CARRIAGE FACTORY MUSEUM

The Carriage Shops and Forge were founded by William Tuplin around 1864. Mr. Wiliam Pound served his time as an apprentice with Mr. Tuplin, building carriages, and in 1867 took over the business. Pound’s Carriage Shops consisted of four buildings —— a building or room for con- structing, one for painting, a show room and a forge. There were four furnaces operating at one time. These shops employed from eight to ten men, and many young men learned the trade and took their apprentice— ship here. This was a large and extensive carriage building establishment and Mr. Pound held the largest patronage of any similar firm on P.E.I., for a period of almost forty years.

In 1905 Frank Marks, a former apprentice of William Pound, and builder of the famous Marks sleighs, became the owner. In 1947 Mr. Marks sold the buildings and business to Elton Sharpe a former appren- tice, and although carriages were not being built then, the Marks sleighs continued to be built for a number of years with Mr. Marks remaining for some time with the business. Among the several works of Mr. Sharpe were the seats of New London United Church built in 1953. In .1967 the shops were sold to Edward Andrews who already had collected many things from the past — Antiques. After procuring many more he placed them in these buildings for a Tourist Attraction. He named it “Carriage Factory Museum”. It has proved to be a successful operation and is a point of interest to the traveller as well as local people from the area.

MILLS

Years ago there was a mill on nearly every stream and almost every district had one. There were saw-mills, carding mills and flour mills.

In Margate at the pond below, Mr. and Mrs. Lea Crane’s home, was a lumber and flour mill owned by John Tuplin. Following Mr. Tuplin, the mills were purchased by Mr. John C. Durant.

An excerpt from a newspaper reports that in 1898, Mr. Durant sawed the lumber for seven new buildings being erected in Margate at the following places: Methodist Church

William Dennis William Parsons William Brown Enoch Dennis David Profitt John W. Woodside

Today the pond and mills are extinct, only the brook running through remains.

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