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

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.

Building Heritage Together: Heart’s Content to Hant’s Harbour Heritage Area

Public event in Winterton.

On Saturday, November 3rd, 2018 Dale, Jerry, and I traveled to Winterton to host a workshop on regional corporation.  We also had several students from Memorial University's Folklore Department who came out and took notes for the session. There were over 40 people in attendance from various museums, heritage committees, town councilor, and residents from Heart's Content, New Perlican, Winterton, and Hant's Harbour. The communities are interested in working together to promote their heritage.

Folklorist Dale Jarvis listening to the conversation at one of the tables.

We discussed the success factors which come from working together and listed some of the resources the differing groups would be able to share. The different groups also listed some of the heritage assets in their communities which ranged from museums to fishing stages, from cemeteries to trails. It also included traditional skills such as rug hooking, dancing, knitting, blacksmithing, fishing, sawmilling, etc. The towns decided to form a regional committee and will meet before Christmas. Stay tuned for a report from the meeting. 

Katie presents her table's thoughts on how the communities should move forward.

If you are interested to in setting up a heritage workshop in your community reach out to Dale Jarvis at dale@heritagenl.ca or call 1-888-739-1892 ex. 2.

The Goats of New Perlican - Booklet Launch

Cyril Pinsent reading out some of his story from "The Goats of New Perlican" booklet.
Several people who were interviewed for the booklet surround Cyril on stage.

On Saturday, July 8th, while the rest of our office was busy with Great Fire celebrations in St. John's, I headed to New Perlican for their Heritage Day celebrations. The day was a celebration of all things heritage and included a couple of speeches and presentations as well as display boards on family genealogy, occupational folklore, significant buildings, and events in the community.

As part of New Perlican's Heritage Day we also launched "Goats of New Perlican".  This is the first booklet in the Oral History Roadshow series. The booklet focuses on local memories and stories around the goats of New Perlican from their many uses to their stubborn nature.

New Perlican Heritage Day displays.

The roadshow is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL made possible with assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program. The Oral History Night Roadshow will see researchers travel from community to community, hosting a series of Oral History Nights, open-mic storytelling sessions led and inspired by seniors in that community.

The launch was a great success with approximately a hundred people turning out to celebrate New Perlican's heritage! Heritage New Perlican is currently selling the print copies of "The Goats of New Perlican" or you can check out the free PDF here!

Heritage Day audience.

If you would like to know more information about how your community can get involved in the Oral History Roadshow call Terra at 1-888-739-1892 ex. 5 or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca or Dale ex. 2 and ich@heritagefoundation.ca

~Terra Barrett

#Folklorethursday Great Balls of Fire and the Goats of New Perlican

I recently scanned a booklet titled "Ghost Stories and Legends" that was produced by the Lower Trinity South Development Association. Because of our recent work on The Goats of New Perlican the following story peaked our interest:

Great Balls of Fire 

One evening as Mr. Ryan was returning home from New Perlican with a sac of flour for his mother, he stopped on Spicer's Lungers between Turk's Cove and New Perlican to allow his goats to take a drink. Out of the corner of their eye the goats noticed a small light, almost like a ball of fire, approach from out of nowhere. Leo soon realized what had caused the goats to become restless. He saw this light as it came closer and got smaller when it neared him. The fire ball crossed the road and suddenly disappeared out of sight. The two goats began to run and when they reached home they were shivering with fear. It has been said that this ball of fire is a spirit who watches over the people of the community. It is not known whether the spirit is good or bad. 

~Kelly

The Goats of New Perlican Booklet Launch

The Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador and Heritage New Perlican present a booklet launch at Veteran's Memorial Community Centre, New Perlican on Saturday July 8, 2017 at 1:00pm. This launch is part of the community's 10th Annual Heritage Day Celebrations.

"The Goats of New Perlican" is the first booklet in the Oral History Roadshow series produced by the Heritage Foundation. This booklet focuses on the memories of goats in New Perlican and includes stories about laughing goats, stinky bucks their stubborn nature, using goats to haul wood, the benefits of goat milk, and keeping goats as pets!

"They would all roam the roads," described Susie Smith. "You would never know when you would go for a walk in the road at night and no lights on the pole you would never know if you were going to bump into a goat or a horse or a cow or something on the road."

Smith was one of several residents of New Perlican who was interviewed as part of the oral history project completed by HFNL in conjunction with Heritage New Perlican.

“This booklet developed as a result of an event in New Perlican in May 2016,” says Terra Barrett, a researcher with the foundation. "At this workshop the topic of goats kept coming up again and again. So after discussions with Heritage New Perlican we decided to record stories about the goats of New Perlican."

"The Goats of New Perlican" is part of the foundation’s Oral History Roadshow. This project is an initiative of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of the HFNL made possible with assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program. The Oral History Night Roadshow will see us travel from community to community, hosting a series of Oral History Nights, open-mic storytelling sessions led and inspired by seniors in that community.

The booklet launch at New Perlican's Heritage Day is open to the public and will include light refreshments. There will be copies of the booklet for sale by Heritage New Perlican available at the launch as well as a PDF version which will be placed online. For more information please call Terra Barrett at 1-888-739-1892 ext. 5 or email terra@heritagefoundation.ca.

Launching the Oral History Roadshow... with goats, of course!

In the work that we’ve been doing to document NL’s living heritage, we often hear the same concern expressed by local seniors - that their stories are dying out in their communities. Inspired and led by this, the main objective of the Oral History Night Roadshow is to conserve those stories in a creative and innovative way.

The Oral History Night Roadshow is a project to capture the stories and memories of seniors, to empower and encourage seniors to showcase their memories through a series of public oral history night celebrations, and to share their knowledge and experience through the production of a booklet for each set of community stories.

Simply put, the Oral History Night Roadshow will see us travel from community to community, hosting a series of Oral History Nights, open-mic storytelling sessions led and inspired by seniors in that community. We will partner with seniors involved with local museums, cultural organizations, and 50+ clubs to bring together local seniors, create partnerships, and plan each event. Seniors in each town get to pick the stories important to them. People will come, have some food, mix with a broad selection of locals, and tell stories.

After the Oral History Night, we’ll linger around the community, meeting individually with the seniors, and doing one-on-one recordings of their stories. We’ll archive and share those online in partnership with Memorial University’s Digital Archives Initiative, and select specific stories to transcribe. We’ll be adding to our collection of community history booklets, then returning to our partner communities for a book launch party!

We are delighted that our first partner community is New Perlican, and we’ll be rolling into town Friday for our Goat Tea, sharing stories about the goats of New Perlican and other animal tales -- stories of animals raised for meat, milk, and eggs, family pets, work animals like goats, dogs, horses, cows, and ponies, hens and roosters.

Did your family have a goat? Got an animal story you want to share?

Join us at the Veteran’s Memorial Community Centre, Main Road, New Perlican on Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

The Oral History Roadshow is made possible with assistance from the New Horizons for Seniors program. Photo of New Perlican goats courtesy Louise Coombs. Know the people (or goats) in the photo? Let us know!

New Perlican's Goat Tea and Other Animal Tales

Did you grow up milking goats? Do you remember hauling wood by goat instead of horse? Do you have memories of keeping gardens or raising animals? Do you have old photos or items associated with the agricultural history of New Perlican? The Heritage Foundation NL, in partnership with Heritage New Perlican, wants to know!

We’ll be hosting the Goat Tea and Other Animals Tales in the Veteran’s Memorial Community Centre, Main Road, New Perlican on Friday, May 19th, 2017 at 7:00pm.

“We are looking for anyone connected to New Perlican with stories about goats or other farm animals, growing vegetables, or building root cellars,” says Heritage Foundation folklorist Dale Jarvis. “If you have memories or photographs of agriculture in New Perlican, we would love to hear from you.”

This innovative project is part of the Foundation’s Oral History Roadshow and will highlight the importance of oral history as well as traditional knowledge about animal husbandry, self-sufficiency, food security, and agricultural practices in the community. It will also connect the past to the present and showcase interviews with the current generation of goat-owners, and will demonstrate how goats are used in New Perlican’s older cemeteries today as lawn mowers to cut down overgrowth.

Come for a cup of tea, and bring photos, goat yokes or other agricultural objects to show off. There will be a digization station to scan or photograph items, so you can take your originals home with you. The information gathered will be used alongside oral history interviews and archival research to create a booklet about the goats of New Perlican.

Check out the Facebook event here!

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

#NLHeritage Road Trip

Heart's Content Graveyard

My name is Terra Barrett and I have worked with the Heritage Foundation for the last two summers. I am back again working with the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office on a new project called Collective Memories. Stay tuned for more information about this project in the coming weeks as I will be updated the blog with updates about the work of the ICH Office over the summer.

Dale, Andrea, and Michael in the graveyard

This past weekend Dale Jarvis, Andrea O’Brien, Michael Philpott, and I headed out of St. John’s for a heritage road trip with stops in Heart’s Content and New Perlican. Our first stop on Friday afternoon was the Heart’s Content graveyard where the community is looking to do some work. We had a look at the graves and the state of the grounds and discussed the possibilities of a clean up or workshop in the graveyard. After reviewing the graveyard we had a supper of hot turkey sandwiches, fish, chips, and milkshakes at Legge’s and headed on to New Perlican.

Community members at the People, Places, and Traditions workshop.

Important places in the community.

Mapping their heritage.

New Perlican’s heritage committee asked the Heritage Foundation to come out and help the committee prioritize their community heritage to do list. On Friday evening we hosted a People, Places, and Traditions workshop in order to get the people of the community thinking about the assets in their community. We had three tables set up with large maps of New Perlican and had each table focus on either the people, places, or tradition in the community.

People in the community.

Important traditions.

Reviewing the maps.

Everyone contributed ideas and wrote out their descriptions on recipe card which were then placed on the large maps. In the end we ended up with three community maps one with the important people in the community such as past lighthouse keepers and bread bakers, one with places like the sitting rock and local swimming holes, and one with traditional nicknames in the community and the tradition of using goats to haul wood from the woods. We placed these maps around the room and had a discussion of what had been identified.

Brainstorming.

Prioritizing.

Saturday we were back in New Perlican for a prioritizing session with the community's heritage committee. We whittled their wish list from twenty odd items to three major project to focus on over the next few years. After lunch we walked through the harbour in order to see where most of their work was focused. It was a productive weekend and I am looking forward to seeing where the committee takes their projects over the next few years.
~Terra

Walk to the New Perlican Harbour.

Do you want a People, Places, and Traditions Workshop in your community? Or want some advice on where to go next?  We’d love to help! Contact the Intangible Culture Heritage office of the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador for more ideas or assistance.

ich@heritagefoundation.ca

1-888-739-1892

~Terra Barrett

Get ready, New Perlican! A People, Places, and Traditions Workshop with Dale Jarvis

People, Places, and Traditions Workshop
This Friday, May 13th, residents of New Perlican will start to map out what their heritage means to them, with a little help from folklorist Dale Jarvis.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, our living heritage is rich and diverse. It includes historic buildings and places, ballad singing, snowshoe-making, accordion playing, knitting, mummers and jannies, berry picking, boat building, and much more. We tell stories, make clothes, build stages, shear sheep, and spin yarn. We have a complex knowledge of place, the seasons, and the movements and patterns of animals from moose to cod fish. If we lose these important parts of our living heritage, we will also lose important resources that can keep our communities going culturally, economically and socially. But where do we start?

Dale Jarvis, folklorist with the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, will be leading a community conversation about historic places, trails, old stories, place names, traditions, and local knowledge.

Come for a cup of tea, and tell us what matters to you in New Perlican. It will be a FREE and FUN community workshop, sponsored by Heritage New Perlican.

May 13th 7 p.m. Friday
Veteran’s Memorial Community Center
Town of New Perlican Boardroom

Great Finds in New Perlican

Last month, on the 22nd of June, I traveled to New Perlican to help out with a local cemetery clean-up project. This ongoing initiative, headed by the New Perlican heritage group,  aims to help preserve a historic cemetery that has been under threat from neglect and encroaching ATV trails. A great deal of research has already been done in the area, and before beginning the clean-up, it was believed that some previously unrecorded headstones may be buried throughout the site. The clean-up portion of the project, which accounts for the first phase, has been in the planning stages since last year. Next will come a post and chain fence that will provide further protection to the area.

Several community members turned up to help with the removal of the tall grass and shrubbery that had been hiding a cluster of  headstones. With so many hands busy at work, the area was cleared very quickly and the task of searching for fallen headstones could begin. Right away community members began making discoveries. In just a few short hours, around 13 headstones were unearthed, most of which were from the mid-19th century. Each were treated with care, and in time, a plan will be put into place where some will be put into the ground once again. While not all are in good enough condition to do so, it will be quite interesting to see some of these newly discovered headstones added back to this historic landscape.

Congratulations to New Perlican Heritage for your wonderful discoveries and good luck with the next phase of your preservation project. Special thanks to Eileen Matthews for inviting me to watch this project unfold, and for her unending dedication to heritage work in her community.

-Lisa

New Perlican Heritage, busy clearing the land.

Cemetery clean-up helpers read an epitaph on a newly discovered headstone.

A portion of one of the discovered headstones,  next to its footstone. Many burials in this cemetery had both a head and a footstone.