iBatrttk welsh: 3133111255 illllaker

LIGHT & HEAVY

P. E. ISLAND DIRECTORY.

; PATRICK WALSHLQ ” Saddler and llamass’ Make}? ,

STANLEY BRIDGE, P. E. I. "

MANUFAC'I'URER 01-" 'ALi. KINDS 01" , HARNESS, COLLERS, 82‘ First class Material and good work guaranteed;

REPAIRING PBOMPTLY DONE, ' ‘

OAK TAN NED LEATHER ALWAYS in STOCKlgu

In the last quarter of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century Stanley Bridge was a closely knit and self-sufficient country village. Lucy Maud Montgomery, from Cavendish, observed in one of her letters to G.B. MacMillan of Alloa, Scotland, that there were “two or three stores in Stanley and we have always gone there to buy household supplies.

Mr. Walsh is shown (above) working on harness in the living room of his home. He evidently believed in taking ‘work home ’ with him after the day’s work should have been completed.

99

Stanley used to seem quite a town to my childhood eyes. It was the hub of the uni— verse then — or of our solar system at the very least”. Patrick Walsh’s harness shop situated on the “west side” of the bridge would have been one dimension of Stanley Bridge self— sufficiency. In an era when the horse was the principal means of transport, when the draught—horse was the key to all successful farming operations, and when every family had a “driving horse”, the harness maker was a crucial person in the community. Patrick Walsh capably answered the needs of Stanley Bridge in this essential category. From the side of leather, he fashioned the collars, the hames straps, the halters, the bridles, the reins, the shoulder pads, the britchens, the crupper and the traces for the work and dri- ving horses. He also made complete sets of light and driving harness. For almost forty years from 1883 to 1922, Patrick Walsh plied his trade with dedication in Stanley Bridge, and when his time to depart this life had arrived in May, 1922, his son Austin, contin- ued to render this all-important contribution to the unusual economic and social compact- ness of Stanley Bridge.