This site is dedicated to a very special aspect of Newfoundland and Labrador's fisheries heritage - the buildings and structures that have helped define our cultural landscape and made it recognizable worldwide. You will find here a variety of images, texts and links all related to our fisheries heritage architecture in its many forms.

 

Splitting table on end of wharf, Turk's Gut. Courtesy The Rooms Provincial Archives, VA 130-24.1 Photo by Charles C. Cousens, July 1973, Charles C. Cousens fonds.   Tom Hedderson, MHA Harbour Main District shares a boyhood memory from Turk's Gut, Conception Bay (listen to MP3)

 

For more than four centuries structures like twine lofts, stages, smokers and flakes have stood at our ocean's edge and perched on cliffs, helping to define our cultural identity.  Fishing premises display the ingenuity and craftsmanship of the fishers who use them, and tell the story of a way of life that has sustained generations of families.  Yet, these once widespread and familiar structures have been steadily disappearing from our coastlines.

 

Unloading fish at Grand Bank waterfront. Courtesy Maritime History Archive, MUN

 

The restoration or preservation of historic fishing premises, flakes and wharves helps to ensure that these tangible elements of our heritage will survive into the future.  Within this web site you will find articles, helpful hints, contests and links to funding information to help you develop an enthusiasm for the preservation, protection and promotion of this unique architectural heritage.