Marlene Creates
Saturday, Nov. 10th, 2012
1pm - 4pm
MMaP Gallery, Arts and Culture Centre
Registration fee: $20

Memory maps are subjective drawings based on personal experience in, and perception of, a specific lived place. This is a device Marlene Creates has used in her teaching and in her own artwork for over 30 years. Drawing memory maps can help you remember, record, interpret, investigate, and communicate both present and lost attributes of local places and everyday life –– ones not normally registered in the larger historical record. This is an excellent device to stimulate conversation for anyone doing oral history research.

For more information on both workshops please visit www.mun.ca/ich
Pre-registration is required for both workshops. To register, please contact:

Nicole Penney
Heritage Foundation Newfoundland and Labrador
nicole@heritagefoundation.ca709-739-1892 ext 6

From weaving in the woods to working high steel

In this month's edition of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Update for Newfoundland and Labrador, folklorist Dale Jarvis gives an update on the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador's Avalon Folklore Project; news about two ICH workshops, one on making pillow tops and one on memory maps; Nicole Penney interviews Joe Lewis of Conception Harbour about working high steel; and an introduction to HFNL's newest staff person, Lisa Wilson.

Download the pdf