Grand Opening a Grand Success!

What a day we had! All summer, we’ve been working like crazy to get our new cider house and tea room built and operational in time for Thanksgiving. It came right down to the wire, and we only made it thanks to our friends and neighbours who helped us bake pies, bag apples, install plumbing, paint walls, wash windows, set up a debit machine, write up our chalkboards… in fact, all of those small details that make it all come together.

On Saturday the 11th of October, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Although we weren’t officially open until 2pm, visitors started arriving at 11 am! We had the old Dance Hall opened up, with agricultural antiques from our family’s own farming past, as well as a number of beautiful pieces lent to us from the personal collection of Joy and Dalton Hodgins of Clarendon – some 1930s era dairy equipment, barrels, and a handpump that now sits proudly on our well. I showed off our pressing equipment to a steady stream of visitors in the pressing room; Greg ran the children’s activities, Tamara & Kelly handled the apple sales, and Ronda put in a hard day running the tearoom and much else besides! By the end of the day, over 500 visitors had joined us for pie, cider, games, demonstrations, and our wee petting zoo – without a doubt, one of the busiest days the village has had in some time! My niece, Alyssa, and Mr. Lawrence Cannon, MP, and Mdme. Charlotte L’Ecuyer, MNA, cut the official ribbon. Mr. Cannon and Mdme. L’Ecuyer both spoke briefly, about the potential and dynamism of Pontiac’s youth. We’d like to extend a thank you to both of them for being able to be part of our celebration!

Getting to this day has been quite a process. We began construction before the snow had even melted last spring. My uncle, Barry Matson, is a master carpenter, and he guided us throughout the process. In fact, while we had a floor plan settled on before we began, the structure as it was built emerged entirely from Barry’s imagination! It is truly awesome to watch a master at work.

While Garry (my father) and Barry worked to get the structure built, I was running ragged trying to obtain all of the necessary permits and equipment to allow us to make sweet cider (and eventually, hard cider too!). The last piece of equipment we needed in order to make sweet (non-alcholic) cider arrived in late September: a Cidersure 3500 Ultraviolet Light pasteurizer. This machine achieves a 99.999% kill rate of micro-organisms in the cider, but happily does not raise the temperature of the cider. This means that the cider that comes out has the same flavour profile as the cider that went in! No processed apple-drink from us, no sir!

Our first pressing was on October 1st; that batch was sold out completely at the Chelsea farmer’s market. I pressed twice more for our grand opening – and it sold out as well! It is amazing to see people’s eyes open wide in surprise when they first taste ‘real’ apple juice, ie sweet cider, for the first time. (But did you know – ‘cidre’ in French only applies to alcoholic cider. A ‘sweet cider’, ‘cidre doux’, is actually a low-alcohol, but typically higher than beer, drink!)

Thank you to all who visited – your kind words and support really touched all of us here at Coronation Cider Mills, and we hope to see you again soon.

-Shawn, for

Tamara, Greg, Ronda, Isaac, Alysaa, Kelly, Gord, Garry & Norma Graham

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Our family first arrived in the township of Bristol, then a frontier of agricultural settlement, in the 1840s. Since that time, we have been active in the community as farmers, teachers, and entrepreneurs. In 2003, we saw an opportunity in a new industry that would combine all of our talents: agritourism built around Western Quebec’s first cidery, based at the historic Coronation Hall.

Coronation Hall was a dance hall. It was established by the MacDougall family in the 1930s, and named to celebrate the coronation of King George VI. Bristol was already then a tourist destination, welcoming visitors primarily from the Montreal area, who arrived by train. Over the years, it saw many dances, wedding receptions and other parties and was a central part of the community’s social life. By the 1960s, most tourists had cars, and were travelling further and further afield, and so the dance hall closed down. Over the next thirty odd years, the hall was used for storage, neglected and forgotten by the wider community.

In early 2003, Third Line Orchards was established by Greg and Ronda Graham with the help of their families at the McJanet Farm – a farm that had once belonged to a branch of our family, was later purchased by the Wiggins family, and then for many years was the farm of George Russell. We then started to look for a location where we would process the apples into high quality sweet, sparkling, and ice ciders, and could receive visitors. We learned that Coronation Hall was available, and we were able to acquire it.

At that point, ‘Cidrerie Coronation Hall Cider Mills’ was born as a family corporation. Greg, Shawn, and Gordon each had extensive experience working in historical living history museums, as well as being experienced teachers and educators, and could see immediately that Coronation Hall would be an excellent base for exploring with visitors the agricultural and cultural heritage of Bristol township (Shawn had earlier completed a heritage inventory of Bristol). Garry and Norma both had successful business experience building up and running first the Quyon Feed Mill and later Petro Pontiac, and so provide the necessary business acumen.

The first step was to renovate in a historically sensitive manner Coronation Hall. This process is still underway, but we will be able to welcome visitors to the Hall in the summer of 2008. Eventually, Coronation Hall will be our tasting room and visitors’ centre. We hope to host art exhibitions, lectures and tours, and yes, even dances! The Cider Mills themselves are being built in the spring of 2008, with the financial support of the SADC Pontiac and Economic Development Canada, whose help is gratefully acknowledged.

Our first ciders will be called ‘Le Bristol’ (a sweet cider) in honour of the township; ‘William King’ (a sparkling cider) in honour of the towsnship’s first miller; and ‘Le Norvic’ (an ice-cider) in honour of Bristol’s most famous ship, the ferry that crossed at Norway Bay. Other products will include jellies, preserves, and traditional farm foods.

We came across the following article in our files the other day, and thought that it might prove interesting to those of you whose families can trace their roots to our township… it was published on August 12, 1924, and so some of it was still living memory in those days.

“Going back as far as the year 1840, we hear of the first steamboat, “The George Buchanan”, making its first call at Bristol. This boat was built at Arnprior by George Buchanan, a man by the name of Richards being the first captain. He was succeeded the next year by Capt. Daniel Kenworth Cowley, who afterwards was owner of the boat, with the late William Craig as joint partner.

There were many more [...] pioneer settlers, of which I have no recrod, bu the histoy I have given is of some of the earliest and best known.

The first settler was Robert Little, father of George, Peter, Alex and Joseph, on the farm that Arthur Webb now owns.

David and Martin Moore took out red pine from around Norway Bay (where the popular summer resort now is) and sent it down over the Chats Rapids. this was the first raft of timber to go down over those rapids. They skidded it down to the river with their own power, until the snow became too deep, and then got a white Canadian pony and drew the balance down to the river.

The first minister of the place was the Rev. Andrew Melvin; Donald McKillop the first tailor, and Peter Dunbar – who was afterwards drowned crossing the ice about Norway Bay – was the first shoemaker. John Morrison served as the first blacksmith.

Elijah Smith was the first man or person to be buried in the Norway Bay cemetery. Donald, Neil and Angus McKillop with Jamieson Stewart, Lewis Cuthbertson and John Baird carried his remains on a path from where James [Dodd?] now lives to the cemetery.

Robert Dodd was the first harnessmaker. William Craig kept the first regular store [picture at right].

The court house and grist mill were built by the late William King.

The first school house was built on the farm of the late John Young (now owned by Hugh G. Young). James McJanet was the teacher – a man of profound learning – and was succeeded by William Ramsay. This building served also for a meeting place for church services. Public services were held in the barn of the late Angus McKillop.

Some few years after this another school house was built to replace the log structure, about a half mile back on the farm of the late George Reid (now owned by George Russell). At the raising of this building David Russell was killed by a log falling and crushing him. This man was a brother of the late Andrew, John and Walter Russell.

The late Hugh McCredie came to this country about the year 18[2?]5. He was a tailor by trade and served in an old shanty on the farm now owned by William Drummond. he was a good axeman as well, one winter chopping ten acres of heavy bush. He picked and burned the following summer, and had a good crop of wheat off it the following year. After working all day in the bush, he would [mow?] until twelve o’clock, and thought nothing of walking to Ottawa and carrying back 50 pounds of flour.

The late William Cuthbertson, with his sons Oswald, james, lewis and Robert, also were early settlers. Strong, sturdy men they were, coming here when everything was dense forest, and chopping themselves out homes.

George Smith, the first doctor, died of typhoid fever about the year 1863.

A woman by the name of Mrs. Thos. Fraser was the first whiskey vener. She had a little old shanty, which was called the ‘Belfast Inn’ with a black bottle hung out as the only sighn. This being a free country then, no license was required.

James Macfarlane, a lumberman, kept a store in part of a shanty belonging to Thomas McJanet, on the farm now owned by the Lairds [this might be the property on part of which Coronation Hall now stands].

In the year 1839 or 1840, we hear about the first tinsmith, whose name was John [Cheekley?], Malcolm McMartin was the first photographer and his borther Daniel the first cabinet maker, James Dods the first tanner, and Grimes the first cooper. Charles Cole made the first wagon in this vicinity.

Archibald Steward and sons had the first carding mill in the township – in fact it was the first one in the county.

William King was the first postmaster as well as the first Justice of the Peace, and one of the first elders in the Presbyterian Church.”

-M. A. Young, Bristol Quebec, August 12 1924.”