nfld | Spade & the Grave

May 13, 2025
by Robyn S. Lacy Leave a comment

SBS: A Very Interesting Gravestone in Harbour Main, NL

I suppose I can’t start off every post by apologising for not writing forever, but it has been nearly 6 months so I suppose I’d better do it this time. Sorry, friends! Life has been going fast and I have a lot of projects on the go at the moment, both at work and on my own time, so writing a research blog for fun has been pushed to the side. However! I’m in the middle of writing my next book project, ‘A Graveyard Guide to Eastern Newfoundland’ (tentative title, does anyone have anything snappier??), and I got sucked into a research rabbit hole last night for several hours writing about a specific gravestone, so I wanted to share that excitement with everyone!

Harbour Main is a small outport community on the south coast of Conception Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador. It is well known for its gorgeous beach called ‘The Tide’, but it’s known mostly to me for being home to a small early cemetery that my friend Katie took me to see back in 2021. At this site, called The Old Irish Cemetery or the Old Irish Roman Catholic Cemetery, there are a number of field stones and other locally carved markers, but one in particular has stuck in my mind, because it’s inscribed in French.

View across the Old Irish Cemetery, Harbour Main in the fog (Lacy 2021).

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August 2, 2022
by Robyn S. Lacy 2 Comments

Against all Evil: Protective Marks at the Burgess Property, Whiteway, NL

(This would be a great paper title, wouldn’t it? I call it for later!)

Welcome back, readers! It has been quite the hectic summer so far this year, between PhD research, passing my thesis proposal defence at the end of May, gravestone restoration fieldwork, and a quick trip with my dad across Canada in the family van. Just before I flew west though, my husband and I visited the historic Burgess Property in Whiteway, NL. The property was receiving a new heritage plaque in honour of its designated status as a heritage property within the province, and there was a great turnout!

The buildings were constructed between the 1860s and 1900, and the complex includes former sawmill, a stable and store, a root cellar, a fishing stage, and the family home. It was wonderful to finally be able to visit the site and take a look around the structures, but I was there for a very specific reason…apotropaic magic. I know this post isn’t about gravestones per-say, but if you have been a reader for a little while, you’ll know that I’m currently studying and writing a manuscript about the use of protective magic on graves, and these symbols are among the ones we see in both contexts!

The Burgess fish stage (left) on the shore (photo by author 2022)

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November 8, 2021
by Robyn S. Lacy 6 Comments

Burial Ground Mapping in New Perlican: Total Stations & Gravestones

If you’ve been a reader for more than a minute, you might already know that some of my PhD research is taking place in the outport community of New Perlican. Well, I’m currently working on my second comps paper, and that means it’s time to write another blog post to let some of that writing energy go somewhere, now that I’ve met my page goal for the day!

Today I wanted to share the maps that were made for my project by my colleague Bryn, who is a mapper extraordinary and taught myself and Ian how to use the total station theodolite (TST or total station) ((which is something I need to remember finally, rather than re-learning every time I need to use one)). The benefit of using the total station to record the gravestones is that not only are they geo-referenced within cm’s accuracy, but it allowed us to create accurate maps of the gravestones for the community to have on record in their archives.

Bloody Point grave marker 1, BP1 (Lacy 2021). This is an excellent example of a rough fieldstone.

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September 30, 2021
by Robyn S. Lacy 5 Comments

Gravestone Bases: Conservation & Sinking Stones

“Creative” writing is a good break from comps writing, right? Right. This might not be creative writing, but it’s a good flow to get those typing juices flowing while still keeping my head in the game! What is the game, you might ask? It’s gravestones. It’s always gravestones.

Today I wanted to chat to you all today about the construction of historic gravestones below the ground, getting to my archaeological roots subsurface, and how historical gravestone construction methods differ from what we see today, aka too much or too little. Let’s dig in! (hah)