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14 THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2006 16 Mill Street East, Acton ON L7J 1G9 Tel: (519)853-9555 Fax:(519)853-9555 Email: actonbia@aztec-net.com Web: www.downtownacton.ca DOWNTOWN ACTON As our community grows so does our pride in our rich history. Congratulations Acton on maintaining our wonderful leather heritage which is world renowned. Recognizing Actons Heritage Remembering the The Regional Municipality of Halton www.halton.ca Tannery By Maggie Petrushevsky It may be 20 years since Actons Beardmore Tan- nery closed its doors one final time, but Ed Footitt remembers the place well. The 89-year-old Acton native spent most of his working life within its walls, starting in 1935 and ending in 1981. He made a short excursion into mining in 1936-38 when he was laid off from the tannery during the Depression, and a second hiatus dur- ing World War II when he served with the Lorne Scots. He worked in vari- ous departments all over the tannery and wound up as assistant to Haigez Assadourian, the tannery superintendent. Among Footitts earliest memories are those of Gor- don Beardmore and his wife and children living in Bev- erly House. The big house must have had 30 rooms and a number of servants. The three Beardmore chil- dren Martin, Alfred and Joan, were tutored at home until they were ready to at- tend Appleby College. The Beardmores kept their horses on the tannery property and Footitt recalls how Mrs. Beardmore used to ride sidesaddle up York Street to their house. The Beardmore tannery was really two tanneries, Footitt says. Gordon Beard- more ran the harness leather tannery and it closed down during the Depression. Ed Footitt Colonel Beardmore ran the sole leather tannery and it remained although it was purchased by Canada Packers. Although the two tan- neries appeared to be one business, they were sepa- rated by a roadway between the buildings and had sepa- rate offices and their own engine rooms, Footitt says. He never worked in the har- ness tannery. His first job at the tan- nery was bringing in the raw hides and salting them to preserve them until they were ready to go into the actual leather production process. He clearly remembers sitting in his home on the Crescent in 1928 or 29 watching as the sole leather part of the tannery burned. The vats and the wet part of the tannery were okay, he says, but the building around them pretty well burned down. When the place was rebuilt, sprinklers were included so that couldnt happen again. While no one ever proved what caused the fire, specu- lation is that it resulted from a train since the tracks into the tannery ran right over the building that burned. They figured the watch- men, who should have been doing their rounds were asleep so they didnt find it until it was too late, Footitt says. The building now known as the olde Hide House was actually the warehouse where finished leather was stored for shipment to cus- tomers, he says, and Ted Tyler Senior your Teds grandfather (New Tanner publisher Ted Tyler) was the tan yard foreman. He also remembers how Tyler Transport hauled away the fleshings (flesh & bone bits) removed from the hides in the initial stag- es of preparing the hides for tanning. One day one of the trucks was heading out of town with a load bound for the glue factory in Brantford when a back gate came open and spilled the load onto the highway. We had to get a front end loader out there real quick to scrape it all up and get it back into the truck. The smell was awful, he recalls with a twinkle. He also remembers the clatter of vehicles passing over the wooden bridge into the Crescent. That bridge was built as an overpass to the spur line which brought hides to the tannery. Every time the bridge needed repair Beardmore would do the job under protest. They claimed it was Actons responsibility but Acton refused because Beardmore owned the bridge. Finally in 1956 the town assumed the bridge and replaced the old struc- ture with the present one. He also remembers Gor- don Beardmores boat. They brought the hull in on a flatcar from Toronto and the men in the tannery shop fitted it up, he says. Then when it was ready, they took it up to Georgian Bay and tried it out. Walter D. Beardmore moved to Acton from To- ronto when he married. He lived at the corners of Mill and Frederick Sts. He is responsible for bringing Beardmore tannery into the modern age. BEVERLY HOUSE, the large handsome home the Beardmore family built and lived in at the corner of Church and Maria St. was the social centre of Acton, alluded to by famous author Mazo de la Roche in one of her novels. The site is now occupied by two apartment buildings. The home was torn down in 1935 during the Great Depression. Many of its expensive fixtures, sold by auction, adorn some Acton homes. Ed Footitt recalls the Beardmore family and their handsome home on Church St.