Pintles in Many Places
by Claudia Smith, OBP Secretary (expanding upon Wagon Door Hardware, published Feb. 6 2023) More Pintle Hinging Around the Farm The wide wagon doors into barn threshing floors were the width of a team of oxen and a load of sheaves. Sometimes called “great cart doors,” they got a lot of heavy use and needed strong […]
Edgemont Barn
Author: Adam Foreman Msc., Museum Collections Manager; Erland Lee (Museum) HomeEditor: Sharifa Riley, Museum Curator; Erland Lee (Museum) Home The Lee family emigrated in 1792 after the end of the American Revolution as United Empire Loyalists (U.E.) to the recently formed Saltfleet Township where James and Hannah Lee were given 200 Acres of land for […]
Building a Log Barn in 1840’s Nottawasaga
by Jim Campbell, OBP Vice President, Duntroon. In the early 1900’s my great-great-grandfather, Donald Blair, with only a Grade 3 education, made the effort and took the time to write down memories of his early days in the community now called Duntroon, then known as Bowmore, or Scotch Corners, the first and main settlement of […]
Century-old Film of Early Log Construction
By Jim Campbell, OBP Vice President, Duntroon. Thanks goes to our awesome OBP Administrative Assistant Laura Brown for finding this 1923 silent short film which very nicely illustrates the process, tasks and tools of early log building even through it was created three-quarters of a century following the description described in our last blog, “Building […]
Barn Records and History
I learned to start snooping around the barns for notes and records and found that they could be in the strangest places. By John Busch, OBP Regional Rep. for Middlesex, Elgin, Chatham-Kent, Essex, and Lambton. (Includes London, Strathroy, and St. Thomas) I have often remembered conversations among farmers about the old days when they exchanged labour […]
The Canada Farmer, 1864
by Diana Macdonald While doing research in The Canada Farmer, a fortnightly news journal printed in Toronto, from 1864 (slowing working my way through each issue), I have found detailed information on early barns in Upper Canada that I thought might be of interest to OBP. I have transcribed pertinent sections below: 1 March 1864: RURAL ARCHITECTURE. […]
The Peace Barn
by Alycin Hayes, Echo Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. I love old barns and wanted to share with you a few photos of my barn located on my organic farm/native wildlife sanctuary. I enjoyed the OBP article on barn folk art. I have attached 3 photos of my barn and the gable end folk art design in it. […]
A Great Drive to See Log Barns
by Jon Radojkovic Radojkovic, OBP Director I was happy when I saw the first log barn. I had expected to see some but after driving six hours from Grey County towards Renfrew through beautiful, mostly hilly forest covered country, with a scattering of timber frame barns, this was the first log barn. It wasn’t the […]
Wagon Door Hardware — Strap hinges and Pintles
by Claudia Smith, OBP Secretary By the mid-1800s, Ontario farmers were increasing their grain production and three-bay English barns became common. They were typically longer than they were wide and had three more or less equal sections – a centre drive-through passage variously called the “threshing floor,” the “barn floor” or the “drive floor” […]
Canadian Barn Reference Book List
Contributed by Claudia Smith Secretary OBP If you are a barn lover who likes reading about old barns – their history, their important place in the Canadian economy over the decades and the fine craftsmanship of their construction – this reference list of Canadian barn books and articles will be invaluable. The list was compiled […]