More mysteries at Todmorden

Thanks to the Don Valley Art Club and its many noble antecedents, Todmorden Mills has been well-documented in art, especially oil and watercolours.
I was very interested in one oil painting I found in the Toronto Reference Library's digital archive: by D.C. Grose, it seemed to depict Todmorden's paper mill seen from upriver, perhaps from the intake of the original mill race, and the digital file labelled it: Taylor Bros. Mill on the Don River" by D.C. Grouse, 1860

Todmorden's mill building, c.1810 or 1860?

I asked archaeologist extraordinaire, Heather Henderson, for an opinion. She said, "Shape looks ok for
[Todmorden] but there are no buildings beyond it on the hill, and there should be barns."
Well, today I went down to the Toronto Reference Library. The extraordinary staff there helped me locate the item. Turns out its inscription says "1810". Perhaps the photograph was from 1860, or perhaps someone attributed it to that date because they thought they were looking at the Taylor Lower Mill. But in 1810 this building was grist and saw mill, with a single race, and likely no barns behind it.The head race seems at an odd angle for Tod, also, according to maps from the period.
A little research points to a deeper mystery: David Charles Grose was born in 1838, and was painting in the 1860s. Did he take some artistic licence with the subject, and 'back date' the view, or is this a painting of another mill, that resembles Todmorden?

If you can't Beat 'em, Eat 'em!

Garlic mustard in the early spring

     Queen Liz will receive special treatment from the cooks on England's Severn River on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee.

           Apparently, all the way back to the Middle Ages, a delicious Lamprey Pie has been baked and served to English sovereigns on special occasions, but lamprey eels, the parasitic scourge of Lake Ontario and other Great Lakes, are now rare in in Gloucester, and chefs there have  had to import these wriggly bloodsuckers from North America to make the heritage dish.  Looks like they were baked into near extinction in that part of the world! How refreshing to view an invasive species as a delicacy  !

       I've heard some people say that Todmorden's Wildflower preserve "is being destroyed by garlic mustard." Garlic Mustard is a prolific woodland plant which crowds out native wildflowers on which insects and wildlife depend. It makes a delicious pesto, however, which Todmorden cooks and interpreters sometimes make in the cottage kitchen. Todmorden could start hosting an Invasivore Festival, and  harvest its invasives for fun and profit!

Yeah, for invasivores! If you can't Beat 'Em, Eat 'Em!

Todmorden as Construction Dump

Here's an interesting view of the Todmorden site. On the hill in the backbround, it looks like  landfilling continues, but the Taylor mansion, Bellehaven, still stands overlooking its domain.  In the valley, the cottage has a new stone terrace out front, and smoke rises from the factory stovepipe and Helliwell house's south chimney. Are those remnants of a building foundation in the ground below the Cottage? The horse trough is still in the centre of the yard.


Todmorden in Feb. 1954, TRL collection

Mysterious model home at Todmorden

Todmorden's Cottage, 1953, TRL collection, S1 - 1261.

What do we know about this building?

        We know it's designed in a Regency style, and rather grand for a little cottage in the woods, don't you think? Powered by four fireplaces (or more) and exuding a rather stately presence, Todmorden's cottage has the design of building from the early 1800s, but portions of its foundation, according to archeologists from Historic Horizons, Inc. date only from 1850. The photo here suggests serious digging going on in the 1950s. See what look like shovels leaning against the wall? And piles of debris around it?

        Records in the Toronto Archives say that this building originally stood farther upriver, near Beechwood Drive, and was later  moved to this location at Todmorden Mills.

       The Skinner saw mill was the first one operating in the Don Valley, producing floorboards, rafters and siding when only logs and stones were available.  The original Skinner camp was probably nothing more than a tent, followed quickly by a log cabin, but as soon as the mill was up and running the Skinners would have Boards Galore, and easily could have built a clapboard house.  Did Rhoda Skinner live in this house, while her father, brothers and first husband sorted out their business affairs?

        I like to think that Todmorden's regal little cottage is one of the Skinners' 'model homes' built in style in the Valley to show off the many kinds of lumber the mill produced. It would have been erected near the saw mill, which was probably a little up river from the cottage's present location, closer to the dam. With a steady supply of lumber from their own mill, it makes sense that the Skinners would build themselves a comfortable frame house, originally heated with a stove purchased at Abner Miles's store!

Girl Power at Todmorden Mills

     Welcome to Mary, Betty and Rhoda, a Todmorden Mills fan site from the POV of the lesser-known, but better halves of Colin Skinner, John Eastwood and Parshall Terry. Sisters-in-Law All! It might be easier to visualize the Todmorden organizational plan if we use their née names, Mary Helliwell, Betty Helliwell, and Rhoda Skinner, and people familliar with the 19th Todmorden industrial dynasties will quickly triangulate the families who settled across the Don River and through the woods down Pottery Road.
     This is a site for stories - tried, and sometimes untrue!