St. Alban’s

Tags

church, history, old church, photography, UEL

I believe every summer should include a visit to some place you have never been before, even if that place is in near your very own backyard!

St. Alban’s was built in 1894 to commemorate the landing of United Empire Loyalists (“UEL”) 100 years earlier. Loyalists were settlers living in the States, who fled persecution during the American war of independence, because they remained loyal to Britain. There are UELs on my father’s side.

Sixty-six encaustic memorial tiles were commissioned by UEL’s ancestors to help pay for the building, and line the interior of the walls. The tiles are a rare examples of an ancient art form that experienced a brief revival in mid-19th century. The patterns and text are created with embedded coloured clay laid in indentations on an unfired tile. The tile is then covered with a clear glaze and fired for hours at high temperatures. These tiles will never  fade or wear off.

While stained glass windows have been added over the years, the church still boasts the original hand-carved wooden beams in the vaulted ceiling, and intricately carved pews, as well as ornate plaster work. The exterior of this tiny church was built using local limestone. The bell in the tower is believed to be the oldest in Canada.

This Anglican church has been closed, but a local group of history lovers are in the process of purchasing the church to save it and it’s long history. In an effort to promote this project, it has been opened to the public on Saturday mornings.

Discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. – Marcel Proust

Happy Wednesday!

 

WPC: Passage of Time

Tags

history, photography, Weekly Photo Challenge

A large, empty building, built in the early 1940’s, once a hub of activity for mechanics and pilots preparing for war, now a haven for swallows and small, recreational planes.

For this week’s challenge, share a photo that symbolizes transitions, changes and the passage of time.

 

The office and tool building was built in the centre, and the markings for the tools are still on the walls inside the tiny room. The stairs to the upper rooms are gone, and there were no markings inside to even hint at the men who once worked and laughed inside. Just a couple of labels still glued to the wall.

They were people … who disappeared little by little in their own time, turning into memories, mists from other days, until they were absorbed into oblivion.
– Gabriel García Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

To see more photos, click here.

O is for Oaks – Vimy Oaks

Tags

#atozchallenge, Canada, family, history, remembrance

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

Every Canadian child will be taught about the battle of Vimy Ridge, which history marks as an iconic milestone in shaping Canada’s national identity. I think it’s important for our kids to know the parts their country played in those two world conflicts, and the costs. I have shared my family’s story with my kids because I want them to understand the personal cost. After the war, our world had to learn to reconcile our differences and strive to build a better world for the next generation.

This weekend, my aunt share a story that has been a 100 years in the making!

In 1917, following the battle of Vimy Ridge, Lt. Miller went for a walk on the battlefield, and gathered a handful of acorns. The regal oak trees he had written about seeing all over France, were destroyed. He sent those acorns to his family in Canada and asked that they be planted. Two years later, he returned home, married his sweetheart and started his farm, Vimy Oaks. The small acorns were starting too.

Tall  oaks from little acorns grow. – Proverb

In 1950, a random veteran saw the farm’s sign and decided to make inquiries. The two veterans of Vimy became fast friends, often working together on Miller’s farm. Miller, not having children of his own, enjoyed the company of the veteran and his boys. After the farm was sold in the 1960’s, one of the boys, Monty, continued to visit the Millers. Lt. Miller passed away in 1979 at the age of 90.

In 2004, Monty took his wife to Europe to retrace his father’s war experiences and visit the Vimy Memorial. He was struck by the bare landscape, and he started to think about the Oaks at the Farm.

Ideas are acorns. They’re only powerful because that acorn becomes an oak tree. – Bob Clemans

By 2014, the oaks were 10 metres high. With the help of the Vimy Foundation and a local nursery, shoots from the acorns were grafted onto root stock from British Columbian oaks. But the process to certify them for transportation to France was too complex.

In the Summer of 2016, Monty and his grandchildren gathered acorns from the Vimy Oak grove. They were taken to a nursery in France, where they were germinated and continue to grow. Meanwhile, with the help of donations, a small parcel of land has been purchased near the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, and once it has been de-mined in 2018, the tiny oaks will be planted. Beauty after the battle.

May our children, like these acorns, grow tall and strong and steadfast,
and may they always know peace.

 

Coffin Plates

Tags

Coffin Plates, family, history

No, I didn’t mistakenly type “coffin” instead of “coffee”. No, I’m not sharing plates that are specially designed to sit on a curved surface, such as the lid of a casket (although there are times that could be useful). I’m talking about the unique collection I discovered in a box of belongings my Grandmother inherited from the lovely couple who raised her.

In amongst this box of books, rent receipts from Ireland, and letters from Ireland to Canada (the oldest document dating back to 1826), are 4 decorative “coffin plates”.

Coffin plates are decorative pieces that were attached to the lid of a coffin with various inscriptions: dates, age or term of endearment.  They were usually made of a soft metal like lead, pewter, silver, brass, copper or time. The type of metal used and the elaborateness of design often reflected the status or wealth of the deceased.

With the Industrial Revolution, the cost of coffin plates dropped dramatically, which made them more readily accessible. Simple blank machine-made plates were available by the mid-1840’s, and by the 1860’s, elaborate plates and designs were being manufactured by multiple companies. Someone from the community, like a jeweler, would engrave the details as requested by the family. About the same time, removing the name plate prior to burial became a popular trend. It was meant to be kept as a keepsake. The trend peaked toward the end of the 1800’s and was discontinued by the 1920’s.  Coffin Plates can sometimes be an excellent source of free genealogical information, depending of course, on the information engraved.

I’m not sure why I find them so fascinating but I do, so I brought them home and hope to frame and hang them somewhere within the hallowed halls of my domestic hovel. My mother thought it was a little macabre and perhaps should also be donated to the museum, and it could be that in a little time, I’ll agree with her. They don’t even belong to my blood kin. But for now, they are living reminders of dead people in my bedroom, and I think they’re kinda cool!
Happy Halloween!

– – –

Resources:

AncestorsAtRest.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffin_plate

The Path to Bikinis…

Tags

bathing suit, bikini, fashion, history

It’s warming up again and bathing suit season is fast approaching – way too fast in my opinion!! Why do those who shouldn’t wear bikinis, insist on wearing bikinis? I’m want to celebrate their confidence, but aren’t there some things that are just better left to the imagination? How has swimwear changed over the last hundred years or so, and when did modesty go out the window?

In the 18th century, “bathing” was fashionable but exposed skin mustn’t be touched by the sun. I can’t imagine wearing a long-sleeved gown over pants, a short scarf, kid gloves, and sandals, to the beach. Some ladies even added weights to the hem of their gowns to keep their legs covered.

In the 1890s, women wore the more familiar black, knee-length, puffed-sleeve wool dress, often with a sailor collar, and worn over bloomers with ribbons and bows. Don’t forget to accessorize with long black stockings, bathing slippers, and cap.

Camouflaging the female form (I like that idea) started to change in 1910 with one piece garments made from a wool knit that fit when dry, but sagged and dragged when wet. More skin was exposed between the bottom of the suit and the top of the stockings. Shocking!

Corset manufacturers tapped into the bathing suit market in the 1940’s by designing garments that hid faults in a woman’s shape by adding stretch tummy control panels, as well as bra cups and boning for bust support (yeah Baby)! Add halter top and skirted bottoms made from cotton with a jersey knit lining. Accessorize with a sun hat and sun glasses!

By the 1950’s, Moms and daughters wore matching suits, and the combination of pink and black was popular. An early form of spandex was being used to make the suits more figure-flattering. Boy legs were introduced in the late 1950’s. Suits were also fancier with dressmaker touches like rick-rack trim and buttons. Matching skirts worn over the suit made them look like a sundress. And don’t forget your flowered bathing cap to protect your perfect hair-do!

Two piece suits became popular in the 1960’s which led to the popularity of bikinis in the 1970’s. Bikinis have been recorded in 200 A.D. but not patented until 1946. Bikinis keep shrinking – the G-string or even more revealing, the thong also called the Brazilian tanga.

And that is where I’m stopping… because I have never had the confidence to wear a bikini, even when I still had the figure for it…and all this talk about bathing suits is depressing…maybe I’ll be pro-active and go for a long walk — there’s a convenience store close by and I meet O Henry there!

References:http://fuzzylizzie.com/swimsuits.html
http://www.victoriana.com/library/Beach/FashionableBathingSuits.htm
http://www.fashion-era.com/swimwear.htm
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7726011@N07/5230882734/