Telling Stories - Bay Trip Part 4

My brother-in-law Jim is a wealth of information, and the night before our trip out across the bay he even brought a folder full of papers I have not yet had time to look over.  But I did get a quick eyeful of this map and snapped a photo.

We came into the harbour at Eastern Rock, and you can see Goat Island, Anne's Cove and Green Cove where we stayed at the cabin.  The next morning we got in the boat for the five minute ride to St. Kyran's.

St. Kyran's

St. Kyran's Harbour and the cove are immense compared to St. Anne's. The trees have marched down the hills right to the shoreline, obscuring evidence of prior occupants. We did spot one current occupant at the top of the hill though...

Moose alert!

We tied up to the Government Wharf, and when the fellas lifted Vader up onto the boards he fell right through! Luckily they caught him before he plunged 10 feet down to the water, but we had to be extra careful getting up and out of the boat. 

Time for wharf maintenance!

Entering the woods to begin our walk to the church was a little less dramatic, thankfully.  

Tommy had the ax in hand, Wayne had the chainsaw, and Jim had the memories to get us where we needed to go.

Trimming breaks were quick, but stretched the walk to the church to 45 minutes.  My only wish was that we had taken a little more time to trim the low branches that were sweeping my bare legs!

We broke out into the open a few times, but the sun was so hot that I was eager to get back into the shade!

Here is a map for reference that I hope is fairly accurate of our walk from the wharf to the church.

Jim's stories on these trips make it easy to imagine what life was like in the small community.  Last year he told the story of how his father proposed to his mother in the church when we were standing on the altar.

We approached the church from the beach in a Zodiac and entered on the "St. Leonard's side"  on our first visit to the Church of the Assumption.  This year we came from St. Kyran's and entered on that side like my grandmother would have done when she was a child.

If I close my eyes I can almost see her mother's back as she walks to the church holding her hand, her father carrying her younger sister in his arms perhaps. Of course there is no known picture of either her mother or her sister since her mother died not long after giving birth to her baby brother and her sister died 2 years later.

Rubble underfoot as I made my way to the altar

Knowing we had more time this year I tried to keep an eye out for small details, wanting to tell the story through photographs of the church's battle with the elements over the decades.

A picture of the church left on the altar, year unknown

It's no secret around these parts that most homes have a piece of the church tucked away in a drawer or closet. Some visitors even took boards from abandoned homes to start fires over the decades, helping speed their collapse.  What would it look like here if it had been left completely untouched?

Notice the boards above Jim's head, prior visitors yanked
boards (and other things) off church to take home a memento

One of the details that Jim pointed out was the cement pillars had flecks of white in them because they would have added crushed mussels and scallop shells to the cement when they were mixing it.  What did mixing cement in 1920 in such a remote location entail? Not like they loaded a truck with bags from the local hardware store!

Here's a short video above showing what is left of the Church of the Assumption for those that find video more helpful than photos.

With more time to explore this time around I took a look around the Priest's house but all I saw of interest was the bricks fallen around the chimney.

One of these days I'll be there at sunset and sunrise to take photographs with soft light!

Across from the Priest's house is some of the remains of the Priest's truck. Wayne and Jim enjoyed trying to identify the rusted parts before returning them to their original resting spot.

When time permits we will have to cut down some of the trees and open up the views around the church for other visitors to enjoy.  Maybe we'll find more truck parts!

Out past the Priest's house I wandered across the field, taking note of the cement posts that used to hold the wood fence rails.

At the end of the small meadow was the large two room cellar.

I couldn't even imagine what it looked like filled.  Two families could have lived inside!  As Jim pointed out, it would have been filled with stores to last the winter.  Not everyone had a cellar, and certainly not a basement beneath their homes like we did in the Midwest, so what did they do with their stored food? 

I couldn't live with that question unanswered so I sent a text to Jim! Jim's wife, Donnie, says their home on Red Island had space beneath the house and a small door to access it.  She remembers it well because it was the children's job to push the vegetables deep inside (carrot, potatoes, rutabaga, cabbage and beets most likely) and she hated the job because the sheep wanted to steal the veggies and would block the light in the doorway. She said they also put jelly under the house to set because it was the coolest place without refrigeration.  What we take for granted!

Chapel Pond by the Old Stone Church

Eventually we moved along to the "road" between St. Kyran's and St. Leonards and our visit to the cemetery at the old stone church, but I'll save that for tomorrow.  I hope someday to be telling the story of how we found the old path that goes around the backside of Chapel Pond to the even older cemetery!

If you missed them here are the links for the previous posts in this series:

Getting Across the Bay - Part 1
Wandering St. Anne's - Part 2
Questions About the Past - Part 3