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For the residents of the tiny North Shore village on Prince Edward Island seeing the moving of  a large building is not an unusual sight, but to see the same building moved twice in a century  did cause some long-time residents to recollect the differing technologies in use to achieve the move.  George P. MacLeod in his nineties could still recall as a young boy the moving of "the old manse" from MacIntyre's Creek east of the village to take up it's new role as carpentry shop for house builder Sammy Dunning. The house originally built in 1855 as the Presbyterian parsonage for St. John's Church in New London, had been replaced with a modern manse next to the church and sold. In 1905 Sammy Dunning using capstans, horses, and greased logs had spent many days inching the building up a hill to the new site almost a mile from it's birthplace. Building a storefront with a mansard  roof on the front he established along with his wife Lilly, a general store on the main floor and operated his woodworking shop from the second floor.

In 1944 the the Dunnings retired to French River, PEI and sold the business  to a younger generation of storekeepers, Rutherford and Catherine Cotton known locally as Rud and Kitty. Rud had suffered an accident while farming and had to find work that wasn't too strenuous on his injured arm so took over the store with Kitty by his side. Expanding the operation under the Lucky Dollar chain name they added a walk-in meat cooler and generally expanded the operation. The store included a post office and a gas pump. After Rud's sudden death in 1960 Kitty attempted to operate the business alone but quickly realized that it was too much so moved the post office into her home where she continued as New London Post Master until her retirement in 1969.

Empty as a store the building was sold to Irving Oil Ltd. in 1962 who owned the gas station next door and wanted the land. While demolition was in the plan, Jackie Clarke a neighbour arranged to get access and turned the building into an autobody repair shop. Clarke eventually built a new workshop, leaving the building again empty.

In 1973 Daphne Large a potter from Charlottetown returned to the Island after graduation from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design with plans to open a studio and discovered that the store was empty while vacationing at the family cottage nearby.  Arrangements were made and the building was rented and opened as a summer studio and craft store that same year.  Several college friends pitched in to haul the piles of old car parts and paint cans to the dump and to start the cleaning and restoration process.

Teaching part-time at Holland College during the winters Daphne met Ian Scott an instructor and leather craftsman who would join her in the business. In 1976 they were married and established winter studios in their Charlottetown home and  summer studios under tbe name Village Pottery.

In 1994 the Scotts purchased the building and moved it across the road and a few hundred meters west. Placed on a new basement that opens out on a meadow at the back, the move added a third level to the business when the pottery studio- workshop was moved downstairs.

The main floor contains the craft shop, in the surroundings of a general store and sells the work of over 40 artisans.  A gallery on the upper level has maintained  the character of the pegged-beam construction and features the stitchery and painting of Margaret England complemented by views of the rolling farmland. Looking out the windows towards New London Bay one can now see the site where the historic building had started 145 years earlier. With its first plumbing and basement as well as new sills and joists to support the hugh beams the historic building seems well fitted to face the future.

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