Spryfield Community Farm Museum
The URBAN FARM MUSEUM SOCIETY of Spryfield is a newly incorporated, not-for-profit organization which has been working for several years toward the establishment of a working farm museum in Spryfield.* to commemorate the area's rural heritage
* to enable food production in the city
* to serve as an adjunct teaching venue for local schools, in natural and social sciences, the arts, and family economics
* to strengthen the traditional social fabric of the area
Spryfield has a long and proud agricultural heritage, dating from the late 18th century, when Captain William Spry, chief military engineer for Nova Scotia, began to clear his lands on the far side of the North West Arm. The rural heritage of Spry's Field remains vibrant in local memory, and has left many traditions and skills of self-sufficiency which are only now disappearing in the area, but are still of great practical value today.
By 1827, for example William Kidston's Rockingstone farm, in the heart of today's Spryfield, produced wheat, mixed grains, potatoes and hay, and supported cattle, horses, pigs and sheep on 30 cleared acres. Nearby, the farms of Philip Brunt, Christian Warner, William Sutherland and others produced similar crops. The Rockingstone Hyland and Drysdale dairies supplied milk to peninsular Halifax until the middle of this century, while William Dart built wagons and sleighs for the city, and the market gardens of Kline Heights sent their vegetable produce. Even now many acres of fallow farmland remain in Spryfield, within easy walking distance of the Captain William Spry Community Centre, Rockingstone School, Elizabeth Sutherland School, J.L. Ilsley High School, B.C. Silver Junior High and Central Spryfield School. Almost all of the early houses have been torn down, however, taking with them some of the most important and visible reminders of our past.
The Urban Farm Museum Society is negotiating for the use of some of Spryfield's former farmlands as a community farm and museum to help restore Spry's Field's heritage to pride of place. We hope to begin clearing ground in the spring of 2000. Please join us!
Are you interested in taking an allotment at the farm museum ?
Would you be willing to advise a beginning food gardener?
Do you have other food production skills you would be willing to share (animal husbandry, preserving, canning, baking etc) ?
Do you have information on other aspects of rural life in this area ?
For further information, call 477-7896.
The Urban Farm Museum Society of Spryfield meets the second Monday of every month at the Captain William Spry Centre, 10 Kidston Road at 7:30 p.m.
