News Release Archive
NS MUSEUM--ROSS FARM MAKES PLANS FOR MUSEUMS' DAY
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Ross Farm Museum in New Ross is celebrating Museums' Day this
Saturday with the grand opening of the Pedlar's Shop expansion
and a full day of special activities.
The Pedlar's Shop sells items made at the farm including wooden
spoons and benches and barrels of all sizes. To accommodate all
the new inventory the shop has doubled its size and Saturday an
official ribbon cutting ceremony will kick off a day full of fun
for families.
One of the special activities is a "Count the Wagons" game.
Spread through out the farm are a large number of wagons. People
correctly counting the teamsters will give you a free wagon ride.
The celebrations also include old fashioned children's games.
Captain William Ross came to New Ross, then called Sherbrooke, in
1816. He was granted 800 acres of land to settle, and brought
with him 172 disbanded soldiers to help settle the area. A few
years later only 68 soldiers remained in New Ross. The house
where Captain Ross lived with his wife Mary and their children is
still there. Ross died before their last child was born, leaving
Mary to raise six children and run the farm by herself.
Across from the house is the barn. Here, the progress of farming
in Nova Scotia is featured, starting with wicked looking scythes
and sickles and moving along to one of the first reapers in Nova
Scotia that looks more like a stubby little windmill with teeth.
The display looks like a set for a gory movie fight scene but in
fact, these are the implements that farmers in Mary Ross' time
used every day.
The ground floor of the barn is home to a litter of squirming
piglets, two massive and rather awe-inspiring Berkshire pigs,
Canadian horses, and two oxen each weighing about a tonne. On the
farm there are also chickens, roosters and about 20 sheep.
Ross Farm Museum became a part of a heritage breeds program four
years ago. The animals on the farm were all very common around
the 1870's, however now these breeds are very rare. In fact, some
of the sheep are an endangered domestic species.
The cooper shop is a favourite with visitors. This is where the
pile of barrels in the Pedlar's Shop were made. It is always warm
and smells of wood smoke due to the woodstove the cooper uses in
making barrels. Barrel-making was a large source of income in New
Ross for 100 years up until the 1960's when the demand dwindled.
Beside the cooper shop visitors can watch the woodturner making
the wooden spoons sold at the shop. The floor of the workshop is
covered with curls of bright new wood shavings and a pile of wood
waiting to be turned into butter churners or snowshoes.
There are plenty more buildings including a stave mill, a
blacksmith's shop and a schoolroom.
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Contact: Joan Waldron 902-424-7398
Emma McKennirey 902-424-6435
trp July 09, 1996 - 9:00 a.m.
