Witless Bay: Exploring a Cultural Landscape

              WITLESS
BAY
Exploring a Cultural Landscape
Edited By Gerald L. Pocius
WITLESS BAY
2015
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Folklore and Language Publications
EXPLORING A CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
The 2014 Witless Bay Field School
Edited by Gerald L. Pocius
In the fall of 2013, I started to plan for Memorial University’s 2014 graduate
folklore field school. A community on the Southern Shore south of St.
John’s was a possibility. I had spent the summer of 1980 working on an
architectural project in that region, so I knew its landscape reasonably
well. One afternoon that November, I decided to drive up Shore,
considering different locations. I drove through Bay Bulls, all the way to
Calvert, and back
As I passed through Witless Bay, however, I noticed that the Presentation
Convent––Holy Trinity Convent and Chapel––had been recently restored
and renovated. I stopped briefly at the Irish Loop Coffee House on the
south side of the harbour and inquired. The owner, Judy Devine, informed
me that Colleen Hanrahan had bought the convent and wanted to reuse
The 2014 Witless Bay
FIELD SCHOOL
LEFT TO RIGHT: JOHN MANNION LEADS STUDENTS THROUGH THE EARLY CEMETERY; RALPH CAREY, SÉBASTIEN
DESPRÉS AND CLAIRE MCDOUGALL INTERVIEW BERNADETTE MADDIGAN; COLLEEN HANRAHAN, IN FRONT
OF HOLY TRINITY CONVENT; BARRY NORRIS EXPLORES THE ROOF FRAMING OF HIS HOUSE.
WITLESS BAY | 03
the space for a conference centre, but the work to do so had not been
completed. Judy wasn’t sure what was happening with the buildings,
but my knowledge of Witless Bay from earlier fieldwork, combined with
the potential of the convent as a base, started me thinking about the
community as a location for the Department of Folklore’s field school in
cultural documentation.
There was another reason that Witless Bay might be an ideal site. A
former graduate of the Department of Folklore, Sébastien Després, had
been living in Witless Bay for several years, and he recently had become
mayor. Sébastien had been to Harlow, England, for my field school,
so he was familiar with the documentation of cultural landscapes. He
enthusiastically supported the idea, and would engage the Town Council
and Town Heritage Committee in our planning.
Before Christmas, I had an initial meeting with Sébastien, Dena Wiseman
(Witless Bay Heritage Committee), and Colleen Hanrahan. Several
meetings, emails, and discussions later, we had decided that Witless
Bay would be an ideal location for our field school. We would use the
convent as our base, and students would live there for three weeks.
Classes would be held in the chapel. Colleen agreed to upgrade the
building before our arrival, and we would work in collaboration with the
Witless Bay Town Council and its heritage committee on the project.
Without the enthusiasm and support of these individuals, our field school
would not have been possible.
The spring and summer of 2014 involved numerous trips to Witless Bay to
inventory buildings, meet residents, and introduce our project. We began
to think of our school as focusing partly on the cultural landscape that
had been devoted to the traditional ecologies of fishing and farming.
Eight students spent three weeks in Witless Bay. The field school students
were: Terra Barrett (Newfoundland), Sharna Brzycki (New York), Daisy
Hurich (Newfoundland), Andrea McGuire (Newfoundland), Saeedeh
Niktab Etaati (Iran), Jacquey Ryan (Newfoundland), Emma Tennier-Stuart
(Ontario). Claire McDougall (Ontario) acted as the field school assistant;
Claire had worked as a student in the Department of Folklore’s field
school in 2012, and was an ideal choice to manage day-to-day life at the
convent. John LaDuke and Brittany Roberts, grad students experienced
in architectural documentation, helped out with the measuring.
During the course of the three weeks, several guest lecturers worked
with the students: Dale Jarvis and Lisa Wilson (Heritage Foundation of
Newfoundland and Labrador), Guha Shankar (American Folklife Center,
Library of Congress), Brian Ricks (Professional Photographer, St. John’s),
Edward Chappell (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation). Sister Lois Green
kindly gave of her time to be interviewed at the school about her
experiences of living in the Witless Bay convent, and her life as a nun.
At the end of our time in Witless Bay at the Holy Trinity Convent, the students
had learned about daily life in the community through documenting a
wide range of buildings, recording interviews about local traditions, and
photographing the landscape. Most of all, the students made many
new friends. They were all sad to leave their convent home, where—for
generations—others in Witless Bay were also educated about the world.
LEFT TO RIGHT: SHEILA RYAN AND HER MUMMERS; MAUREEN WALSH; DENA
WISEMAN AND HER CHICKEN; STUDENTS OF THE 2015 WITLESS BAY FIELD SCHOOL.
My students, then, were introduced in that short time to life in Witless Bay,
through the hospitality and generosity of its community members.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
WE WOULD LIKE TO THANK the many residents of Witless Bay who
helped make this field school possible. First—and most important—
Colleen Hanrahan and John Abbott generously offered the use of Holy
Trinity Convent as a base for our work. Many groups were generous in
their support: the Council and Staff of the Town of Witless Bay: Mayor
Sébastien Després; Deputy-Mayor Dena Wiseman; Councilor Ralph
Carey; Councilor Kevin Smart; Councilor René Estrada; The Witless Bay
Community Enhancement Committee; The O’Connor 50+ Club; The
Witless Bay Heritage Committee. Besides these groups, many others
provided advice and assistance: The Brunkard family; Jessie Burke; Sheila
Carew; Aiden Carey; Jack Foley and Colleen Shea; Sister Lois Green;
Bernadette Maddigan; Jacqueline Mahr; Barry Norris; Eddie Ryan; Shelia
and Mike Ryan; Tom and Norah Tobin; Maureen Walsh; Vicki Walsh; Joey,
Marguerite and James Yard; Thomas Yard; Alun Young.
GERALD L. POCIUS
The shore stretching south from St. John’s to Trepassey was one of the first
areas in North America to be exploited regularly by Europeans. Beginning
shortly after Cabot’s rediscovery in 1497, Portuguese, Basques, Atlantic
French, Bretons and Normans arrived annually to prosecute the cod fishery
all along this rugged coast. They were joined after 1575 by fishermen from
the English West Country. It was, throughout the 16th century, a seasonal
fishery only. In the fall the fleets went home. Few if any men overwintered.
For a variety of reasons too complex to rehearse here, the English had
displaced the continental Europeans along this coast by 1630. They also
had begun to establish year-round settlements, most notably at Ferryland.
A century later West Country shipowners and shipmasters began to recruit
servants each spring in southeast Ireland and expanded their fishery. The
Irish settled in far greater numbers thereafter than did the English and their
descendants dominate the shore to this day. This is the case for Witless Bay.
FRONTIER TOPONYMY
One of the most distinctive enduring legacies of early exploitation are
the names Europeans imposed on the coast. Some, such as Cape Spear
and Cape Race, date from the first decade of the 16th century. Capes,
headlands, points, offshore islands, arms, bays and large harbours were
amongst the first features to be given names that are still recognizable.
The Witless Bay
EXPERIENCE TRANSATLANTIC MIGRATION AND COLONIZATION ON THE SOUTHERN SHORE
WITLESS BAY | 07
Most early place names were Portuguese, or French. The Portuguese
pioneered the cod fishery on the shore, particularly to the south. e.g.
Ferryland to Trepassey. English translations were more prominent in the
north. Petty Hr., Bay Bulls, Mobile. Witless Bay is English, named after a
migrant from Dorset called Whittle. It appears on maps from 1664. Toads
Cove, Burnt Cove and Caplin Cove are also English. By 1800 Cove had
emerged as the most popular place name on the Avalon.
Sites too small to accommodate fishing ships out from England but with
adequate anchorage for shallops and other small boats laden with fish
were usually called coves. Bear’s Cove and Gallows Cove in Witless
Bay are local examples. West Country transfers came to dominate the
nomenclature of the coast: head, point, bight, tickle, gut, gulch, hole,
beach, river, brook and pond. In Witless Bay, we have Bear Cove, Chapel
Head, Long Beach, Dennis Point, Ragged Point, Monahan’s Gulch,
Connors’ Gulch, Witless Bay Brook. Most Witless Bay placenames do not
appear on published maps; they reside in the memory of local residents.
They are also vanishing from collective memory, particularly since the cod
moratorium. They are amongst the most dramatic losses of tradition in rural
Newfoundland.
THE COD ECONOMY
There were three modes of exploitation by English fishermen at Witless
Bay and all along the southern shore. The oldest was the migratory ship
fishery. Vessels arrived in spring from SW England from 1600 onwards with
their crews. They anchored in the harbours, and deployed the servants in
shallops (small boats) inshore. Boat crews ranged from 3 to 5 men, with 2 on
average processing the fish ashore. Most ships had several such boats. In
the fall they loaded their fish on to the fishing ships, or sack ships, and went
home. There were two fishing ships in Witless Bay in 1698 and one sack ship,
compared to 12 vessels at Bay Bulls. The latter was a superior harbour. A
second strategy, mainly from south Devon, were byeboatkeepers. They
did not own fishing ships but travelled on them each spring and operated
boats in Newfoundland, alongside the ship fishermen. They too returned
home in the fall, after selling their catch to traders and shipowners.
By far the most important fishing operation in Witless Bay from 1750 onwards
was the residential or planter fishery. These were men initially out from
England who remained year round, hired young men to fish, and like the
byeboatmen sold their fish to traders at the end of the season. Planters
were resident boatkeepers with servants. Most planters married, formed
families, and settled down. They formed the core of the permanent
population and their descendants still dominate places like Witless Bay to
this day. Initially planters depended on the fishing ships to bring out male
servants each year. In 1675 there were three planters – Mahone, Martin,
Smith – in Witless Bay, with three stages, five boats and 26 men servants.
These men were likely from south Devon, heartland of the English migrants
and emigrants along the southern shore. All three had wives, but only
one, Gilbert Martin, had children. In 1677 all three had children. We are
witnessing the very beginnings of English settlement. The censuses for small
places like Witless Bay are amongst the best for British North America in the
late 17th century. They are an important source on the roots of folk culture.
POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT EXPANSION
One of the salient features of Newfoundland’s historical demography
(and historiography) was the slow growth of a permanent population.
Over much of the 18th century between 2,000-3,000 migrants arrived
each spring from England and Ireland to prosecute the fishery from
Petty Harbour to Renews. But it was not until the 1780’s that the resident
population reached 1,000 along this stretch of shore.
Women composed only a tiny fraction of the transatlantic migration. Most
arrived as single young servants; they tended to marry, and remain, but
because they were so few in number, the process of family formation was
slow. In 1754 only 12% of the population were women (largely wives of
the planters), and 18% children. Unattached male servants accounted
for over 50%.
Between 1780-1830, the permanent population increased five-fold. More
than 6,000 persons were recorded in 1836, spread over 16 coves and
harbours (see map). Although there was still a substantial number of
unattached male servants, the majority were by now members of local
families and natives of the shore. Women and children accounted for over
half the population. The demographic transition was marked first by the
collapse of the English migratory cod fishery in 1790, and a rapid rise in Irish
immigrants, including young women, after 1800. By 1836 this transatlantic
WITLESS BAY | 09
migration was virtually over; natural increase became the major source
of population growth. Settlement expanded in three basic ways; through
subdivision of ancestral rooms, usually amongst sons; by the occupation
of less-favoured fishing sites within old harbours; and outmigration from old
harbours to unsettled coves.
In 1720, the ethnoreligious composition of Witless Bay and the Southern
Shore was still overwhelmingly Anglican English; by 1760, the Catholic Irish
accounted for more than half the population, and for 90% by the end of
the century. [Bay Bulls, Witless Bay, Toads Cove, 1753: 391 Irish, 206 English.
Total: 597]. A distinction was made between Anglican English and Catholic
Irish in the report by Rev. Langman, an Anglican minister at St. John’s. There
were “about 124 families in St. John’s [in 1760] 1,100 souls. Great numbers
of these Roman Catholics, of Irish descent….in the Harbour of Bay Bulls
are 37 families of Irish Papists and 8 Protestants; in all about 230 souls….
baptized 4 of the Protestant children; but could by no means persuade the
Roman Catholics to have their children baptized, though I strongly urged
the necessity of a Christian baptism for them…In Witless Bay are 11 poor
families, almost all Roman Catholics….very ignorant, very bigoted.”
From the beginning, Irish migration was closely linked to the Irish provisions
trade. Ships from north and south Devon en route to harbours along the
Southern Shore called in to Waterford and other ports on the south coast of
Ireland to collect salt provisions for the summer fishery. They also recruited
servants to work for the planters.
Initially, the Irish tended to work ashore, curing the fish. Increasingly, they
overwintered, cutting and hauling out timber for construction and fuel.
All were paid wages; some invested their savings in local property and
graduated to planter status. This seemed to occur especially in times
of war (1757-63, 1776-83, 1793-1815) when the English migratory fishery
faltered, then died. Conditions in southeast Ireland also contributed to the
migration. The population there increased dramatically between 1780-
1830. Most migrants came from rural parishes where access to land and
farm work became more and more difficult. Wages in Newfoundland
were higher than in Ireland, and property cheaper. Once established as
planters, the Irish recruited servants almost exclusively from their homeland.
A chain of migration, initiated by the English, and continued by Irish planters,
shipowners and merchants, resulted in a pattern of ethnic succession that
had few parallels in rural Canada.
WITLESS BAY IN 1836
In 1836 the government of Newfoundland produced a census of
the island’s population and economy exceeding in its geographical
coverage anything recorded to that time. More than 400 settlements
(outports) were listed. Three-quarters had fewer than 15 houses each.
Among the several characteristics recorded for each community was
the total population by religious denomination. There were three groups:
Protestant Episcopalians (Anglicans), Protestant Dissenters (Methodists),
and Roman Catholics. Since the vast majority of Protestants were of
English birth or descent, and Catholics almost entirely Irish, a detailed
map of Newfoundland’s population by ethnic origin or ethnoreligious
composition can be drawn. This has been done (See Historical Atlas of
Canada, Vol. II, Plate 8).
In 1836 the Irish accounted for almost half of the island’s population.
More than 70% of them lived in St. John’s and its near hinterland from
Renews to Carbonear. There were probably more Irish crowded into
this relatively restricted stretch of coast than in any comparable
Canadian space in 1836. The map shows the distribution of the
population for the Southern Shore. All but five percent were Catholic.
Witless Bay had a population of 600 (over 90 families); only two
inhabitants were Protestant. It was the third most populous place north
of Ferryland. There were 800 inhabitants in Bay Bulls, and a surprising
1,100 in Petty Hr. Men were still far more numerous than women (41%
men, 23% women, 36% children) in Witless Bay. It was a residue of the
old migratory cod fishery where men servants once dominated. A
family fishery prevailed. The population continued to increase: 664
(1845), 801 (1857), 928 (1871).
THE PATRIARCHAL EXTENDED FAMILY
The key to population increase and settlement expansion – or
intensification – at Witless Bay and elsewhere through the nineteenth
century was not immigration from England and Ireland, but natural
increase through the subdivision of ancestral properties (fishing rooms)
amongst heirs. Inheritance was, overwhelmingly, patrilineal (amongst
sons). Daughters married in to neighbouring families and surrendered
their surname on doing so. In 1857, nine out of ten Newfoundlanders
WITLESS BAY | 11
>800
401·8(10
201·400
• 100-200
were native born. This was true of Witless Bay. Fewer than 10% were
immigrants. Much depended on how many sons there were to inherit,
and how many actually did. Some surnames proliferated dramatically;
others far less so, some hardly at all. And some died out entir ely.
There were 20 households of Careys in Witless Bay in Lovell’s Directory
of 1871. It is the oldest surname recorded here. Sometimes spelled
Carew, it is both an English and an Irish surname. Thomas Carey was
recorded in Witless Bay in 1729. He purchased a plantation that year
from Peter Philipps. Both men were almost certainly English, likely
from south Devon. Thomas Carey would be at least 25 years old to
graduate to planter status. In 1751 his ownership was disputed by
Arthur Carey, the only surviving son of Peter. He claimed part of the
plantation – a boat’s room – for his nephew, Peter Philipps. A witness to
the transaction of 1729, Thomas Lacey, also English, was consulted in
1751 and the court in St. John’s ruled that the Admiral of the Harbour,
with Lacey’s assistance, determine the boundaries of the property.
The outcome is unknown. No maps survive, and neither did Philipps or
Lacey. They either returned to England, their names died out, or they
moved elsewhere.
Carey’s early history is a lesson in the great themes of cultural continuity
and change, on assimilation and acculturation. All Carey marriages
and baptisms from 1800 onwards – and likely well before – were
Catholic (Basilica Parish Registers). Most spouses were of Irish birth or
descent. At least ten marriages are on record prior to 1820. Some have
the same first name, e.g. two Benjamin Careys, born before 1800, and
likely fourth generation from the founder Thomas.
Pinpointing Carey’s room is a work in progress. It was on the south
side, where a Carey house dating from around 1820 was standing
until recently. We do not know if all 20 Carey houses were in a single
homogeneous cluster, cheek-by-jowl with no non-Carey house
present, as we found with the 20 Hobbs and 20 Penney houses in Keels,
Bonavista Bay (Folklore Graduate Course, 2012). In a culture where
inheritance was partible and patrilineal, large kingroup clusters could
evolve over 4-5 generations. It was a product of the fishery where the
sea was the field and all that was needed was space for a wharf,
store, flakes, room for a house, and some outbuildings. Gardens and
WITLESS BAY | 13
meadows were eventually added to complete the fishing room.
The Careys outnumbered all others in Witless Bay. Next were seven
Tobins, seven Mullowneys, and seven Norrises. These were Irish. It
demonstrates that the patriarchal extended family was uniquely a
Newfoundland adaptation, not something exclusive to one ethnic
group. It is interesting that the leading surname in Bay Bulls in 1871,
Williams, with 20 families, was also an English surname.
YARD’S ROOM
One of the few West Country surnames to survive in Witless Bay, and,
with the Careys, one of the oldest families there still resident in their
original 18th-century location on the north side were the Yards. Near
the modern fish plant by Lower Pond. The surname came from South
Devon, noted earlier as the heartland for English migration to St. John’s
and the Southern Shore. We believe the Yard family was established
in Witless Bay by at least 1750. Originally Anglican, they were all
Catholic by 1800. Or at least all marriages and baptisms recorded
for the surname came from the Catholic parish registers. Some Yards
married immigrants from Ireland. E.g. Stephen m. 1807 Anne Malone,
Glenmore Co. Kilkenny; Christopher, m. 1813 Eleanor Mears, Co.
Kilkenny; George, m. 1835 Margaret Frisby, Mullinavat, Co. Kilkenny.
Others married daughters of Irish immigrants, e.g. Christopher m. 1820
Bridget Delaney. Even when the Yards married women of English
ancestry, the marriages or subsequent baptisms of the children were
in the Catholic registers. George m. 1812 Elizabeth Whitten of Petty
Hr.; and Stephen, m. 1804 a Mary Yard. The witnesses were George,
Catherine, and Anne Yard. It suggests four to five generations by 1812.
Despite its deep roots, the Yard surname did not proliferate to the
same extent as the Careys. There were six families in 1864, five in
1871, and five in 2000. Their houses were clustered around the present
home of Joey Yard, who with his son, James, are the last fishermen in
Witless Bay. Their fish stores still stand. In the nineteenth century, the
Lash kingroup lived to the east of the Yards and on the west were the
Mullowneys and the Cahills.
Will of Laurence Tobin
from Newfoundland will books volume 2 page 147 probate year 1853
In re
Laurence Tobin deceased.
In the name of God amen, I Laurence Tobin of Witless Bay Planter being
infirm in body but of sound and good memory and understanding do
make this my last will and testament in manner and form following, viz,
First I bequeath my soul to Almighty God and my body to the grave
rottenness and worms. I leave and bequeath to my beloved wife Eleanor
Tobin during her natural life all my property in Witless Bay comprising of land
houses furniture and stock of cattle except a fishing room situate on said
property which I will speak of hereafter I bequeath my wife will leave when
she is dying the afforesaid property to my two sons Philip and James Tobin
Should they or either of them transgress or do anything contrary to the will
of my wife so as it can be made appear I leave it invested in her my wife to
give their or his part to any of my other sons she consider more deserving of
it. I bequeath my wife will during her life keep as a stock five cows and not
to let the stock diminish. I bequeath the fishing room and all appertaining
to it to my four sons Thomas, William, Philip and James Tobin to have share
and share alike. I bequeath to my sons Laurence John and Dennis Tobin
five shillings each and my son Nicholas Tobin one shilling I bequeath to my
daughters Mary, Eleanor, Beck, Bridget and Catherine five shillings each
to be paid to each after my death if required by my executor which I will
appoint hereafter. I nominate and appoint my beloved wife Eleanor Tobin
my executor. I revoke all former wills whether written or verbal.
Signed and sealed in the presence of the subscribing witnesses this 11th
day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty
eight first being read to the testator, Laurence his X mark and seal Tobin
(LS)
Witnesses, Jeremiah Murphy, Patrick Norris.
Codicil, I bequeath that my wife Eleanor Tobin when dying will give my
feather bed to my son Laurence Tobin dated same day & year as above.
Laurence his X mark Tobin. Witness, Jeremiah Murphy, Patrick Norris.
WITLESS BAY | 15
PROPERTY INHERITANCE: THE WILL OF LAWRENCE TOBIN, 1852
We do not have a record of his place of birth, but Lawrence Tobin was
likely born in Ireland around 1775 and settled in Witless Bay in the 1790s.
He married there in 1801 Eleanor Dunn, member of a long-established
family of Irish ancestry in Witless Bay. The Tobins settled in Gallow’s Cove
in the far southeast section of the Bay. It was a narrow cove, bounded by
steep cliffs. Its easterly location was closer to the fishing grounds. It was
still back-breaking work. Crews departed Gallow’s Cove for the fishing
grounds at dawn. They rowed 2-5 miles beyond Gull Island, and, using
handlines, jigged for cod until the boat was full. The journey out and back
took 1-2 hours. Specialist headers, splitters, and salters moved the fish
along the stage to be carried on hand-barrows by two men to the flakes.
Depending on the weather, up to two weeks of turning the fish on the
flakes awaited before the cod was stored for shipment to market. With a
gradual development of a family fishery, women and children joined the
men curing fish.
Lawrence Tobin and Eleanor had eight sons and five daughters born in
Gallow’s Cove. The earliest record of baptism for Witless Bay was of their
son Lawrence in 1803. Tobin’s Room was on the west side of Gallow’s
Cove; the Green family occupied the east side. In 1829, Tobin is recorded
as paying rent for his room to William Carter, a planter of English descent.
By 1830, Lawrence Jr. was married, and had a son, Michael, born 1832.
Records of marriages for at least four other Tobin sons followed in the
1830s. In his will of 1852, Lawrence divided his fishing room equally amongst
four of his eight sons. The other four sons were given small sums of money.
They had likely already inherited property from their father since they are
recorded as fishermen (1864, 1871). It is a classic example of partible,
patrilineal inheritance. The five daughters were also given small sums of
money – five shillings each. Eleanor was awarded power-of-attorney with
power to disinherit a son should he “transgress or do anything contrary
to the will of my wife.” She was also bequeathed land, houses, furniture,
and cattle (five cows). It was typical of items given widows on the death
of their husbands. Women kept house, worked in the gardens, and in the
dairy (milk, butter). Like most men in Witless Bay in the mid-nineteenth
century, Lawrence Tobin was illiterate. The witnesses were not.
JOHN J. MANNION
The photograph depicts an operation that is one of the oldest and most
enduring in Newfoundland, stretching back to the very beginnings of
English settlement in the early-seventeenth century. The dry fishery was
capital and labour intensive, originally
conducted by planters and their men
servants, later by the family, fathers and sons.
The flakes were made of local spruce and
boughs on raised platforms, and took up
more space than did the structures on the
waterfront. They were placed on elevated
dry sites as close as possible to the stage/
store complex. Cod, lightly salted, were
placed on the flakes, usually turned at mid-day,
and piled at night for over ten days of
good weather. Once dry, they were taken
to the fish store for shipment to markets in
southern Europe (Portugal, Spain).
The fish in the photo were landed where
Danny Dinn’s Ecotour site is today. They
were carried on barrows up the hill on the
west side near the modern road. Beyond
the flakes are a dozen or so traditional
dwelling houses, stables and stores set
amidst tiny enclosed gardens. It is a classic
Newfoundland outport landscape. Most
houses are 1 and ½ stories, peaked or
saddle-roof style. Similar to Michael Cahill’s
across the harbour. A few 2 to 2 and ½ story
structures, next in line in the evolutionary
sequence of Newfoundland house types are
in evidence. One has a Mansard roof, a style
spreading from St. John’s around this time.
DRYING FISH ON THE
FLAKES, SOUTH SIDE,
WITLESS BAY C. 1890
WITLESS BAY | 17
Across the beach, up from the fisherman’s neat cottage, are the chapel
and convent, surrounded by fenced gardens and meadows. This land
was owned by the church, and extended out to the road. In 1839-40,
Dean Cleary secured a grant of 38 acres from the Crown, part of which
was cleared and preserved for farming. The church and convent stand in
striking contrast to the humble vernacular landscape of the fishery. While
the flakes have no European precedent, the religious structures represent
a distinct cultural transfer from southeast Ireland.
JOHN J. MANNION
A small three-room house of perhaps c.1860-80 appears to have built with
a lobby entrance at one end, and an unheated second room or pair of
rooms at the far end. The living spaces and exterior were completely re-skinned
a decade or two ago, but the ceiling and attic provide evidence
for its date and early form. It is located far from the harbor, suggesting it
housed farmers as well as or rather than fishermen.
The house is built with what in Newfoundland are called studded walls: studs
set side-by-side to form solid walls. Even though studs are tightly fitted, the
builders put a material Jerry Pocius calls seaweed as a sealant between
them. The studs rise to form the gables, where they are now visible in the
attic. The tops of the long walls also extend well above the attic floor and
are boxed with horizontal planks, casing their inner face and top.
The attic floor is carried on slight, planed, undecorated transverse joists, left
exposed. That floor is hand-planed below and left with circular saw marks
in the attic, indicating that the
house post-dates c.1855. The
attic is unfinished, in addition
to having an unplaned floor,
though there is a modern
window in the left gable.
Evolution of the form is an
important question. The house
form seems now very simple: a
principal living room, 15’ 6” by
12’ 9” long, entered at the left
The Brunkard
HOUSE
WITLESS BAY | 19
end and opening into two small bedrooms at the right end, 6’ 6” wide.
However, there is evidence in the joists, flooring, and roofing that previously
the outside doorway opened into a wide, shallow lobby in front of a
heating device. Originally, this seems to have been a substantial chimney.
All joists and flooring overhead are replaced in the left 5’ 3” of the large
room. Aligned with this, there is a 2” lap joint in the top of the joist at 5’ 3”,
2’ 7” behind the front door. The lap joint corresponds to that at Barry Norris’
house, also in Witless Bay, suggesting there was a lobby about 5’ 3” wide
and 2’ 7” deep. There is a later partition ghost, 3” wide, on replaced joists
at the left end, suggesting that a lobby of the same size remained after a
chimney and associated framing were removed. There is an old patch in
the left end of the roof, about 2’ 10” by 2’ 6”, centered just behind the ridge,
suggesting there was originally a large chimney and fireplace, just behind
the lobby. A smaller and later roof patch, 1’ 6” square, is located 1’ 4” to
the right, centered on the ridge, suggests the large chimney was replaced
by a small brick chimney serving a wood stove, which presumably was
freestanding behind the lobby and set away from the end wall.
The width of the rooms suggests that the present transverse partition is
in an original location, and that there was unheated space at the right
end. There is no evidence for a chimney serving the smaller rooms. The
short longitudinal partition separating it into a roughly square front right
room and smaller rear room may be an addition; recent finish obscures
all evidence in this area. Fenestration respects the present plan, with
one of the front windows lighting the right front room and a sole right end
window lighting its rear mate. The present left end window appears to be
an addition.
EDWARD CHAPPELL
BRUNKARD HOUSE (LEFT TO RIGHT): ED CHAPPELL MEASURING THE ATTIC; EXTERIOR; MEASURING THE INTERIOR.
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WITLESS BAY | 21
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Bernadette Maddigan was born in her grandmother’s house in Witless
Bay in 1936 and moved into the Maddigan house when she was five
years old. She has lived in the house since 1941 when she first came
to live there with her parents Martha and Matthew Maddigan and
her older siblings Michael (Mickey), Jean Elizabeth and Rita Marie.
When we arrived at the house Bernadette was sitting at her table in
the roomy kitchen and was quite eager to talk. She broke into stories
about ghosts and fairies. Bernadette has
a sharp memory and disclosed pertinent
information helping us assess the age of the
house. She remembers a stone chimney
located between the kitchen and the living
space. “All the rocks looked the same - big
and flat stones”, Bernadette recalled.
There is a curved staircase to the upper floor
immediately as you enter the home from the
front porch. Bernadette remembers the first
time she saw the house she ran through the
kitchen up the stairs to see if the bedrooms
were the same as her grandmother’s
house. There is a master bedroom, two
smaller bedrooms, a bathroom and a linen
closet on the second floor. The main floor
is comprised of a front porch leading into a
narrow passage that separates the first floor
living space.
The Maddigan
HOUSE
WITLESS BAY | 23
The front porch on the southeast side of the home is not currently
used although the small deck to the right is occasionally used in the
summertime. The kitchen where Bernadette spends the majority of her
time is the first room on the left as you enter the front porch. A brick
chimney replaces the old stone chimney and Bernadette remembers a
small woodstove (Queenie) venting into the chimney from the living room
and a coal and wood burning Gurney stove installed in 1953, venting into
the same chimney in the kitchen.
Through the kitchen there is a small pantry also serving as a passage to
the back porch and the second bathroom. This pantry houses dishes as
well as flour, sugar and other dry goods. The back porch is used as the
main entry into the home and contains a water pump that brings water
from the stone lined well on the property. This well was on the property
when the Maddigan’s moved in however the two outbuildings were built
by Mickey Maddigan - the root cellar in 1954 and the stable in 1957. The
furnace that is now the main heat source is located in the north corner of
the back porch. Off the porch is a small bathroom, added in the 1960s
when the porch was renovated to accommodate the furnace.
The living and dining rooms, located on the right, show evidence of
upgrades including a beam across the ceiling and narrow partial walls
on either side of the beam. This beam may have separated two rooms or
it may have been an exterior wall, indicating the current dining room and
part of the kitchen are additions. The house shows signs of 80s decoration
with floral prints in the wallpaper, curtains and furniture fabric.
Bernadette’s recollection of a stone chimney in the centre of the house
possibly opening to a hearth in the kitchen and living room, suggests
construction was pre 1890. The original stringers for the staircase are still
MADDIGAN HOUSE (LEFT TO RIGHT): KITCHEN STOVE; EXTERIOR; BERNADETTE MADDIGAN.
visible in a closet under the stairs. If indeed the above mentioned beam
was at one time a narrow wall that separated two rooms we could safely
say this is a double pile Georgian-style lobby entrance home with a three
bay facade.
It has been 73 years since Bernadette moved into this home. As the
last Maddigan living in Witless Bay, her life bears testament to the many
changes the house and property have undergone. From a root cellar
over-flowing with vegetables and a stable alive with animals, Bernadette’s
memories are all that is left of the times gone by. She currently lives alone
with her two cats in the Maddigan home.
TERRA BARRETT and JACQUEY RYAN
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Additonal Architectural Comments
Although rearranged and re-skinned in the second half of the 20th
century, Bernadette Maddigan’s house has always been a lobby-entry
house with a central lobby giving access to an enclosed stair and two
main-floor rooms. Here the early stair survives, and the central chimney
was located behind it.1
As elsewhere in Witless Bay houses, the lobby is wide and shallow, now 7’
9½” (originally probably 7’ 6”) by 3’ 4”. The doorway to the stair, without
rebates for a door leaf, is at the left end of the lobby, with three winders in
a 2’ 6” square space below seven rectangular 2’ 6”-wide steps that climb
straight up to the right. The lobby was re-skinned c.1950-70 and a closet
was added below the stair. Opening the closet door, one sees that the
area below the long run was unenclosed, and a stringer rising at about
45 degrees, with 9/16” single bead at the lower edge, facing the lobby.
Doors at both ends of the lobby were removed c.1960-70, with the right
partition entirely removed, so the lobby is now open into the living room,
on the right.
That (right) living room was 11’ deep and is now 10’ 2” wide to the lobby
and 13’ 2” to the present chimney. Much of the 4½” thick rear wall of the
living room was cut out in the 20th century to enlarge the room by 5’ 10”.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Bernadette’s parents were married in 1927. Photos of them hang in the living room. She was 25, and
he was 31. Michael was her brother. Colleen Hannahan’s mother was Bernadette’s sister. They were
afraid to light a fire in the chimney. She remembered the story of the “big rock” chimney being torn out.
She is 78. She lived in the house with her brother. BM to EC, September 16, 2014.
WITLESS BAY | 25
To the left of the lobby is the other original room 10’ 3” wide, as it remains,
and probably 11’ deep. It, too, has been extended by about 5’ 10”,
and then a lobby was created in its left rear corner. In short, the house
became two rooms deep, with 5’ 10”-deep rooms at the rear, that were
then opened into the front rooms. We see no clear evidence for whether
the back rooms were an addition or original, as the whole rectangular
block now has a very low gable roof.
The stair rises to an L-shaped upper front passage now giving access to
three of the four bedrooms. On the right are two rooms, seemingly of
early size, 8’ 1” wide and 7’ deep at the front and 8’ 4” by 9’ 10” at the
rear. On the left, the bedrooms are 10’ 1” by 10’ at the front and 10’ 1” by
7’ at the rear, both now having closets apparently made from passage
space. The longitudinal partition separating the two left bedrooms is
unaltered. It is built of 1”-thick vertical planks, now covered with layers of
wallpaper. There is an original door in this partition because the passage
does not reach the left rear room.
Here and elsewhere upstairs, all the early doors have Italianate single
architraves with 5/8” beads and quirked cyma backbands featuring
sloped inner fillets. The door leaves all have four panels, tall ones over
short ones, with the same variety of Italianate cymas applied to the outer
flat face of panels set into plain rebates and made thin at the edges
by using/having relatively rough raised panels on the rear. These are
all hung on original 4” cast-iron butt hinges with five knuckles, held with
countersunk screws. Doorways to the left front room and its closet are
c.1960 work, suggesting that the transverse wall here may have moved
when the closets were added to both left rooms.
Bernadette never married, and she lived in the house with her brother
until his untimely death 14 years ago. Her furnishings, most c.1940-70,
follow a pattern that Jerry Pocius sees elsewhere on the Southern Shore,
of personal photographs and colorful pictures downstairs, including
a hanging textile celebration marriage of Prince Charles and Diana
Spencer, contrasting with up to seven intensely Roman Catholic pictures
or cast figures in every space, including the passage. Strangest is a
corner shrine shelf with statues of Mary behind glass and pictures facing
the bed in the right rear room and at statue of Christ behind glass next
to the stair.
EDWARD CHAPPELL
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WITLESS BAY | 27
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Barry Norris’ house is situated at the end of Major’s Path, resting beside
the shores of Lower Pond. It’s a quiet place, with riddle fences, sheds,
and beautiful greenery on the grounds. The Norris family has lived here
for at least 130 years, and the house stands as a testament to the artistry
of the family throughout the decades.
The house is thought to have been constructed by Barry’s great-great-uncle,
Nicholas Norris, in the 1870’s. However, the ghost scars on the
ceiling, discontinued upstairs floorboards, and mounds of stone in the
basement indicate that there may have been a larger, stone fireplace in
the original structure. If this is the case, the house may have been built prior
to 1860, when many Newfoundlanders switched to brick chimneys. At
some point a smaller chimney was installed in the house, and the upstairs
floorboards were extended to fill the newly opened central space. The
intricately carved mantle
piece was likely made
locally at the time the
house was constructed.
A stained glass cupboard
door (reminiscent of the
stained glass within the
Witless Bay convent) may
have also been installed
during this era.
Barry Norris’ grandfather,
Peter Norris, moved into
the house in 1918. At this
The Norris
HOUSE
WITLESS BAY | 29
time, he made several structural adjustments. He added the kitchen,
sitting room, and porch in the rear of the house, and created diagonal
walls to partition the new spaces from the old.
In 1919, the wreck of the Appenine ship (once used for shipping goods
along the Southern Shore) washed up on the rocks of Witless Bay. Many
residents reused materials from the ship’s remains, including Peter Norris.
A constable policed the shores, in an attempt to curb the residents’
salvaging efforts. However, the citizens of Witless Bay couldn’t be
stopped.Peter Norris repurposed wood and paneling from the ship’s
cabins on the interior walls of his house, creating a beautiful and
distinctive aesthetic.
Barry’s grandfather moved out in the 60’s, and briefly offered the house
for rent. At this point, Barry’s grandfather separated the parlour into two
rooms, and made an indoor bathroom available for his tenant. Previously,
the family had relied on an outhouse.
Barry’s uncle, Philip Norris, moved into the house in the 70’s, and installed
the carpets, floor canvas, and wallpaper of his generation. Philip also
took down the mantelpiece and stained glass cupboard, in an effort to
modernize his home.
When Barry took possession of the house in 2010, he restored the house
to its original style. He recovered the mantel and stained glass door from
the attic, and pulled up all the floor and wall coverings. In doing so,
Barry revealed many surprises and architectural clues about the house’s
history. He unveiled newspapers from 1918, lining the walls constructed
by his grandfather (thereby illuminating the date of the addition). Barry
also discovered several pencil markings on his newly exposed wooden
NORRIS HOUSE (LEFT TO RIGHT): NORRIS FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHS; EXTERIOR REAR; EXTERIOR FRONT.
walls. Peter Norris’ signature is indicated on the interior walls of the 1918
renovation, alongside a little pencil sketch of a ship.
The furnishing of Barry Norris’ house is very thoughtful. There are many
homemade objects, and numerous original, local paintings. When asked
about the house, Barry says he likes “the age, the look of it. The old look,
and the feel of it. And the family connection, I suppose. I like the old
mouldings.”
SHARNA BRZYCKI and ANDREA MCGUIRE
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Additonal Architectural Comments
Barry Norris is interested in historic preservation and so has kept his story-and-
a-half, lobby-entrance house relatively unchanged since he bought
it, leaving and often uncovering early fabric. It reads very legibly as a
two-room plan main block with support space under a rear shed, which
Barry says is an additional. Yet it reveals evidence for substantial early
changes and retains mysteries about its original form and use.
A surviving small front lobby, 5’ 11” wide and 3’ 8” deep, originally opened
into two rooms inside the main block. On the left was a 12’ 1” (now 11’
5”) by 14’ 3” deep room, now a living room with fancy-cut mantel and
c.1900 cupboard fitted with colored glass. On the right, there seems to
have been a 9’ by 14’ 3” second room. Like other front lobbies we have
seen in Witless Bay, this one projects into the front rooms, consuming 8”
to 1’ of width at the inner front corner of both. A small header for the
lobby’s rear wall is lapped into the first joist in the left room, as seen at the
Broncard House. Now, an old 2’ 7”-wide stair rises between the rooms,
straight from the lobby and roughly centered on the front door. It is open,
without a doorway at top or bottom, but is fully enclosed by room walls
and a stove chimney on the left.
The full-length rear shed, which has no visible finish as old as that in the
block, and may be c.1900, provided new rooms 7’ 8” deep. It is now a
long single room: kitchen to the right and sitting space to the left. At
some date in the 20th century, a long 12’ 4” section of the longitudinal
partition (back wall of the main block), was cut 5’ 4” deep into the front
rooms, giving them angled inner rear walls, exposing the boxed upper
run of the stair and a narrow brick chimney now used by a wood stove in
the kitchen and figuratively (but not actually) serving the parlor fireplace.
WITLESS BAY | 31
More recently, the right front room was divided by a longitudinal partition
to create a bathroom opening into the front lobby and a bedroom
reached from the kitchen.
Climbing the steps from the lobby through a well lined by Eastlake railings,
one arrives in a 5’ 9”-wide axial passage that expands to the left behind
the stove chimney to reach the left bedroom. Here in the passage,
one finds evidence of a dramatic remodeling not so easily recognized
downstairs. There is a patch in the passage floor, made of cheap 2½” to
2¾” circular- and sash-sawn, unplanned boards, contrasting with 6¼” to
6½”-wide pine flooring, both face-nailed with cut nails. The older, wider
flooring is also predominately circular-sawn and only lightly smoothed by
a plane or just foot traffic, but it clearly was superior. The patch is 6’ 2”
wide and 10’ deep, extending to the rear wall and encompassing the
stove chimney and all of the present stairwell except a small piece at
the front.
It is uncertain precisely what this represents for the form of the original
house, but the changes involved removing a larger chimney and
reorienting or moving the stair. The width of the patch accords well
with that of the lobby below. The patch is sufficiently generous, then,
to contain a 6’ 2”-wide stone chimney providing oversized fireplaces
some 2’ 6” deep and as much as 5’ wide, as well as a stair with winders,
probably at the rear, reached from what was the kitchen.
Looking through a ceiling scuttle in the left bedroom, one sees further
evidence for a sizable chimney. The roof shows consistently old
technology. The rafters are predominately, if not all, hewn on four
sides, leaving a modest amount of waney edges and averaging 3” by
4” in section. They are fully lapped and secured with big nails at the
ridge. Collars of about the same size and character give them rigidity,
support the upper story ceilings, and are lapped on and nailed. The
rafter spacing averages 3’ on center. A rafter pair above the passage is
truncated toward the ridge, indicating a chimney, conceivably as large
as roughly 3’ by 5’, once exited at the ridge. Remedial work was done
around this part of the roof, with hewn helpers secured to the sides of the
rafters with wrought nails.
From the scuttle, I see hewn studs on roughly 1’ 4” to 2’ centers in the
left gable. Given the nailing patterns on interior sheathing, I assume all
the exterior walls were built with comparably spaced studs, not solid
studding.
The upper bedrooms have original 4½” to 1’-wide, circular-sawed but
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hand-planed horizontal sheathing on the outer walls, underside of the
roof and ceiling, secured with rose-head or uneven cut nails. There is
Italianate trim around the edges of the ceilings. There are two early
doors upstairs, one moved, both with Italianate four-panel leaves and
Italianate architraves. These include more complex and thin moldings as
well as familiar Italianate quirked cymas with sloped fillets.
On the main floor there is 5¾” to 6” wide flooring, face-nailed with wrought
and/or cut nails. Overhead joists are small, as we see elsewhere in Witless
Bay, 5” by 2” to 2¼”, planed and left undecorated, on 1’ 6” to 1’ 10”
centers, carrying upper floorboards that are planed on the bottom. The
inner face of outer walls downstairs has original horizontal wall sheathing,
5½” to 1’ 3” wide, straight mill sawn and hand-planed, face-nailed with
large cut nails. There are Italianate cymas at the top of the sheathing,
as well as Italianate doorframes and four-panel Italianate door leaves.
Looking at the floor in the parlor, we see a continuous butt joint 8” to
9” from the right partition, a seam that aligns with the face of the front
lobby, suggesting that the right face of the room may have been moved
8” to 9” to the right (enlarging the room) when the big changes were
made at the core of the house.
The oldest finish elements in the rear shed are single architraves around
three two-over-two windows, with the backbands removed, and board
sills. There is matchboard ceiling and similar finish installed elsewhere in
the house c.1900.
In summary, Barry’s house appears to have begun life with two
rectangular rooms on both of two floors, flanking a large stone chimney
the same width as the surviving front lobby and with main-floor fireplaces
as much as 5’ wide. It was framed with spaced studs and rafters, both
primarily hewn from small trees. It was finished with horizontal sheathing
inside, circular-sawn and roughly planed by hand, and probably outside
with clapboards. I assume that the combination of original circular-sawn
flooring and sheathing, hand-planing, cut and wrought nails, and
Italianate woodwork collectively indicate a c.1855-80 date, or third
quarter of the 19th century.1
EDWARD CHAPPELL
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Barry Norris tells us that Steven Carter reported some pit-sawing was still done here in the early 20th
century. Carter remembered pit saw “a hole in the ground and some kind of horse [frame], with one
man on it and another down in the hole, cutting wood for the house, sawing planks or timbers.” Not
sure when, maybe 1910s. Born 1900, d.2001.
WITLESS BAY | 35
The old wooden stable behind Barry Norris’ house isn’t used as a stable
anymore, but in the past it was certainly used to stable farm animals. The
stable is of uncertain age. It is probably contemporary with the house,
the exact date of which is also not certain. Both house and stable are
probably over a hundred years old, and may have been built as early as
1870.
The stable floor is a treat for an architectural historian, because the original
floor remains intact. In a lot of old buildings the old wooden floors have
been pulled up and modernized, but it is not so in Barry’s stable. The wood
for the floor was cut in the style called a “longer” floor: the same style
is also traditional in fish stages. The way the wood was cut allowed the
water from processing fish to drain away, rather than building up in puddle
on the floor. There certainly could be advantages in using this type of
flooring in a building meant
to house farm animals, and
it would be beneficial in the
winter as well, when people
came into the stable with
snowy boots.
The front door on the stable
was detached at the time
we were visiting. Barry
had to remove it a couple
months prior to our arrival
in Witless Bay to replace
The Norris
STABLE
REMOVING A LONG CART FRAME FROM THE NORRIS STABLE.
some damaged wood in the wall near the doorframe. The door had
been temporarily set in place to keep the wind and rain out when we
arrived one day. The crash of the door falling inwards instead of swinging
outwards provided an excellent exclamation mark to Dr. Pocius’ brief
lecture on historic Newfoundland house painting.
The back door on the stable would probably have been used to bring the
hay in, and there probably would have been another door to throw the
hay out of. The stable originally had a much higher roof, like a Dutch barn,
which is unusual for the area. It was removed at some time in the past.
Barry is the most recent in the Norris line to own the house and outbuildings.
He doesn’t use the stable to hold animals anymore, and neither did his
uncle before him. Barry was considering pulling the stable down at one
point, but he decided to use it to store his wood instead, luckily for the
folklorists. They built buildings to last in the ‘old days’ and the stable will
probably stand for at least a decade longer without any serious alteration.
Barry’s uncle Philip, who owned the house before Barry, used the stable as
a carpentry shop for making wooden chairs and the like. Barry thinks his
uncle might even have built a couple of small boats in there. Philip had
electricity in the stable, but Barry didn’t need it and so he took it out.
In the front right hand corner of the stable, the floorboards were cut so
they just sat on a wooden sill, rather than being fastened on. Barry isn’t
sure why, but it was certainly handy for studying the rock foundations of
the old stable.
DAISY HURICH
NORRIS STABLE: LONG CART; EXTERIOR.
WITLESS BAY | 37
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Additonal Architectural Comments
Barry Norris’ stable located 20 feet behind the house looks intended
for ponies and a cow, most recently used as a workshop and
storehouse. Barry believes his Uncle Nicholas Norris (b.1856) built it
c.1875-80. It is 12’ 9” wide and 18’ deep, built with spaced studs and
weatherboarded inside and out, covered by a very low-pitched roof.
There are doors front and rear and a single two-light window above
the back door. It is painted white with green trim and yellow doors.
Jerry Pocius pronounced this as a tradition derived from using yellow
ochre boat paint, as he leaned against the front door that then fell
flat, to everyone’s amusement.
It is useful in understanding late 19th-century Newfoundland framing
because the system is relatively exposed. The walls are framed with
studs that are 3½” skinned saplings hewn only on the outer and inner
face, located on 1’ 5” to 1’ 6” centers. Builders set two studs at right
angles in the corners rather than using larger posts. Joinery is minimal.
Plates on the long walls are simply 5” by 1¾” planks nailed to the inner
side of the studs. Atop these are small spacers, about 1½” square.
The rafters are 4” saplings, skinned but flattened only on the top,
and at the ends of the bottoms where they sit on the spacer and are
presumably nailed from above. At the low ridge, the rafters again are
very slightly flattened to sit on top of (not lap into) two thick reused
tongue-and-groove planks. The planks are supported by studs at front
and rear ends and midway by a short (about 7” tall) stud on top of a
4½” by 5½”, roughly squared tie beam lapped over the little spacers
and their plates.
The studs are not given rigidity braces. Rather, the studs in the long
side walls are kept rigid by the nailed-on plate and by a second,
straight-mill sawn, 5½” by 2” plank located 2’ 6” below them, again
just nailed to the flat inner face of the studs. In passing, I should note
that both large cut nails and rose-head nails are used to secure these
planks, in spite of the building presumably dating to the end of the
19th century or early 20th.
Studs in the narrower front and rear walls are similarly secured by
saplings (again flattened on two opposite faces) lapped under the
plates and sawn planks set above the long lower planks. The long
WITLESS BAY | 41
middle planks act as bearers only for a central tie beam, roughly
hewn to 4½” by 5½”, lapped flat onto the planks, nailed, and used to
separate the front and deep rear spaces.
Barry Norris explained that the stable originally had a steep roof and
that his Uncle Phillip said that his father Phillip, Sr. or Barry’s grandfather
Peter dropped it to its present pitch.
Sills are roughly hewn to 5” to 6” square, some left round on the inner
face, just lapped at the corners, possibly spiked but not pegged.
Making the floor, the builders followed a traditional approach, laying,
4” to 5” “longers” side-by-side, right to left, roughly worked but
flattened on the top and bottom, resting on the sills, set between or
lapped around the studs. In Newfoundland, longers are small trees
left in the round, with limbs removed. Stage floors are usually built with
longers. Studs are longers that have been chopped/worked. Larger
timbers are called logs or saw logs.
EDWARD CHAPPELL
This white and green house belongs to Sheila and Mike Ryan, who moved
here in 2009. It is mainly constructed of wood, with some of the parlour
and porch walls made of gyproc. It was built in two stages, with further
alterations to the interior made later. Since moving in, Sheila and Mike
have not made any substantial changes. The body of the house is
approximately 22 feet by 25 feet, in addition to two small rooms built
onto the side and the back of the house. In total, there are six rooms on
the ground floor, and two rooms on the smaller second storey.
Michael and Mary Cahill were the original owners of the house, and
probably built it sometime around 1910. It was built as a two-room, lobby-entry
house, with the stairs to the second storey accessible directly from
the kitchen. According to Mary Ryan, the granddaughter of Michael
and Mary, the kitchen was the core of the house as the Cahills and their
eight children relied on the
wood-burning stove for their
heat. The rest of the house
would have been extremely
cold during the winter,
and the family would have
to wear several layers of
clothing all season. Michael
worked as a fisherman, and
also worked in the lumber
woods in the winter. For this
work, he would go “up in
the country” for two weeks
at a time, along with his sons
The Cahill-Ryan
HOUSE
WITLESS BAY | 43
when they were old enough to do the work. His sons also joined him
in the fishery. Meanwhile, Mary had plenty of work at home, making
clothes, knitting, cooking, and also helping Michael and their sons by
making twine which would be made into fishing nets. The whole family
raised chickens, sheep, goats for milk, cows for meat and butter, and
horses for hauling wood from the forest. They also dried fish to eat.
Of the seven children who survived to adulthood, five married and
moved out of the house, building their own homes nearby. Two sons,
Gus and George, did not marry, and continued to live in the house. After
their father died, around the year 1960, they built a one-storey addition,
extending the back of the house by about 16 feet. As well as a porch
and an indoor washroom, this included a small room attached to the
parlour for their mother to use as her bedroom. When she passed away
in 1975, they removed the wall separating her room from the parlour,
making that area into one larger living space.
Gus passed away in 1994, and George continued to live in the house on
his own until his death in 2007. After this, the house was occupied for one
year by Jacqueline Mair, and is now occupied by Sheila and Mike Ryan,
who moved to Witless Bay from St. John’s. They were thrilled to move
into the house, and while they do use it to entertain their friends, and
their children’s families, for the most part they enjoy having the house to
themselves. Having started its life as a place for a family of ten to rest
after a long day’s work, the house is enjoying a slower pace of life in its
old age, operating as a space in which to live and to socialise.
SAEEDEH NIKTAB ETAATI and EMMA TENNIER-STUART
CAHILL-RYAN HOUSE (LEFT TO RIGHT): SHEILA RYAN; EXTERIOR AND FRONT YARD; EXTERIOR REAR.
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WITLESS BAY | 45
Additonal Architectural Comments
The Cahill-Ryan House illustrates the continued presence of lobby-entrance
houses, with the lobby as a relic no longer functioning with
a formal intent. Research in the public records, according to owner
Sheila Ryan (with her husband Mike) indicates that the house was built
between 1880-`90.
It is a small house, containing two main-floor rooms in the main block
and a series of three spaces in a rear shed. The shed is conceptually
separate, contingent on front spaces and said to be an addition.
Virtually no old fabric remains visible (only 6½”-wide, tongue-and-groove,
slow-growth pine flooring below the present veneer).
The lobby is long and shallow like most we have seen in Witless Bay.
Here it is 6’ wide and 3’ 10” deep, never giving access to a stair. It
now opens directly into a 9’ 1” wide by 13’ 4” room Sheila calls a “living
room,” and through a doorway into the present kitchen, where visitors
sit. “Sit down, sit down; it’s more comfortable there,” Sheila says at the
kitchen table, handing me a tray of fine dark fruitcake slices, scones or
“tea biscuits,” and toutons, Sheila was frying on the stove. The kitchen is
9’ 1” wide beside the lobby, extending to 12’ 4” toward the rear, beside
the stair, and 13’ 4” deep.
We accept that the house dates about 1880-90, and it probably was
always served by stoves rather than fireplaces. The present stove
chimney rises within the room at the front right corner of the stair,
centered at the rear. They removed the upper part of the stove
chimney five years ago. The Ryans have changed the house very little
since they bought it and moved in five years ago. “We like old houses;
we’re not changing it. Except the floor, we put in the floor.” Both rooms
are lighted by one front and one side window.
There are three 6’ 10”-deep rooms in the rear shed, all three once
containing beds. “Eleven people were in here; in Newfoundland,
wherever you can put a body,” Sheila says laughing. Part of the back
wall in the living room was removed several decades ago, making the
left rear room an annex of the living room, and now containing the
television.
Sheila leaves the front door open on warm days like today, but
everyone enters the house from its side. “Only Jehovah’s Witness and
Electrolux salesmen come to the front,” another local resident told
us. “You hear that knocking, and you want to hide.” Here there is an
enclosed added extension she calls a “side porch,” where everyone
else enters. Straight ahead, the first thing one sees coming into this
entry is a bookcase topped by unicorns and filled with souvenirs of the
extended family’s travels to Holland, Calgary, Spain, Thailand, and
Trinidad. “Mainly Calgary is my thing,” Sheila remarks, “otherwise I just
go to the US sometimes. One walks from there into a coat room and
then into the brightly-lit kitchen. Circulation is now from the kitchen
through the front lobby to the living room. “Little porch I’d call it, a front
porch. Nothing to do with them,” she remarks. “I called the husband
and said ‘They’re eating all your toutons,” she jokes. “Mike’s his name,
‘little red leprechaun, they used to call him, shorter than me, and with
red hair on him.”
There have always been two bedrooms upstairs, both reached from a
central upper lobby and lighted by a gable window. One now reaches
the upper lobby from a stair rising from the middle rear bedroom, off
the kitchen. Sheila says the stair was previously enclosed and in this
location, but rising from the kitchen.
This was the Cahill house, built by the parents of Gus and George, two
unmarried brothers who lived here after their parents’ deaths. Mike and
Sheila Ryan bought it five years ago. The brothers were fishermen and
did cement work. After they retired, the brothers dug a small cellar for
the pump under the kitchen floor and lined it with concrete. “I put my
husband in there, when he’s bad,” she says.
Sheila took me across the street to talk with Mary Cahill Rind, born 1947.
I asked about George and Gus’ parents. Cahill is prounouced “C al.”
“Michael and Mary were the parents. Mary died in 1975, I’m thinking
and Michael, I do believe he died about 15 years older than her (c.1960).
Gus died in `85, and George died in `98. He (Michael Cahill) was a
fisherman all his life. He was always a farmer too, not to sell but just for
them [to feed the family]. They were both from here.” “That back part
they built on. The living room was there, but not the back part.” “That
stairs wasn’t where it is now. The stairs was in the kitchen. You come
in through your door, and you go over there into the corner, and you
went up, bending, inside the stair to the small landing.” “And we call it
a closet,” Sheila injects. “When they got a drop of rum, they’d put it up
there. They didn’t get a drop much because they were fishermen. But
they put it up there when they had it.”
“They [Gus and George] fished most of their life, and Gus went at
carpentry.” “Didn’t they do cement?” Sheila asks. “They did all that
WITLESS BAY | 47
cement themselves,” Mary responds. In between times like weekends
they worked on concrete. And when they weren’t fishing. They had a
place down on the water, stage head, a place where they brought in
their fish, and brought in their boat and left the fish out. And they had
horses and sheep and their hens. They’d kill the sheep for their food.
They kept their horses in the stable and little foals, pigs and cows too.
Michael was a fisherman too.” Sheila asks “How many children did they
have?” “They had eight children. We had eleven in our family; maybe
that’s what he was referring to [in saying there were eleven living in the
house]. “They used to have a door into [both of] the rooms, the parlor,
they called it, and the kitchen [on right].” Sheila: “We took one of the
doors [into the living room] out.” EC: What did they call the back room
to the stairs?” “They didn’t have no name for it,” Mary answers. “There
was always a chair there, for people who used to come in, they could
sit right down.”
EDWARD CHAPPELL
The stable is the largest of the three outbuildings on Sheila and Mike
Ryan’s property. It consists of two adjoining rooms, a room accessible
only by a separate entry, and a one-room second storey above the two
adjoining rooms. Like their house and other outbuildings, the stable was
already built when they moved to Witless Bay from St. John’s in 2009.
It has a substantial concrete foundation, and has wood beams and
siding, and pressboard walls.
While the house itself was built by Michael and Mary Cahill sometime
around the beginning of the twentieth century, the stable was a little
more recent. Only two of Mary and Michael’s children, Gus and
George, never married. While the other five children moved out to form
their own families, the two bachelor brothers remained in the house. As
well as building an addition on their house, they built a root cellar and
the stable. It is difficult to tell when the stable was built
as it seems to have been constructed in two stages,
but what seems most likely is that Gus and George,
who were born in the 1920s, built the stable around
the middle of the twentieth century, and that work
continued to be done on it between then and today.
It is also possible that it was built in the footprint of an
earlier building, which would have been built at the
same time as the house.
Following in their father’s footsteps, both Gus and
George worked as fishermen and in the lumber
The Cahill-Ryan
STABLE
WITLESS BAY | 49
woods, as well as in construction. They used the stables for the obvious
purpose of keeping horses which were useful when hauling wood from
the forest. The stable was also used as storage for the hay they would
cut on their property, which was considerably larger than the property
on which the building stands now. Because Gus and George were
unmarried and had no families to provide for, they worked hard to help
their siblings’ families, so the work that went on in the stable was really
for the benefit of the extended Cahill family.
Now, the building—which Sheila calls the barn, but Mike insists is properly
a stable—is used mainly for storage. No alterations have been done to
the building since George Cahill passed away in 2007, but Jacqueline
Mair, who owned it for a brief period between George’s death and
Mike and Sheila’s purchase of the property, started a tradition of writing
messages on its walls. This practice already existed in other buildings in
the area, but was new to Sheila and Mike when they moved in. They
have chosen to continue it, and often invite visitors from away to leave
messages on the walls. When Gus and George built the stable, it was to
help them with the work that they did on the land. Now, the landscape
of Witless Bay is as much a social one as a physical one, and the fact
that the stable now houses records of social visits rather than horses and
hay reflects this.
EMMA TENNIER-STUART
CAHILL-RYAN STABLE (LEFT TO RIGHT); INTERIOR; EXTERIOR; GRAFFITI.
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WITLESS BAY | 51
Lobster pots neatly stacked three deep one on top of the other, edge
the roadway leading to Joey Yard’s shed. The pots, worn with age
and the harsh climate of the Atlantic Ocean, tell us much about Joey,
one of the last two inshore fishermen in Witless Bay.
Joey’s shed is perched on a bank above the beach, constructed to
withstand the Northeast wind that often pummels the Southern Shore
coastline, standing there for years as testament to its worthy builder.
Joey tells me his Dad built this shed forty-five years ago with lumber he
cut and planed himself.
The inside of the shed is constructed of irregular sized studs placed at
inconsistent intervals and two to four braces on each wall supporting
the structure at its corners. There is a splitting table attached half way
up the right wall extending across the full right side of the building
and the left side of the building is filled with colored plastic assorted
fish bins, some laden with fish in salt, varying lengths and thicknesses
of nets and rope, anchors and plastic rain barrels. Although one
might have called this building a store at one time, Joey refers to it
as a shed. The walls are adorned with bright colored floats and fishing
tools including hook and line, files, clothing and various other tools
associated with the work that takes place in the shed.
There is a front and back entrance to the shed with doors that are
often tied open to catch a breeze off the ocean. This also helps with
the strong scent of salt fish that often sits in bins on the shed floor curing.
The Yard
SHED/STAGE
YARD SHED/STAGE: TOP AND BOTTOM LEFT, EXTERIORS; BOTTOM RIGHT: JOEY YARD.
WITLESS BAY | 53
The studs on the inside of the shed are hand sawn and some of the
wood still clings to the bark that once protected it from the elements.
The outside of the shed is asphalt shingle over two by four boards
running horizontally along all four walls. The shingles are black in color
on the front and right side of the building and a red ochre color on the
left and backside, except for the top two rows where black shingles
are used. The left portion of the outside back wall is covered in black
shingles. The peaked roof is shingled in the center with brown shingles
and trimmed with a border of black asphalt. The trusses on the inside
are also hand sawn.
Joey has been using this shed for 45 years, first with his dad, and ever
since his dad has passed away. At one time there would have been
a stage below the shed where Joey would dock his boat but now
he docks at the government wharf. He would have offloaded the
fish from his docked boat, carrying it up to his splitting table in the
shed, where he would clean and fillet the fish before selling it to the
various buyers. If he was salting the fish, there would be flakes lining
the landscape in front of the shed, and the filleted fish would be taken
and laid on the flakes to dry and undergo the salt curing process. The
flakes are no longer standing.
Joey now takes his fish up from the government wharf but still processes
it in his shed with his son James, who from time to time fishes with Joey.
James recently was successful in obtaining a position offshore, so will
fish with Joey when he is available.
Times have changed for Joey since his teenage days when he first
went fishing with his dad. Yearly quotas have dropped substantially
and the market is no longer available for inshore fishermen, whose
total yearly catch doesn’t add up for the larger markets. Joey says
“It’s really just enough for ourselves, and maybe the odd person here
and there”.
JACQUEY RYAN
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WITLESS BAY | 55
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Joey Yard is a local fishermen and one of two inshore fishermen left in
Witless Bay. Joey starting fishing with his father Henry Yard when he was
fifteen years old and has been fishing for over forty years. Similarly Joey’s
son James started fishing with him when he was only thirteen years old
and his wife Marguerite fished alongside him for eight years. Joey’s shed
is comprised of two parts; the rear part of the shed which is the earlier
part built by Joey’s father between the mid 1930s and the mid 1940
and the front part which Joey built in the early 2000s. This “junk” shed is
simply used for storage space and unlike his fish store by the water it is not
used for storing, cleaning, filleting, or salting fish. This fish store is usually
propped open and doubles as a communal gathering place for local
and international fishermen who are in port while the junk shed sits with
the door closed, too full to be used as a social space.
The shed sits beside the ocean surrounded by meadows which were once
cleared to make hay in order
to feed the Newfoundland
Pony owned by the family. This
hay was stored in the shed to
dry. There are no traces of the
hay in the shed today, instead
the building is filled with fishing
gear. The building’s location
next to the ocean and its
close proximity to the wharf
where Joey ties his fishing boat
allows for easy access to the
equipment. The older part of
The Yard
SHED
WITLESS BAY | 57
the shed houses a variety of tools of the trade. The gear ranges from rope
to handmade swivels, gill nets to a caplin dipper, a squid roller out of use
since the 1980s to a caplin trap last used in 1990.
The roof and wall planks of the rear shed are relatively uniform and are
comprised of machine cut wood. The studs and supporting beams vary
in size and are mainly composed of hand cut wood chopped by Henry
Yard. The exterior walls of this half of the shed are covered in crimson
shingles and from both the interior and exterior you can see a clear
distinction between the new and old parts of the building.
The front of the shed contains more disused fishing gear but also houses
lobster containers for storing lobster, large crates for moving fish and
barrels full of diesel fuel for Joey’s boat “No Name”. This part of the
shed is more organized and seems to be used more frequently than the
rear part. The walls are constructed of pressboard and are braced with
three by four inch machine cut studs. The exterior walls are not covered,
leaving the pressboard to weather the elements. The roof is composed
of machine cut wood planks and the roof covering on both the front and
rear part of the building is black shingles. There is a small window on the
south side of the front part and the door is on the east side of the building.
With Witless Bay’s (and Newfoundland’s) shifting economy, who knows
how much longer this shed will remain in use. The rear side is already piled
with disused fishing gear mostly sitting dormant since the cod moratorium
in 1992. As one of the last fishermen in Witless Bay, Joey Yard’s shed is a
tangible reminder of a tradition - one which isn’t static but varies over
time with technological and economic advances.
TERRA BARRETT
YARD SHED (LEFT TO RIGHT): INTERIOR; EXTERIOR; JOEY YARD.
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WITLESS BAY | 59
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The Carey root cellar was built by John Carey in the late 50’s. Carey’s son,
Eddie Ryan, remembers its construction. Carey dug the cellar hole himself,
and lined the ceiling and frame with roughly hewn wood. Large stones
protrude from the walls of the cellar, and cement and styrofoam have been
used to fill in the frame. Tapering levels of bare earth are exposed on the
cellar floor. Most of the cellar space is utilized by four wooden crates, used
for sorting vegetables. Tarps are fastened to the cellar’s ceiling to keep the
crates and vegetables dry.
Above ground, one can find a highly eclectic shed space. Garden tools,
lawnmowers, vegetable seeds and work coats are stored next to string
art, ancient editions of The Herald, old election signs, and a My Little Pony
lunchbox. Objects are placed upon a work surface and a pink folding table,
and within a decorative, canary yellow cupboard. Other
items are stored atop a suspended door, and nestled
above an old interior car part. At first glance, the space
appears chaotic. But if you look hard enough, a certain
order becomes evident: rolls of unused wallpaper are
positioned alongside one another, old liquor bottles are
clustered together, and garden supplies are tossed in a
box to the right. Nails are used to great effect as storage
hooks.
The root cellar’s appearance hasn’t changed much
since John Carey’s death in 2003. However, Eddie Ryan
has made some recent alterations. He has attached two
The Carey
CELLAR
WITLESS BAY | 61
moose antlers he found in the woods to the exterior of the cellar, on either
side of the front door. Ryan says that the cellar’s depth is a bit wanting, at
six feet, and that nine feet is a more desirable depth for root vegetable
preservation. For this reason, Ryan has laid patches of mossy green and pink
carpet on the ground floor of the cellar, to act as insulation.
The Carey family used their root cellar for approximately forty years, and
mainly stored carrots, turnips and potatoes. John Carey and Eddie Ryan
were usually responsible for fetching the family’s vegetables. According
to Ryan, the family always had enough vegetables to last throughout the
winter. The Carey root cellar is currently used for crop preservation by a
neighbour down the road. (Ryan recently constructed a root cellar for his
own personal use, in September 2013.)
Ryan remembers, “There was a lot of cellars, years ago, the older people
would have them. I guess they needed them, they had to have them, for
their vegetables.” When I visited the depths of the root cellar alone, I felt that
I was in a very mysterious place. Root cellars seem to straddle a boundary
between the world of nature, and the world of human structures. With
these thoughts in mind, I asked Ryan what he liked about root cellars. He
laughed, and said, “There’s not much to like, they just keep your vegetables
from freezing in winter.” I realized that asking Ryan what he likes about root
cellars is kind of like asking him what he likes about refrigerators. For Ryan,
root cellars continue to serve an eminently practical function.
ANDREA MCGUIRE
CAREY CELLAR (LEFT TO RIGHT): HATCH INTO STORAGE AREA; LOOKING UP FROM CELLAR THROUGH HATCH; EXTERIOR.
WITLESS BAY | 63
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The Foley fish store sits on the edge of a rocky cove in a small enclave of
Witless Bay known as Gallow’s Cove. Situated along the Southern shore
and marked by the Eastern Trail that runs along its coast, Gallow’s Cove
was once considered a community onto itself. Rolling, green hills slope
down to the water’s edge behind the houses along the road. The Foley
fish store rests at the bottom of one of these hills, next to a meadow where
sheep graze. Wooden beams pressed into the earth serve as steps down,
and at the bottom of the slope wooden planks strategically placed over
the bog on which the store stands mark a pathway to its entrance. The
Foley fish store’s rich red hue stands out amongst the vast greenery and
shoreline of Gallow’s cove, representative of the many fishing stores and
sheds found along the Witless Bay coast.
Not much is known about the history of the Foley fish store before the
mid-20th century. Old maps
of Witless Bay show us that
a boat slip used for pulling
vessels ashore operated
from the cove at the end of
the property during the early
1900’s. The fishing store would
have been used as a working
room and storage space for
the men who ran the slip.
While today the shed rests
on the edge of the land, it
once stood on wooden posts
set over the cove below,
The Foley
STORE
WITLESS BAY | 65
allowing for the flow of tides to come in and out beneath it. Shortly after
John Foley’s father purchased the land in the 1960’s, a storm knocked
the store off of its posts and into the ocean. John’s father was able to
haul the store out of the water and up onto the land, where it continues
to stand over thirty years later.
Since fishing has lost much of its prominence in the economy of Witless
Bay, fishing stores and sheds are now used for different purposes. This
occupational shift has brought with it a change in attitude towards living
next to the ocean. No longer considered a work place except by the few
left for who this remains to be true, residents relish the open water that
defines their community. As Dr. Gerald Pocius describes it, “Nature is now
recreation,” and this is true of the recent development in the general
mentality of Witless Bay.
This can be seen in the Foley fish store today, as it is now used as a
storage space mainly for sea-kayaking equipment. Kayaks line the front
of the store as well as the cove down below, while gear such as paddles,
ropes of different sizes, life vests, and a few tools such as nails and a
large saw are stored inside. A kayaking gear checklist hangs next to the
window beside a cluster of recreational fishing hooks. On the other side
of the window are various wooden whirly-gigs depicting happy fishermen
rowing in brightly colored boats and various seabirds with wings that spin.
The Foley fish store’s architectural style and setting are representative of an
earlier, and drastically different, time in history. It serves as a memoir of what
was, while continuing to evolve alongside an ever-changing Witless Bay.
SHARNA BRZYCKI
FOLEY STORE (LEFT TO RIGHT): INTERIOR FRAMING; EXTERIOR; CARVED PUFFIN.
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WITLESS BAY | 67
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I_,. I _ T
FROM TOP LEFT CLOCKWISE: LEARNING ABOUT CAMERAS FROM BRIAN RICKS, WITH GUHA SHANKAR ASSISTING; SISTER LOIS GREEN
DESCRIBING HER CONVENT LIFE; OPENING RECEPTION AND DANCE, COMMUNITY CENTRE; SHEILA RYAN SERVES TOUTONS TO HER
VISITORS; JOHN LADUKE HELPS SHARNA BRZYCKI WITH HER PLAN; BONNIE JOHNSTONE DISPLAYS ONE OF HER FIBRE ART WORKS; MAYOR
SÉBASTIEN DESPRÉ WITH HIS DAUGHTER, AMELIÉ; SHARNA BRZYCKI AND SAEEDEH NIKTAB ETAATI AT BINGO NIGHT.
2015
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Folklore and Language Publications
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Department of Folklore
www.mun.ca/folklore
Layout and design by Graham Blair
www.grahamblairdesigns.com