Invite to Harbour Grace Heritage Opportunities & Priorities Session Nov 28

Invite to Harbour Grace Heritage Follow-up Session

Wednesday, November 28, 2018
1:30 p.m.
Firemen's Social Building,
Bannerman Street, Harbour Grace

A “People, Places & Culture “Workshop was facilitated by Heritage NL in Harbour Grace 10 November 2018. 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. The latter activity involved identifying themes and clusters of cultural assets that emerged from the mapping session. This meeting involved local heritage enthusiasts, residents, town staff, and representatives from the Town of Harbour Grace, Conception Bay Museum, and the Heritage and Redevelopment Committee.

15 themes emerged from the discussion, written notes, and mapping exercise. The next step will be to prioritize these and set some actionable items with some recommendations from Heritage NL.

You can view the preliminary report and the list of themes and sub topics here.


The follow-up session is set for Wednesday, November 28, 2018, at 1:30 p.m. in the Firemen's Social Building, Bannerman Street, Harbour Grace, and is open to everyone. If you're interested in heritage and development, come along! We'll be going over the preliminary report, and setting some priorities for future heritage work in Harbour Grace.

You can register for the workshop online.


For more information contact:
Matthew Gerard McCarthy
Economic Development Officer
Town of Harbour Grace

T: (709) 596-3042
C: (709) 222-9320
F: (709) 596-1991

P.O. Box 310
112 Water Street
Harbour Grace, NL
A0A 2M0

www.hrgrace.ca
matthewmccarthy@hrgrace.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep135 When Folklore Meets Pop Culture

What do Superman, Santa Claus, and Krampus all have in common? They're some of the research interests of Dr. Daniel Peretti, a new faculty member with Memorial University’s Folklore Department. Dr. Peretti grew up in Algonac, Michigan and studied film at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. He went to Indiana University to study Folklore and began studying holiday celebrations and history. He moved onto researching mythology and and narrative, and focused his dissertation on Greek mythology in the United States, which included a lot of popular culture. In this episode, Dr. Peretti talks about his book, Superman in Myth and Folklore, and his newest project on the history and folklore of Santa Claus.

Download 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 HFNL 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.

Folklore Studies Association of Canada Call for Papers - Newfoundland 2019

FSAC/ACEF Conference 2019 - Call for Papers
The Folklore Studies Association of Canada/Association canadienne d’ethnologie et de folklore is pleased to announce that its 2019 conference will be held May 31 – June 2, in the Department of Folklore at Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador.

This year, as the Department of Folklore marks its 50th anniversary together with the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive, we invite participants to present research around the theme of “home.” We invite proposals for papers on all aspects of the literal and symbolic construction of home and its manifestation in folklore and folklife. Possible topics include housework, family custom (or rites of passage), food, music, material culture, narrative, home-sickness, loss of home, living unhoused, experiences of homelessness, returning home, and so on. Proposals for special panels, discussion sessions and other subjects related to ethnology and folklore are welcome. Presentations will be 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes for discussion.

Please send abstracts (in English or French) of 150 words to Dr. Holly Everett (hjeverett@mun.ca), chair of the conference organizing committee, by February 1, 2018.

Conference registration and membership in FSAC/ACEF: All presenters and speakers must register for the FSAC/ACEF conference, and must be members of FSAC/ACEF before their submissions can be accepted for inclusion in the conference program. Annual dues are $60 CAD for regular members, and $30 CAD for part-time faculty, students, independent scholars, and retired persons. Membership may be purchased online at:<https://www.acef-fsac.ulaval.ca/en/join > or by mail: Folklore Studies Association of Canada, c/o Dr. Ian Hayes, 213 av. Du Grand-Calumet, Gatineau, Québec, J9J 1L4.

Photo: Marysvale, NL, date unknown. The gentleman on the right is Mr. Michael Ryan, the girl in the middle is his grand-daughter Maxine; the man on the left is James “Jim” Ryan. Photo courtesy Bride Power, from Marysvale Memories: The Stories of Bride Power.  

The St. Augustine's Anglican Church Lych-gate, New Perlican

Long-time followers of the ICH Blog will have read here about the largely-vanished tradition of lych-gates in Newfoundland (you can read our occasional paper on lych-gates here).

A lych-gate, succinctly, is a “covered wooden gateway with open sides at the entrance to a churchyard, providing a resting place for a coffin” (Fleming et al. 277). In Newfoundland, they seem to have been exclusively used by Anglican congregations, and in our earlier research, we found three: one restored in Bonavista, one original in Corner Brook, and one demolished at the Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road in St. John's (you can see a picture of that one here).

An 1922 article in the Evening Telegram describes lych-gates thusly:

H.T. asks why the gate at the Church of England Cemetery at Bonavista is called the Lych Gate. The word Lych or Lich is Anglo-Saxon, and means a corpse. Hence a Lych Gate is a churchyard gate, with a roof over it, under which, on the occasion of a funeral, the corpse and its bearers may await the coming of the officiating minister. A properly equipped Lych Gate has a long seat on each side, on which the bearers may sit, and a stone called the Lych-Stone in the middle of the path, under the roof, on which the coffin may be placed. If the person has died of an infectious disease, and the body is not to be taken into the church, a part of the Burial Service is sometimes said at the Lych-Gate.

We are much indebted to Eileen Matthews of Heritage New Perlican for sending us the photo above, which shows the original St. Augustine's Anglican Church in New Perlican. The photo shows St. Augustine's Church prior to a fire in the early 1900s. Take note of the small, steeply gabled structure to the right of the church.  The building was dedicated by the Bishop in 1886, and the Evening Telegram of the day noted the following:

Built about three hundred yards from the main road, and approached by a good broad road near by—the free labor of the people—its position is seen to be most excellent. As the visitor leaves the main road for the church he passes beneath a lichgate, bearing the inscription, '« Holiness to the Lord," put there to remind him of the reverence due to the place where it has vouchsafed the Lord to place His name. On St. Peter's Day from each of the four corners of the tower floated a flag in honor of the birthday of the church, and as a welcome to His Lordship the Bishop, whilst for the same reason the lichgate formed the base of a triumphal arch, made of the fir and spruce.

There you have it, another lych gate, the fourth identified for the province. This structure no longer exists, and was possibly removed when the church was rebuilt.

If you have a photo of one of these gates, or know of another location where there may have been a covered gate of this type, email dale@heritagenl.ca

Sources:

"Answers to Correspondents." Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1922-08-05. P8.

Fleming, John, Hugh Honour, and Nikolaus Pevsner. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture. Fourth Edition. London: Penguin, 1991.

"The Lord Bishop of Newfoundland at Heart's Content."  Evening Telegram (St. John's, N.L.), 1886-07-07. P4.

More Newfoundland church bells - The All Saints’ Anglican Church bell in Dildo

Last week, we had a post on the naming and christening of bells, and I included a request for more information about other church bells in the province. You can also read an earlier post about the 1845 Whitechapel Bell at St. George's Anglican Church, Petty Harbour. 

Today, Andrew Pretty wrote me and sent me some information about the All Saints’ Anglican Church bell. He writes,

The original All Saints’ Anglican church was built in 1878. The first bell was purchased in 1904 for the sum of 44£. From the time that the church opened until 1904, the raising of a flag alerted the congregation of services. However, this bell only appears to have been used for just a few years. It appears that there was some dissatisfaction with the bell. It was a cast iron bell as opposed to cast bronze bell which is said to produce a better tone. The bell appears to have been passed along to another church in the New Harbour mission (possibly Norman’s Cove Church) and Rev’d Caldwell subsequently wrote in a church ledger in 1906: “Never have anything to do with iron bells! Warning!” A flag continued to be used until 1956 when a new cast bronze bell was purchased from the John Taylor & Co. Bell Foundry in Loughborough England. The bell was purchased by the C.E.A.A. at the cost of 296£. It rings in the key of “E”, 28” in diameter and was transported across the Atlantic Ocean on the SS Nova Scotia. Since the original All Saints’ Church didn’t have a tower or steeple, a freestanding tower had to be built to house it. Later in 1964, the original All Saints’ Church was replaced by a new building and the old one demolished. The freestanding tower remained (although it was situated over 100ft from the new church) and the bell continued to be used regularly until 1982 when it was replaced with a set of electronic chimes. The tower built in 1956 was demolished in 1992 and the bell sat in the basement of the church until it was hung in a replacement tower in 2010. Even though the church still uses electronic chimes the bell is still rung on special occasions.

Do you have photos, stories, or memories about church bells? Send them my way! Email dale@heritagenl.ca

Photos courtesy Andrew Pretty. 

Meet the newlywed Filliers - Married in Spaniard's Bay, 1925. #FolklorePhoto

Chesley and Winnifred Fillier, married at Spaniard’s Bay United Church, June 2, 1925. Behind the couple, you can see the doors to the church, currently a Registered Heritage Structure, looking pretty much as they do today!


Photo courtesy Daphne Robinson. Photo collected as part of the "Lassy Days Photo Scanning Pary" held Wednesday, August 8th, 2018 at the Wesley Gosse Heritage Museum. If this photo elicits memories for you, or if you'd like to arrange a photo scanning party for your community, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

Heritage photo: Dedication of the Bauline War Memorial. #Armistice100

This photo (exact date unconfirmed as of yet) shows the dedication of the then-new Great War Memorial in Bauline, Conception Bay, Newfoundland. Photo courtesy Town of Bauline.

The memorial has been moved twice since this photo was taken. It was first moved to a spot just outside the Bauline United Church, and then more recently, it was moved to the Memorial Park at the new Bauline Community Centre.

If you have more information on this photo, or know any of the people or houses depicted in it, contact Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca

The Bells of Peace - the folklore of ringing, blessing, and naming of bells

This Sunday, November 11th, bells in communities across Canada will chime 100 times as the sun slips under the horizon to mark each year since the armistice. You can read more about that initiative here.

The ringing and use of bells has a long heritage here in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and one of the intriguing parts of our bell history was the naming and christening of bells used in churches.

According to Sheila MacKenzie Brown’s 1981 Folklore MA thesis “The Church Bell Tradition in Newfoundland: A Reflection of Culture Change,”:

...when bells were first placed in the tower they were blessed before being used liturgically, the term 'baptised' also being used for the ceremony in the Christian religion. In his book "Questions Asked by Protestants Briefly Answered" Rev. M. Phillips describes the ceremony in the following manner:

Amid beautiful prayers the bells are washed with holy water, that they may become a pure agency in the worship of God. They are anointed with oil for the sick in the form of a cross, then seven times outwardly with the same oil, and seven times inwardly with holy chrism. The sevenfold unction with oil and chrism signify the fountains of grace flowing through the seven sacraments to which the bells call us. Thymia, incense and myrrh are burned under the bell. This fumigation symbolises the fragrance of prayer to which the bells call us. The gospel of Mary and Martha is read because the bells call us to the one thing necessary: the hearing of God's word. A name is then given to the consecrated bell, because by their respective names the bells are distinguished from one another and are placed under the protection of a patron saint.

In 1984, Cape Broyle resident Alphonsus O'Brien wrote down his remembrances of the local church bell, and gave a copy to the Rev. F. A. Coady. Here it is, as written by Mr. O'Brien:

Cape Broyle Church Bell 

This Bell came to Cape Broyle in August 1907. Its weight was 500 pounds.
It was blessed and baptized on September 25th 1907. The sponsors were James and Bridget Coady my grandfather and grandmother. The bell was named Lawrence in honour of our parish priest Rev Lawrence Vercker. It was blessed by Archbishop Howley. This bell was erected for use in May 1908. It was erected about fifty ft from the church which is now the parish community centre. It was erected on poles 20 ft high set in concrete foundations. The bell at that time gave great sound on a fair day it could be heard for about 4 miles. It remained in this place from 1908 to 1922. Then a new foundation to replace the old one on a concrete foundation only about 10 feet high. The sound of the bell on the new foundation was not as loud as before the movement was issued by Rev Father Maher.

In 1927 the Bell was put in the tower of the church. It was set up by James Rice issued by Fr William Ryan. The bell remained in the old church tower from 1927 to 1947 when the new church was built. Then Rev Fr M Kennedy had it moved in Oct’ 1947. John Hoyles the carpenter who built the new church set it up North of the road to the Priests House. The ringing of the Bell brought Joy to all the People and reminded them to come to mass. 

The bell served Cape Broyle for over 70 years and is no longer in use.
Alphonsus L O’Brien 78 years old

Andrea O'Brien in our office notes that the top photo here shows the "old" church he refers to circa 1950s. (photo courtesy Ronald J O'Brien). The photo below shows the present day church with bell to the right between the Sacred Heart and Blessed Virgin statues.

Do you know of a historic bell still ringing in your community? Let me know a bit about it, or send me a photo, and we'll showcase it in a future post! dale@heritagenl.ca

Living Heritage Podcast Ep134 Maritime History Archive

Heather Wareham began working as an archivist at the Maritime History Archive in 1977, and has served as the director for many years. Her research interest is Newfoundland Maritime History, especially marine disasters, women in the fishery, and resettled communities. Heather is also a founding member of the Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Archives. In 2013 she received the President’s Award for Exemplary Service. In this episode, Heather talks about the Archive's Digital Exhibits, stories of women in the fishery, and current research projects being done at the Archive.

Download 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 HFNL 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.