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PflgeS COMMUNITIES WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1986 Canadian bakeries in 1860s knew about Norval EDITORS NOTE The above aril tie reprinted from a Jan 184 edition Herald ByANIPEDERIAN Herald Staff Bakeries all over Canada knew where the village of was back in the 1860s It was where the flour that made their breads and pastries was milled A booming spot In the 1800s had five hotels including he present day Hollywood Tavern a woollen mill a knitting mill a broom a for making barrels a buggy shop and countless blacksmiths Prior to he days of railraods Nor Mas often a stopover for travellers heading v est farmers who grew groin Nor vol was the spot to their wheal and barley for milling In the arc where Highway and Winston Churchill Boulevard now in terscct Robert Noble Ihe great of Julian Heed It was considered a fair sized mill when Robert Noble built it By today standards It would be con little Gord Browne of Nor val said Mr Browne a grandfather owned the mill at one time and it passed to grandson when his father died Robert Noble mill was fed by the power of Credit River and the ox en that were harnessed to a water wheel For the animals there was a Built by contractors Lairds and Grains the mill used to make wheat hard wheat bread flours grown wheat was suitable for pastry flour and teams of horses to hauling grain Business thrived and the original small mill was enlarged In those days farmers bargained for the mill services using the old barter In 1918 Colonel Alec Noble the son of Robert Noble built the Credit River dam still stands today picture or the Webster Home In Norval heading west For farmers who grew grain wti of the area doctor Before the days of the the railroad was often a stopover for travellers Herald From the Noble family the mill passed to another family In 1913 un til Gord Browne a grandfather Browne look 11 over in 1921 May Cleave retired and living In Brampton now used to farm near Norval and remembers her husband going to the mill with his grain Ive seen lines of horses and wagons delivering wheat Mrs Cleave said We all had a field of wheat and wed come there to chop It Lifelong resident Dorothy McLean remembers hitching rides to the mill with the farmers who would then came to her dad Robert Watson sweet smelling bake shop for rah bread It was a very flourishing business However a fire Jan 30 1B30 slow down the milling operation Although cause of the fire McNab first settler to purchase Norval land was never determined my father always said It was spontaneous com Mr Browne said Full of grain the mill burnt for months and months It was a fierce fierce fire it was Mrs McLean said The heat from the fire melted the snow on the roofs in the centre of the village I remember thinking how tcrrl It was that they couldn do something to stop It she said Born In Mary Couper Maxwell can remember Ihe fire that look the mill It lit the whole countryside here If youve ever burnt a pot of ridge that what the whole area like for weeks and weeks she said The smoke was still com out from the heart or the mill even on Easter Sunday People driving through in the middle of the night would ring the alarm Fire fire Ire and it was just the wheat that was smouldering away and had been for Mrs Mr remembers ha dad broke a window and went Into ihi burning building with townspCrson Johnny to get the books The mill is full of at the time of the ire and the senior Mr Browne to bt able to show they already been paid The sen or Mr Browne lost a lot of lood and was unconscious for a lime after My dad was upset because there t insurance to pay or Ihe mill and all the wheal In it Mr Browne said By the lime everyone was paid off there enough money left over to pay for the lion of another mill comparable In size he said There was only enough money left to put up a SDbarrcI mill specialty dlastatic flours and Camel Malt The Canadian Malting Company of Toronto used to buy from them Although the large mill was lost the grist mill was saved and operated until 1954 when Hurricane Hazel took a chunk out of It and washed the waves or the Credit River into it Mr Browne has fond memories of mill and even when he Joined the army at IB although he was exempt as were oil and millers Mr Browne look with him a picture of the mill as it once stood He has the picture in a photo album a little worn at the edges and on his wall he has a painting of the mill by a local artist The first settler in Norval Scottish born James who look up land in 1820 attracted by the unlimited water power from the Credit He built a grist and flour mill In 1828 The community soon became known as McNabsvillc As the community grew a Post Office was established in 1B40 and the name was changed to It Is thought hit son took the name from the following verse from a by John Home Place Names Canada name is on the Gram pi a Hills My feeds flocks a frugal res to in crease his And keep his only son msel at The son Alexander did keep a flock of sheep on the hills about the village James McNab Buffered an un fortunate accident when a mill stone fell and crushed his leg necessitating an amputation He sold out In 1838 to General Sir Peter and the mill changed ownership several times until in it was purchased by a Scotsman Robert Noble who had the mill entirely refitted with new machinery It had eight run of stone driven by an horse power water wheel and it had a capacity of barrels of flour a day Mr Noble also did a large gristing business owned a cooper shop saw mill and the Woollen and Cot ton Batting Mills which was leased to other operators Mr Nobles son Col Alex Noble carried on the business for retirement His death occurred In 1965 In his year at one time was quite a business community and had a car rlage factory several blacksmith shops three or four stores two shoemakers shops and two hotels An early storekeeper and the original Post Master who was pro minent in municipal affairs was Col Clay a Irish bachelor He was a member of the Gore District Council before the forma Man of the county in 1851 Ik later was llece of for eighteen years and Warden of the county for the years on possessed rand still docs three churches Anglican Presbyterian and Methodist now United a room school In 1B76 and a volunteer com piny with a brass band It might be Interesting to note that the wife of the Rev McDonald the minister from 19Zfl to was the writer Mon tgomery who was author of Anne of Green Gables and many other books which still have their appeal to girls in their teens In the disastrous flood of known as Hurricane Hazel the dam and mill race were badly damaged and never rebuilt Like so many other small communities the day of Ihe small business has passed and Norval has lost of Its former prosperity From A History and Atlas of the County of by Hilton District Women a Institute PROVINCIAL GEORGETOWN